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February 12, 2018
Hollywood historian Doherty (Hollywood and Hitler, 1933–1939) returns with a riveting, exhaustive look at the 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee investigation into Communists in the film industry. Split into three sections, the book begins by outlining labor disputes in 1930s Hollywood, previewing the political clash to come with the “writers’ wars” between the conservative, studio-backed Screen Playwrights Inc., and the left-wing Screen Writers’ Guild. The second section moves day-by-day through the October 1947 HUAC hearings, and liberal Hollywood’s unsuccessful attempts to fight back with groups like the Humphrey Bogart–fronted Committee for the First Amendment. The third section details the hearings’ aftermath, including the blacklisting of hundreds of Hollywood figures and jailing of uncooperative witnesses, the so-called “Hollywood 10,” including screenwriters Ring Lardner Jr. and Dalton Trumbo. Doherty has a real gift for characterization, both of the Hollywood figures under scrutiny and their congressional interrogators, from studio head Jack Warner, “somehow... gruff and dapper at the same time,” to brawny anticommunist congressman Martin Dies, who “looked every inch the Texas lawman.” In the current era of legislative upheaval, Doherty’s vital, impressive history feels both relevant and urgent.

April 1, 2018

"The face-off between Washington and Hollywood staged in October 1947 seems preordained, a perfect storm converging with the predictability of an end-reel clinch." So says author Doherty (American studies, Brandeis Univ.; Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939), who cleverly frames the history of the infamous anti-Communist House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings as a media-friendly production, with a cast of characters acting out a high-stakes thriller. Though the actual reach of communism in America was limited, its outsized influence in Hollywood movies made it a prime target for postwar Red Scare paranoia. Doherty thoroughly chronicles the HUAC circus, with its parade of well-known stars--both defiant (screenwriter Dalton Trumbo) and reluctant (Humphrey Bogart)--and accusers, such as the bombastic and corrupt committee chair Rep. J. Parnell Thomas. Factions formed as studios and stars struggled with how to defend their own while also appearing "pro-American." More than "naming names," this is a story of labor relations, politicking, and persuasion in the court of public opinion, all of which Doherty captures with verve and an eye for the dramatic. VERDICT For readers who appreciate both Hollywood's golden age and the postwar politics that animated it.--Chad Comello, Morton Grove P.L., IL

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