House Un-American Activities Committee


The McCarran Act created a similar investigative committee structure in the Senate. HUAC was also instrumental in making sure the Hollywood blacklist worked the way anticommunists wanted. According to critics like Victor Navasky, HUAC helped create a climate in which there were fewer than ever films with "social themes." The logic of HUAC investigations implied an anticommunist theory of language. HUAC led the way, in the late 1930s, in conservative attacks on federally supported art. In one of its reports, HUAC offered lines from the poetry of Sir Walter Scott in defense of its activities.

There is a documentary available about HUAC.


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Last modified: Thursday, 31-May-2007 09:42:21 EDT