McCarthyism, Fear, and Film
The late 1940s through the 1950s bore witness to a rich outpouring of films amid a post-World War II and Cold War era.
The history of film in this period is inseparable from McCarthyism, the Red Scare, and the attack on the film industry through the House Unamerican Affairs Committee (HUAC). Some Hollywood legends named names. Countless Hollywood figures were blacklisted and therefore unable to work, with their writing or performances or films censored or banned.
All of this anti-communist rhetoric can be traced to the weaponization of fear—fear of the other, fear of the alien, fear of change, fear of economic disruption.
This course will examine films that emerged during this era and reflected on what it meant, as well as documentary and feature films that reconstruct the actions of perpetrators, victims, and onlookers to capture a rich sense of what this era was like. Screening these films provides us with an opportunity to connect that era with the one we are living in today.
This course will meet on six Wednesdays from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm. Dates are 1/6 - 2/10.
ABOUT JUDI FREEMAN:
Judi Freeman is a historian and educator, the author of 10 books and numerous articles. For much of her career, Ms. Freeman was an art museum curator and educator, specializing in modern art, at museums from the National Gallery of Art to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and a secondary educator, teaching 20th-21st century history, most notably over 24 years as the Seevak Chair in History at Boston Latin School. With degrees from Vassar, Johns Hopkins, Yale, and Tufts universities, Ms. Freeman has integrated the history of film into much of her work. She is currently at work on a new biography of legendary American foreign correspondent and columnist Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961) and currently serves as the Executive Director of the World History Association.