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Hollywood Ten: Politics and Blacklisting

The document summarizes the process a student took in writing a paper about the Hollywood Ten. It discusses how the student researched the political context of the Cold War era and consulted both primary sources like transcripts from the HUAC hearings and interviews with historians on different sides of the issue. The student chose to create a website to allow an in-depth exploration of the topic through text and images. The paper argues that while the Hollywood Ten failed to counter the Red Scare effectively, Dalton Trumbo helped reduce support for anti-communist campaigns by working within the blacklist system.

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Caitlin Barr
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9 views1 page

Hollywood Ten: Politics and Blacklisting

The document summarizes the process a student took in writing a paper about the Hollywood Ten. It discusses how the student researched the political context of the Cold War era and consulted both primary sources like transcripts from the HUAC hearings and interviews with historians on different sides of the issue. The student chose to create a website to allow an in-depth exploration of the topic through text and images. The paper argues that while the Hollywood Ten failed to counter the Red Scare effectively, Dalton Trumbo helped reduce support for anti-communist campaigns by working within the blacklist system.

Uploaded by

Caitlin Barr
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Process Paper:

421 Words
Our choice in topic, the Hollywood Ten, stems from a common interest in American
history and the Cold War, and a belief that this topic is historically significant due to the fact that
inciting societal fear through political rhetoric is a recurring theme.
We began our research with a look into the history of the American communist and
anti-communist movements in order to fully comprehend the political context in which our topic
took place. We soon began to consult the wide variety of relevant secondary sources, from books
focused on the Ten to larger contextual pieces; however, we proceeded with caution, as having
studied the historiographical debate our topic, we recognized the presence of partisan divides
over how historians address certain aspects of anti-communism and communism. Picking up on
these nuances allowed us to better develop our own, synthesized perspective and provided us
with a strategy to consciously seek out a wider range of interpretations. As our research
progressed, we delved into primary sources related to our topic, ranging from Ayn Rands A
Screen Guide for Americans and contemporary articles

in Time and the N ew York Times to the


transcripts of the 1947 HUAC hearings in Hollywood. We also found a particularly useful
interview with Albert Maltz, in which he extensively cited his own recollections, and Dalton
Trumbos collection of letters, which included plenty of information on his blacklist experiences.
An extensively cited Albert Maltz interview was similarly useful. Our interviews included two
prominent historians: Harvey Klehr and Paul Buhle. On opposite sides of the historiographical
and partisan divide, Klehr and Buhle each provided us with their own perspective on the events
covered, as well as unique information of their own, particularly regarding the motivations of
anti-communist institutions such as the FBI and HUAC.
We chose a website as our category for the project, as the scope of it allows for us to go
into greater depth about our topic and its mix of text and image allows for quite a multifaceted
display. We tried to organize our main arguments in a manner that flowed naturally, in order to
give improve the experience of the reader, and tried to incorporate a wide range of visuals for the
same reason.
In their refusal to cooperate with HUAC, the Hollywood Ten took a stand against the
culture of political suppression that had become entrenched in American governance through the
Red Scares. However, the Tens stand during the HUAC hearings failed to provide an effective
counter-narrative to the anti-communist campaigns, allowing HUAC to respond by setting
precedents which escalated the Red Scare. Nonetheless, in loosening the constraints of the
Hollywood Blacklist, Dalton Trumbo, one of the Ten, decreased support for these public
anti-communist campaigns. Notably, these stands historiographically influenced and were
influenced by the New Left, and continue to capture the sympathy and imagination of the
American public.

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