The Early Life of McCarthy

             Joseph McCarthy is known for quite a bit throughout American history, most of his impact on American politics and history most modern historians would consider being highly negative and he is typically not looked at fondly, nevertheless Joseph McCarthy was still a person outside of his political career and led an intriguing life.

           

McCarthy was born November 14th, 1908 in Wisconsin. He was born on a farm and was the fifth of his mother's seven children. His mother was an immigrant and his father was born of the two poor immigrants. McCarthy had to drop out of school at the young age of fourteen in order to support his family farm. He eventually returned back to high school when he was twenty years old and graduated that same year. After receiving a high school diploma he went on to attend Marquette University, a private university located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received a law degree and was then admitted to the Bar in 1935.

            McCarthy created a campaign for district attorney as a Democrat in 1936 which turned out to be very unsuccessful, around this time he also developed a love for gambling and was very successful with it at first. McCarthy then started to become more prominent as he became the youngest circuit judge in the state's, although his campaign was filled with lies and unbacked up claims about his opponent. He even went as far as to claim his opponent was seventy-three and therefore unfit to be judged, when in fact his opponent was only sixty-five. This is where most claim that McCarthy's legacy of being untruthful and manipulative began and also where his political career began to take off.