In a 1951 publication of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Democratic leader Hiram Andrews is quoted to have said of Judge Michael Angelo Musmanno, “he is now apparently nursing the ambition to become the Senator McCarthy of the Democratic party. He is a victim of exhibitionism in its advanced state.” Despite Musmanno’s deeply held anti-Communist beliefs, such a description is hardly accurate. This framing of the judge can be compared to the inaccurate portrayals of anti-Communism during the Cold War in contemporary historiography. My research intends to reverse such a narrative through a case study on Michael Musmanno.  By analyzing Musmanno with this intention, a deeper social history can be found, and he can be contextualized in the war against the perceived threat of Communism within labor and electoral politics. Such examples include Musmanno’s and liberals’ attacks on the Progressive Party and Henry Wallace, as well as Musmanno’s activism and support for labor in the war against their left flank.

The research involved in this paper includes extensive use of primary sources from the Michael Musmanno Collection in Duquesne's Gumberg Library and his autobiography, as well as secondary sources, such as Cold War At Home by Philip Jenkins and John S. Haller Jr.'s biography Michael Musmanno. The research and sources in this paper are divided between examining Musmanno's actions and examining those of his peers to contextualize him. What is concluded from this research is that Musmanno, a New Deal Democrat and supporter of labor, was on par with his peers' anti-communist beliefs and actions, despite his eccentricities. The context in which this conclusion will be discussed is a conversation about contemporary Cold War historiography along with the use of researching one man as a means to discover a social history.