Chapter 57: Other McCarthy Lists Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter 57, “Other McCarthy Lists,” is a satirical riff on Senator Joseph McCarthy’s iconic 1950 speech in which he claimed to hold a list of 205 communists working in the State Department. Petri replaces McCarthy’s actual list with a series of absurd, self-serving, and often comical inventories. The chapter opens with McCarthy’s quote verbatim, then immediately subverts it: the list now includes “pushups I’ve done,” “separate distinct occasions my mother has said she loved me,” “things I like about myself,” and “swell ideas I’ve had that would make fine sitcoms if Hollywood were not overrun with commies.” The parodic list escalates into increasingly ridiculous items: serious men who think McCarthy is a good fellow, friends who would help him move, people who would attend his funeral “for the right reasons,” women attracted to his “raw sexual charisma,” types of raisin, dentists who defer to his judgment, groceries, and finally “communists (female) who have agreed to sleep with me.” By turning a historical moment of political fear-mongering into a cascade of personal vanity and nonsense, Petri exposes the emptiness and self-aggrandizement at the heart of McCarthy’s original accusation.

Key Events

1. McCarthy’s Original Quote – The chapter begins by reproducing Senator Joseph McCarthy’s famous claim: “I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party.”

2. The Parodic List Begins – The first items on the rewritten list are comically personal and boastful: “pushups I’ve done” and “separate distinct occasions my mother has said she loved me.” This immediately undercuts the gravity of the historical accusation.

3. Self-Praise and Fantasies – The list progresses through claims about McCarthy’s own perceived popularity, including “men, serious respected men, who think I’m a good fellow” and “people who would definitely come to my funeral and for the right reasons.”

4. Sexual and Physical Bravado – Items such as “women who have all agreed to sleep with me because of what they describe, their words not mine, as my raw sexual charisma” mock the egotistical undercurrent of McCarthy’s public persona.

5. Absurd Mundanities – The list includes “different types of raisin,” “groceries,” and “dentists willing to defer to my judgment,” reducing the supposed threat of communism to trivial, everyday matters.

6. Final Twist – The last entry, “communists (female) who have agreed to sleep with me,” merges the original political target with the earlier sexual self-aggrandizement, revealing the list as pure self-serving fantasy.

Character Development

The chapter does not develop characters in a traditional narrative sense. Instead, the speaker—a stand-in for Senator Joseph McCarthy—emerges as a figure of unchecked narcissism. Throughout the parody list, the speaker reveals a desperate need for validation: counting how many times he has been loved, how many people think well of him, how many women find him attractive. His fixation on personal honors and approval exposes the insecurity underlying his public crusade. The speaker’s voice is the only one present; there is no antagonist, no ally, and no change over the course of the chapter. The character is static but iconic, serving as a satirical caricature of McCarthy’s historical persona.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

• The List as Empty Signifier – The original “list of 205” was never produced; Petri literalizes that emptiness by filling it with trivial, boastful items. The list becomes a symbol of baseless authority.

• Self-Aggrandizement and Paranoia – The parody items oscillate between self-praise and imagined slights (e.g., Hollywood “overrun with commies”), showing how political grandstanding often masks personal vanity.

• Reduction of Political Fear to the Absurd – By comparing the threat of communism to raisins and grocery lists, Petri suggests that McCarthy’s accusations were as ridiculous as they were dangerous.

• Gender and Power – The repeated references to women who “agree to sleep with me” intertwine sexual conquest with political power, critiquing the masculine bravado of mid-century anti-communism.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 57 is a pivotal satire in Alexandra Petri’s US History because it demonstrates how political theater can be dismantled through humor. McCarthy’s original list was a weapon of fear; by replacing it with harmless, narcissistic items, Petri strips that weapon of its power. The chapter also illustrates a broader historical truth: McCarthyism relied more on performance than on evidence. Reading this chapter after those that detail the actual Red Scare (Chapters 55–56) deepens the critique. It encourages readers to question not only what politicians claim but also what those claims reveal about the claimants themselves. The chapter’s brevity and absurdity make it a memorable conclusion to the McCarthy era section of the book.

Study Questions and Answers

Q1: What is the effect of replacing McCarthy’s “205 communists” with items like “pushups I’ve done” and “different types of raisin”?
A1: The substitution trivializes the original accusation, highlighting its lack of evidence and seriousness. It also draws attention to McCarthy’s personal ego, suggesting that the list was really about self-aggrandizement rather than national security.

Q2: How does the final item, “communists (female) who have agreed to sleep with me,” tie together the chapter’s themes?
A2: It merges the political target (communists) with the speaker’s sexual fantasies, exposing the list as a projection of personal desires. This reinforces the idea that McCarthy’s crusade was driven by narcissism and a need for control rather than genuine anti-communist conviction.

Q3: Why do you think Petri included mundane items like “groceries” and “dentists willing to defer to my judgment”?
A3: These items further strip the list of any political or moral weight, reducing it to the banal. They show that the speaker’s “list” is a jumble of self-important trivialities, just as McCarthy’s original list was likely a collection of unsubstantiated names.

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