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Communism in Hollywood: The Moral Paradoxes of Testimony, Silence, and Betrayal
Author(s): Alan Casty (Author)
- Publisher: Scarecrow Press (UK)
- Publication Date: 28 Aug. 2009
- Language: English
- Print length: 376 pages
- ISBN-10: 9780810869486
- ISBN-13: 9780810869486
Book Description
Drawing on newly available material, Casty illustrates the control by the international Communist movement and the role of the Hollywood Communists themselves in fomenting the intense hostilities of the period. Casty juxtaposes the actions and statements of those who testified and named names before HUAC with Communists who refused to testify and remained silent about the atrocities of the Soviet Union. By providing a scrupulous account of the full scope of the Communist Party in Hollywood, this book presents a more accurate picture of the moral quandaries faced during this dark period in American history.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Challenges the absolute (and largely accepted) dual take on the period: cowardly informers who “named names” and heroic martyrs who refused to do so. Drawing on new material, Casty, a long time film historian, focuses on the control by the international Communist movement and the role of the Hollywood communists themselves in fomenting the intense hostilities of the period.
Drawing upon the Yale Annals and related findings, Alan Casty proposes what might be called a counter-revisionist history of the blacklist. He is no fan of HUAC nor of the blacklist. Nevertheless, his book sizzles with hatred of Communism.
