This study explains how the radical experience of a generation of writers influenced the cultural and political climate of post-World War II USA and provided much of the conservative rationale for the early years of the Cold War. Focusing on the careers of four writers who moved from communism to conservatism - Max Eastman, John Dos Passos, James Burnham and Will Herberg - it provides both a new interpretation of an important moment in American intellectual history and a sobering examination of conservative minds haunted by radical memories.