Customer Reviews

Thirty Years of Treason: Excerpts from Hearings before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1938-1968

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A fascinating book--we're talking transcripts of the sessions before the HUAC. You'll discover who sang for the committee (and how loudly; some of the famous people who caved before the committee will suprise you), and those who ran it in riotous circles. The best reads: Zero Mostel, Pete Seeger, and Tom Hayden. Original history, without the filters. (The index, however, is terrible.) A must have.

This book is a useful historical resource. Since it was first published in the early 1970's, I wonder: is there an updated version revealing the remarkable fact, discovered from Soviet archives, that HUAC was actually founded on direct orders from Moscow -- through a serving United States Congressman on the Soviet payroll -- in order to monitor White Russians and Bundists in the US? This underreported by undeniable fact seems important to give context to the post-WWII controversy over HUAC: not because it justifies denials of civil liberties but because it is true and should be part of the picture presented to those seeking to inform themselves on the issue. An update no doubt could cover other things as well, but certainly this I would hope.

This books tells the amazing story of the notorious House Unamerican Activities Committee, 1938 to l968, and tells it in a highly dramatic way -- presenting the reader with the actual dialogues that took place in the committee room. It is a tale of folks you have heard of, but never seen in this light before -- among the names are Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Gary Cooper, Paul Robeson, Jerome Robbins, Zero Mostel, Elia Kazan...,and on and on. A rogues' gallery? Well,judge for yourself which guys are the rogues and which the heroes (if any)...In any event, the book is a terrific read.

This book is intended to show how bad those mean old anti communists were and how noble and heroic the communists were. Except. By showing us the communists themselves, by letting us read their actual words, it is impossible come away with out feeling intense revulsion. These people were unpleasant liars at best, Evil at worst. They condemn themselves. Why anyone thought that printing transcripts of their testimony would help the liberal cause is beyond me. Communism can only be defended if things like facts and morality are not allowed to cloud the issue. The book is a valuable resource for the anticommunist cause. Not what the liberals intended. But their myopia is all encompasing. Inexplicable.