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Making the Movies Un-American

How Hollywood tried to fight fascism and ended up blacklisting suspected Communists.
by Noah Isenberg via The New Republic on July 3, 2018

How the Red Scare Reshaped American Politics

At its height, the political crackdown felt terrifying and all-encompassing. What can we learn from how the movement unfolded—and from how it came to an end?
by Beverly Gage via The New Yorker on March 10, 2025
Actress moves away from a microphone held a red hand.

How the Red Scare Shaped American Television

The fear of communism silenced actors, writers and producers, altering the entertainment industry for decades.
by Carol Stabile via PBS on February 28, 2025
Poster for the WPA theatrical production of "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis

Stealing the Show

Why conservatives killed America’s federally funded theater.
by Charlie Tyson via The Yale Review on June 10, 2024
Bud Schulberg testifying before HUAC.

During the 2023 Writers Strike, This Book Helped Me Understand the Depravities of Hollywood

A 1941 novel by a former Communist Party member about the dog-eat-dog scumbaggery of movie executives and the lying and artless bragging that Hollywood runs on.
by Alex N. Press via Jacobin on December 8, 2023
Nixon examining a roll of microfilm with a magnifying glass.

Microfilm Hidden in a Pumpkin Launched Richard Nixon’s Career 75 Years Ago

On Dec. 2, 1948, evidence stashed in a hollowed-out pumpkin incriminated suspected Soviet spy Alger Hiss and boosted a young Richard Nixon’s political status.
by Gordon F. Sander via Retropolis on December 2, 2023
A still from the 1960 film Spartacus of two Roman gladiators fighting.

How Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus Broke the Hollywood Blacklists

The 1960 film was penned by two blacklisted Communist writers. Its arrival in theaters was a middle finger to the McCarthyist witch hunt in Hollywood.
by Taylor Dorrell via Jacobin on September 14, 2023
Director Edward Dmytryk and actress Jean Porter.

The 1950s Hollywood Blacklist Was an Assault on Free Expression

The blacklist didn’t just ruin many workers’ careers — it narrowed the range of acceptable movies and contributed to the conservatism of the 1950s.
by Larry Ceplair via Jacobin on May 18, 2023
Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo with his wife Cleo at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1947. Bertoldt Brecht can be seen in the background.

Monopolywood: Why the Paramount Accords Should Not Be Repealed

If studios can again harness the income from exhibition, we may see a return of traditional vertical integration.
by Vaughn Joy via Red Pepper on March 13, 2023
A child in the backyard of the Avenel Cooperative.

The Most Dangerous Architect in America

Gregory Ain wanted to create social housing in Los Angeles. Dogged by the FBI, his hope for more egalitarian architecture never came to be.
by Kate Wolf via The Nation on December 21, 2022
Frame from the film Being the Ricardos, features Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz at a screen reading for the "I Love Lucy" show.

The True History Behind 'Being the Ricardos'

Aaron Sorkin's new film dramatizes three pivotal moments in the lives of comedy legends Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian on December 13, 2021
Joseph McCarthy presenting a map.

The Real Legacy of a Demagogue

A new biography of Joseph McCarthy does not reckon with the devastating effects of anti-communism.
by Dan Kaufman via The New Republic on October 2, 2020
Rebecca West.

Whittaker Chambers Through the Eyes of Rebecca West

West understood more clearly than anyone the allure of Communism for educated Westerners.
by Peter Baehr via National Review on April 2, 2020
Poster from the WPA Federal Theatre Project promoting "The Case of Philip Lawrence"

Making Theatre Dangerous Again

In segregated units set up under the Federal Theatre Project, African American artists took on work usually reserved for whites and wrote radical dramas.
by Kate Dossett via UNC Press Blog on February 26, 2020

McCarthyism at the Oscars

As José Ferrer was being handed his Oscar—making him the first Latino actor to win—he was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
by Kristin Hunt via JSTOR Daily on January 30, 2020

Jackie Robinson Was Asked to Denounce Paul Robeson. Instead, He Went After Jim Crow.

His testimony before House Un-American Activities Committee was a turning point for the baseball hero.
by Johnny Smith via Andscape on April 15, 2019

Marc Lamont Hill and the Legacy of Punishing Black Internationalists

CNN's firing of Hill fits into a troubling history of repressing black voices on Palestine.
by Noura Erakat via Washington Post on December 5, 2018
Roseanne Barr
partner

Why Roseanne Barr Paid a Bigger Price For Tweeting Than Donald Trump Has

These days, Hollywood is more democratic than Washington.
by Kathryn Cramer Brownell via Made By History on May 30, 2018
James Comey taking an oath.

The Greatest Hearings in American History

James Comey’s testimony joins the pantheon of dramatic congressional moments.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on June 7, 2017
Senator Joseph McCarthy speaking into microphones.

Newly Declassified Documents Reveal the Untold Stories of the Red Scare

In his latest book, journalist and historian Clay Risen explores how the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy upended the nation.
by Sara Georgini, Clay Risen via Smithsonian on April 1, 2025
Trump and Reagan depicted as two halves of the same face.

The Dark Legacy of Reaganism

Conservatives might be tempted to hold up Reagan as representative of a nobler era. They’d be wrong.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on February 19, 2025
A propaganda poster of an American flag on fire and white American citizens struggling against Communist officials, with the caption: "Is this tomorrow? America under Communism!"

What Happened the Last Time a President Purged the Bureaucracy

The impact can linger not just for years but decades.
by Clay Risen via Politico Magazine on February 6, 2025
Henry Fonda

Straight Shooter

"Henry Fonda for President" more than makes the case for Fonda’s centrality in the American imaginary.
by J. Hoberman via Art Forum on October 1, 2024
Storefront of Nazi-owned "Aryan Book Store" called "Silver Shirt Literature."

Bigoted Bookselling: When the Nazis Opened a Propaganda Bookstore in Los Angeles

On Hitler’s attempt to win Americans over to his cause.
by Evan Friss via Literary Hub on August 21, 2024
Painted scene of a busy city, with horses, carts, and hay barrels in the foreground and tall skyscrapers in the background. George Bellows. New York, 1911. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. National Gallery of Art (1986.72.1). CC0, nga.gov. Accessed July 21, 2024.

America’s War on Theater

James Shapiro's book "The Playbook" is a timely reminder both of the power of theater and of the vehement antipathy it can generate.
by Daniel Blank via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 22, 2024
From left, Sam Warner, Harry M. Warner, Jack L. Warner, and Albert Warner.

Are Hollywood’s Jewish Founders Worth Defending?

Jews in the industry called for the Academy Museum to highlight the men who created the movie business. A voice in my head went, Uh-oh.
by Michael Schulman via The New Yorker on July 17, 2024
Frank Oppenheimer holding prism up to face

The Atomic Bomb, Exile and a Test of Brotherly Bonds: Robert & Frank Oppenheimer

A rift in thinking about who should control powerful new technologies sent the brothers on diverging paths.
by KC Cole via Knowable Magazine on March 5, 2024
Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Class, Race, and the Formation of Urban Black Communities

A review of three new studies about how race and class intersect.
by Randal Maurice Jelks via The Common Reader on February 21, 2024
Charlie Chaplin.

A Man Without a Country: On Scott Eyman’s “Charlie Chaplin vs. America”

Our favorite artists may not be our favorite people.
by Chris Yogerst via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 26, 2023
Performers at the 1963 Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Ron Patterson, a co-founder of the event, appears in orange at the far right.

The Surprisingly Radical Roots of the Renaissance Fair

The first of these festivals debuted in the early 1960s, serving as a prime example of the United States' burgeoning counterculture.
by Gillian Bagwell via Smithsonian on September 28, 2023
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