House Un-American Activities Committee

Americans shared a set of three core beliefs in the 1950s known as the Liberal Consensus. Firstly, all social problems can be solved through economic growth under capitalism because everyone will benefit. Secondly, it is the duty of the United States as a democratic society to stop the spread of communism. Finally, pluralism prevents authoritarian government takeover. Several circumstances reinforced these attitudes: The Baby Boom of the 1940s and a subsequent increase in GNP; the spread of…

Matthew dowdell polisci paper #2 p2 Freedom of speech What is the freedom of speech? Do we americans actually have that right as a citizen? There are a lot of people today who are arrested for speaking their own opinions. I personally hear a lot of people say that every person in the united states have the freedom of speech but are afraid to use that right because they don’t want to get arrested. In these three cases I will tell you how these people used their freedom of speech.…

contributions to the film industry. He was one of the most prominent film directors in the 20th century, and was awarded the lifetime achievement award for his work. However, the tables flipped after he told the House Un-American Activities Committee of eight friends who was part of the American Communist Party, and many people turned their backs on him. None of the people he mentioned were ever allowed…

restructuring of the film business, Hollywood was likewise reeling from the impacts of McCarthyism. Morality and patriotism of Hollywood film and movie producers were under assault from the government, religious, and natives' gatherings. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) which had been established in 1938, chose to direct hearings on communist influence in Hollywood. The Hollywood Ten case started in postwar America amid the primary rustlings of the cold-war. In November, HUAC…

for racial inequalities and an active supporter of labor and unions, he was often the prime target of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a man on a mission to rid the country of potential communists. Miller himself was later called to the House Committee of Un-American activities to defend himself, but refused to condemn any of his friends. This single experience, a rather blind accusation thrown at Miller without any sort of sufficient evidence remotely connected to communism, is what prompted Arthur…

Hist 31 TTH 11-12:30 Research Paper The Battle of The Chavez Ravine A small farming community trying to survive in the rapidly expanding and changing City of Los Angeles California, only to be met with false promises from the city leading to their houses being turned into dust. The story of these families who lived in The Chavez Ravine is one filled with political mistrust and ethical dilemmas. The takeover of The Chavez Ravine led to the eminent domain of approximately 2,000 families homes,…

in 1950, vice president in 1952 and finally, after losing the presidency to John F. Kennedy in 1960, the presidency in 1969. Having attained such prominence in a very short time, Richard Nixon was and still is the most controversial president in American history. Born Richard Milhous Nixon on January 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California, the second of five children to Frank and…

The Crucible was written in the early 1950’s and many sources discuss the political climate and culture of the United States at that time. After the end of the Second World War (1939-1945), in which the United States and the Soviet Union were allies against the Germans, relations between the two major powers deteriorated. They became suspicious, and then so fearful, of each other that this period became known as the Cold War, even though no war between them was ever declared. The United States…

decreased by over 20 percent over the next few years and studio profits drastically declined “from $120 million in 1946 to $31 million in 1950” (Lewis 197). This was in large part due to the fact that attendance for A-budget features in first run houses, where the studios previously made most of their money, was in a steep decline. At the time that Justice William O. Douglas stated that the studios were trusts and declared that they must give up their theatre chains, Paramount owned 993…

In 1947, HUAC began to investigate Hollywood to examine the level of communist support and sympathy in the industry. Republicans on the committee were concerned with the sympathetic depictions of Russia by Hollywood and subversive propaganda in the films there to indoctrinate an unsuspecting public (Theoharis, Repression, 7). The committee held hearings to address these depictions. Each witness was asked a serious of questions that took on a ritualistic quality after a while, the most…