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Blair Coan

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Blair Coan (also written Coán) (1883-1939) was an American government agent under US Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty and anti-communist, known for his book The Red Web (1925) on early Soviet penetration in the US government, singling out US Senator Burton K. Wheeler.[1][2][3] Coan's efforts followed the First Red Scare (1918–1920).

Career

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US Senator Burton K. Wheeler (1922), whom Coan attacked in The Reb Web

In 1913, as an "investigator for the senatorial vice commission", Coan reported that the Armory Show at the Art Institute of Chicago showed female forms indecently.[4]

In 1922, as an "operative of the Department of Justice", Coan traveled to Tampico, Mexico, where an American Comintern agent described how Soviet agents were fomenting revolution in Mexico and the United States.[5][6]

US Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty (1920), under whom Coan worked at the US Department of Justice in the early 1920s

In 1924–5, Wheeler faced investigation, without major impact, even despite publication of The Red Web: An Underground Political History of the United States from 1918 to the Present Time in 1925 by Coan, who fingered Wheeler as center of communist conspiracy.[1][5][6] During that time, the CPUSA newspaper the ‘’Daily Worker’’ called "M. Blair Coan" an "employee of the Republican National Committee" and reported that Coan was in Great Falls, Montana to investigate Wheeler.[7] Coan accused Wheeler and other congressional representatives elected as part of the movement of the Progressive Party (United States, 1924–34) who worked to undermine US Attorney Generals A. Mitchell Palmer and Harry M. Daugherty and took advantage of the Teapot Dome scandal to do so.[1][3] According to historian Richard Gid Powers, "Coan was a former operative in the Daugherty Justice Department who had been involved in efforts to frame its critics during the Teapot Dome." Primarily, Coan blamed Wheeler, Robert M. La Follette, and Smith W. Brookhart as "pinks".[2]

In 1937, Coan worked with Dr. Francis Townsend to promote his pension plan.[8]

Legacy

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US Representative John B. Sosnowski (1926) cited The Red Web to the US Congress

In 1927, US Representative John B. Sosnowski stated "I would suggest you gentlemen read a book published by Blair Coan, entitled The Red Web", as part of a long list of findings presented during a public congressional hearing.[9]

In 1946, writer David George Plotkin cited The Reb Web as an important sources and discussed it.[10]

In 1955, historian Robert K. Murray called the book "a very much exaggerated account of the Communist menace in the United States".[11]

In 1969, historians Michael P. Malone and Richard B. Roeder called the book "obviously biased but at least intelligible".[12]

In 1998, historian Richard Gid Powers quoted from the book and re-used its title as chapter title.[2] Also in 1998, Beverly Merrill Kelley doubted the authenticity of Coan's initial Comintern source.[13]

In 2014, historians Michael Kazin, Rebecca Edwards, and Adam Rothman cited Coan among "counter-subversive anti-Communists concocting fanciful red web smears" including Daugherty, Richard Whitney, Nesta Helen Webster, Ralph Easley, and Hamilton Fish.[14]

In 2016, historian Nick Fischer called Coan's The Red Web a "paranoid anticommunist tract".[3]

Works

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In 1925, Coan described US Senator Burton K. Wheeler as center of an international Soviet conspiracy to take over the United States in his book The Red Web.[15][16][17]

  • The Red Web: An Underground Political History of the United States from 1918 to the Present Time (1925)[1]
  • Blood Money: A Narrative of Today (1927)[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Coan, Blair (1925). The Red Web: An Underground Political History of the United States from 1918 to the Present Time. Northwest Publishing Co. LCCN 26000277. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Powers, Richard Gid (1998). Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism. Yale University Press. pp. 69–92. ISBN 0300074700. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Fischer, Nick (May 15, 2016). Spider Web: The Birth of American Anticommunism. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780816658336. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  4. ^ Miner, Michael (February 18, 1996). "Big Fuss at the Art Institute; Frank Teague v. Supreme Court". Chicago Reader. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  5. ^ a b Dallek, Matthew (February 18, 1996). "The Good Anti-Communists". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Kelley, Beverly Merrill (1998). Reelpolitik. Praeger. p. 154. ISBN 9780275960186. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  7. ^ "Wheeler to Call His Foes in Frame-Up" (PDF). Daily Worker. April 11, 1924. p. 2. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  8. ^ "The Daily Washington Merry-Go-Round" Prescott Evening Courier, page 4, May 20, 1937
  9. ^ "Congressional Record - House" (PDF). US GPO. 1927. pp. 4582–4604, 4604 (Coan). Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  10. ^ Plotkin, David George (1946). The Plot Against America: Senator Wheeler and the Forces Behind Him. J.E. Kennedy. p. 198. ISBN 9780700613113. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  11. ^ Murray, Robert K. (1955). Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 295, 303. ISBN 9780816658336. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  12. ^ Michael P. Malone; Richard B. Roeder, eds. (1969). The Montana Past: An Anthology. University of Montana Press. pp. 271, 277. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  13. ^ Kelley, Beverly Merrill (1998). Reelpolitik: Political Ideologies in '30s and '40s Films. Praeger. p. 154. ISBN 9780275960186. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  14. ^ Michael Kazin; Rebecca Edwards; Adam Rothman, eds. (August 28, 2011). The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History, Volume 1. Princeton University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0691152073. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  15. ^ The Age of Roosevelt, Volume 3. University of California. 1960. p. 137. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  16. ^ Newton, Michael (1960). The FBI Encyclopedia. McFarland. p. 359. ISBN 9780786417186. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  17. ^ "Oil: At Stake". Time. April 27, 1925. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
  18. ^ Coan, Blair (1927). Blood money; a narrative of today. S.G. Cultice. LCCN 27015804.
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