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A huge part of the crucible is The Red Scare, and a huge part of The Red Scare was McCarthyism. McCarthyism is a political tactic/form that uses false accusations or the questioning of loyalty against the accused/opponent. McCarthyism played such a massive role in not only the book but the 1950s because of the widespread fear of communism in the United States. The average person quickly adopted this way of life; the ideal of turning in your neighbor with the slightest possibility of them being communist made you look like an upstanding citizen, and so many were falsely accused this way. Thousands nationwide were met with law enforcement and prison sentences because of McCarthyism, the criticism met its peak in this era. The author of The Crucible was a victim of such criticism , which drove him to write the story and spread awareness of the issue.

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Along with the belief in Puritanism, the belief in Theocracy also gained massive popularity. Theocracy is the belief in a form of government and all affairs under it that is led by the Church, and the church's beliefs in the bible. This way of government kept the Puritan's way of beliefs in a powerful position, just as the Church of England or the Holy Roman Church had held positions as such before. Theocracy also tied into the court systems of Salem, and therefore led to corruption simply based on what the individual had believed was right and wrong. Most decisions in the courts, including those of the Salem Witch Trials, a central theme of The Crucible.

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With times of great panic and widespread fear across the United States, the country has gone through many periods that are labeled as "witch hunts." Witch hunts are when one group of individuals is targeted relentlessly by the masses for a given reason, and either dealt with or killed. Witch hunts were not new by the time the Puritans had moved to the United States, and had plagued Europe and Asia for centuries before the new world's discover. But when the United States experienced its first witch hunt, it focused solely on "Satan worshippers" or those who practiced witchcraft, and resulted in the arrest of hundreds and the deaths of dozens. The second and more prominent was in the 1950s, when communism ran rampant through East Europe, and was feared to be running rampant through the United States; The Red Scare.

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During the 1600s and following the discovery of the Americas, many people sought the "New World" as an escape from European life. Many of those escapees founded and devoutly followed a new religion that was a spin on the church of England's, called Puritanism. Puritanism, by definition, is a religion that sought to purify those previously under the Church of England. Puritans adhered closely to the scriptures, namely the Bible, which led to the heavy belief in not only heaven and hell, but Satan and his worshippers. Such worshippers were believed to share his power, and were granted the title of witches, leading to the first witch hunt.

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During the 1950s, the Cold War was at its peak, and tension between the United States of America and The United Soviet Socialist Republic was rising. The overwhelming dominance of communism in Eastern Europe brought fear of the spread of socialism to the US, and along with it, The Red Scare. "The Red Menace" being associated with the ideal of communism and the spread thereof in the United States, and such propaganda drove the real issue behind the scare. Thousands of people nationwide were suddenly being accused of being communists following the accusations of many popular figures. One such figure was the author of The Crucible, and he was also the one who tied it to the Salem Witch Hunt.