Popular Anticommunism and the UE in Evansville, Indiana

Following World War II, Evansville, Indiana, proudly proclaimed itself the “refrigerator capital of the world.” In 1946, International Harvester purchased the Republic Steel Plant and began producing refrigerators, supplementing the refrigerator production at Servel, Inc., and Seeger-Sunbeam. Refrigerators and automotive goods came to dominate the postwar economy of Evansville, which depended on the production of these consumer durables as never before. Evansville’s workforce continued to climb after the war, from 64,000 in 1945 to 80,000 in 1950. Of the 80,000 workers employed in the city in 1950, 20,000 produced consumer durables, and more than 10,000 of these workers labored at