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A memoir of the witch hunting and blacklisting years of the 1950's. "In 1952 playwright Lillian Hellman was summoned to testify on her putatively un-American activities before the congressional committee charged with maintaining our Americanism. That was the year when Joseph McCarthy, at the top of his power, was reelected to the Senate; but she did not appear before his Senate committee. She was summoned by a committee of the lower house--the one which, by its power and long life, became THE committee of the Cold War period: the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). For roughly a third of this century the Committee brooded over its evergrowing files, testimony, and reports. Its time of greatest power began in 1948, with its 'breaking' of the Hiss case. But as early as 1947 it had declared its wide mandate by posing ideological tests for American artifacts, beginning with the movies."--Introduction, page 3.… (more)
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Some of the men involved with the House Committee of Un-Amercian Activities were life long politicians who remained holding "reins of power," long after
These politicians, adept manipulators at the art of propaganda, leave thier mark on the American political landscape as we know it today.
Mary McCarthy once claimed that Miss Hellman was incapable of speaking the truth under any circumstances.
This reader remembers the accusation imperfectly - and this same reader begs to differ. If these events are "made-up" the plot is scary.
The fact that all of this actally happened makes for a sad and chilling "story."