His exploration was timely as most of those who were involved in, or impacted by, the witch hunts were still living and enough time had passed to open up their willingness to talk This is an exhaustively researched history and analysis of the Hollywood "show" hearings of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee of the late 1940's and 1950's. The first edition appeared in the early 1980's, but Navasky has updated this version to post 2001.
Given how cohesion is critical to armies, evolution would favor men putting such a high value on loyalty. Yes, the HUAC hearings were different, but an individual's decision not to put loyalty to friends at the top of his or her moral hierarchy (above providing for one's spouse and children, for instance) is not per se wrong.Īs an aside, the elevation of 'loyalty to friends' so high on the moral ladder may occur more often in males than females, based on anecdotal evidence. In situations like that, justice trumps loyalty. But it was silence by friends and cohorts that protected white lynchers in the South from being held accountable for their atrocities. Naming names, or peaching on a fellow (as Joyce would have it), is a sin of the worst kind according to Navasky. I quarreled with the author throughout the read, but he answered all my objections to his central theses except one.
This demanding, fascinating, troubling work about Hollywood's reaction to McCarthyism makes me wish I could take a course in the book and discuss it with a group of people chapter by chapter. Drawing on interviews with more than 150 people called to testify-among them Elia Kazan, Ring Lardner Jr., and Arthur Miller- Naming Names presents a compelling portrait of how the blacklists operated with such chilling efficiency. Focusing on the movie-studio workers who avoided blacklists only by naming names at the hearings, he explores the terrifying dilemmas of those who informed and the tragedies of those who were informed on. Navasky adroitly dissects the motivations for the investigation and offers a poignant analysis of its consequences. Naming Names, reissued here with a new afterword by the author, is the definitive account of the hearings, a National Book Award winner widely hailed as a classic. Half a century later, the investigation of Hollywood radicals by the House Committee on Un-American Activities still haunts the public conscience. A book of stunning insights and suspense." -Studs Terkel "An astonishing work concerning personal honor and dishonor, shame and shamelessness.
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