Charles Muscatine

Charles Muscatine (28 November 1920 – 12 March 2010) was an American academic specializing in medieval literature, particularly Chaucer. Following service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he returned home to complete his studies and went on to become a tutor at UC Berkeley. He was fired from his position there for refusing to sign a McCarthyite oath. He challenged the termination in court and won reinstatement to his post at Berkeley in a landmark 1951 court decision.

Background

Muscatine was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. He studied English at Yale and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, participating in the D-day landing on Omaha Beach. After the war he returned to Yale to take a doctorate. He joined the English department at UC Berkeley in 1948.

Loyalty oath controversy

Shortly after he was hired, the State of California began enforcing a state law, the Levering Act, requiring public employees to sign a loyalty oath, and more than 11,000 University of California employees signed rather than risk losing their jobs. Muscatine was one of 31 academics who refused to sign the loyalty oath, and he was fired for his refusal. Muscatine later explained his rationale in refusing to sign the loyalty oath: