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"Although this thirty-year period of American history is marked by widespread targeting of leftists in all areas of life, those in the film industry - predominately screenwriters - were considered to be in positions of great potential indoctrinating power, and found themselves under intense scrutiny as the cold war hysteria mounted. Ceplair and Englund trace the history of political struggle in Hollywood back to the formation of the Screen Writers Guild in 1933. Many of the blacklisted filmmakers were members of the Communist Party and all of the graylisted filmmakers had expressed their sympathy with progressive (mainly anti-fascist) causes."--BOOK JACKET.
Seventy-five years ago, the Hollywood blacklist ruined lives, stifled creativity, and sent waves of proscription and censorship throughout United States culture. When the Hollywood Ten refused to answer the questions of the House Committee on Un-American Activities about their membership in the Communist Party, they were sentenced to prison, the five who were under contract were fired by their studios, and all were blacklisted from reemployment until they "purged themselves of their communist taint." By the 1950s, this blacklist publicly stigmatized nearly three hundred other Americans in the entertainment industry who invoked the First and Fifth Amendments in their refusal to apologize for ...
"The Inquisition in Hollywood examines the suppression of radical political activity in the film industry from the days of the Great Depression through the tumultuous House Un-American Activities Committee era to the waning days of the infamous blacklist." "Although this thirty-year period of American history is marked by widespread targeting of leftists in all areas of life, those in the film industry - predominately screenwriters - were considered to be in positions of great potential indoctrinating power, and found themselves under intense scrutiny as the cold war hysteria mounted. Ceplair and Englund trace the history of political struggle in Hollywood back to the formation of the Screen Writers Guild in 1933. Many of the blacklisted filmmakers were members of the Communist Party and all of the graylisted filmmakers had expressed their sympathy with progressive (mainly anti-fascist) causes."--BOOK JACKET.
This compelling, critical analysis of anti-communism illustrates the variety of anti-Communist styles and agendas, thereby making a persuasive case that the "threat" of domestic communism in Cold War America was vastly overblown. In the United States today, communism is an ideology or political movement that barely registers in the consciousness of our nation. Yet merely half a century ago, "communist" was a buzzword that every citizen in our nation was aware of—a term that connoted "traitor" and almost certainly a characterization that most Americans were afraid of. Anti-Communism in Twentieth-Century America: A Critical History provides a panoramic perspective of the types of anti-commun...
James Dalton Trumbo (1905--1976) is widely recognized for his work as a screenwriter, playwright, and author, but he is also remembered as one of the Hollywood Ten who opposed the House Un-American Activities Committee. Refusing to answer questions about his prior involvement with the Communist Party, Trumbo sacrificed a successful career in Hollywood to stand up for his rights and defend political freedom. In Dalton Trumbo, authors Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo present their extensive research on the famed writer, detailing his work, his membership in the Communist Party, his long campaign against censorship during the domestic cold war, his ten-month prison sentence for contempt of ...
As part of its effort to expose Communist infiltration in the United States and eliminate Communist influence on movies, from 1947–1953 the House Committee on Un-American Activities subpoenaed hundreds of movie industry employees suspected of membership in the Communist Party. Most of them, including screenwriter Paul Jarrico (1915–1997), invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions about their political associations. They were all blacklisted. In The Marxist and the Movies, Larry Ceplair narrates the life, movie career, and political activities of Jarrico, the recipient of an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) and the producer of Salt of th...
When examining history, one must be careful not to blame rapid political change solely on famine, war, economic inequality, or structural disfunctions alone. These conditions may linger for decades without social upheaval. Successful revolution requires two triggering elements: a crisis or conjuncture and revolutionary actors organized in a dedicated revolutionary party, armed with a radical ideology, and poised to act. While previous revolutions were ignited by small collectives, many in the twentieth century relied on strategic relationships between two exceptional leaders: Marx and Engels (Communism), Lenin and Trotsky (Russia), Ghandi and Nehru (India), Mao and Zhou (China), and Castro a...
The blacklist. The Hollywood Ten. These words, evocative as they are, do not reveal that, from 1933 through 1947, Hollywood was the focal point of progressive political activity in the United States. Nor do they convey that the imprisonments and blacklistings were not an isolated outbreak of Cold War hysteria, but rather the successful conclusion of two decades of efforts by conservative and reactionary forces to curtail political activism in Hollywood. In the thirties and forties, Hollywood activists--Lillian Hellman, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Dalton Trumbo, among others--took part in countless political battles. They founded guilds, aided anti-fascist forces in t...
As part of its effort to expose Communist infiltration in the United States and eliminate Communist influence on movies, from 1947--1953 the House Committee on Un-American Activities subpoenaed hundreds of movie industry employees suspected of membership in the Communist Party. Most of them, including screenwriter Paul Jarrico (1915--1997), invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions about their political associations. They were all blacklisted. In The Marxist and the Movies, Larry Ceplair narrates the life, movie career, and political activities of Jarrico, the recipient of an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) and the producer of Salt of the ...
Terrence Malick is the most enigmatic film director currently working. Since the early seventies, his work has won top prizes at film festivals worldwide and brought him wide recognition as the cinematic equivalent of a poet. His life is shrouded in mystery, leaving audiences with rumors, few established facts, and virtual silence from the filmmaker himself following his last published interview in 1979. This has done nothing to dim the luminous quality of his films, from Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978), to later works such as The Thin Red Line (1998), The Tree of Life (2011), and A Hidden Life (2019). The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is the first true biography of this visionary filmmaker. Through interviews and in-depth research, John Bleasdale reveals the autobiographical grounding of many of Malick's greatest films as well as the development of an experimental form of filmmaking that constantly expands the language of cinema. It is the essential account for anyone wishing to understand Malick and his work.