h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A618121

I didn't set out to write this. I was looking for a reference because I wanted to write about Walt Disney, but couldn't find one.
Quite a glaring omission so I thought I'd have a crack at it.

It might make more impact if you summaried the term first before going on to talk about the content.

Hi Dastardly,

A great idea for an Entry! The story of the McCarthy era is a frightening cautionary tale. It was a appalling era in American political life - one of those periods of history that needs to be studied so that its mistakes will never be repeated.

I think you've done a pretty good job of telling the story, but there are a few things that I think could be better phrased. In the second paragraph, you say that McCarthy's initiative was an anti-communist initiative designed to eradicate ...'anyone who did not have the best interests of America at heart'.

That may have been how McCarthy saw it, but the left-wing people he persecuted probably believed that THEY had the best interests of America at heart! Obviously, what is in 'the best interests of America' depends on your point of view. I would suggest something like 'anyone who McCarthy considered to be a left-wing radical' instead.

In the fourth paragraph: 'He set up a committee for 'Un-American Activities'. Obviously, the committee wasn't FOR 'un-American activities'! Perhaps 'He set up a committee to investigate what he called "un-American activities"'?

It'd be good to have the committee's title, too. Off the top of my head I think it might have been the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAAC, but I'll check that. (I always thought it was pretty apt that the acronym, HUAAC, sounded like someone throwing up).
I'd also be interested to know what you mean by 'reading censored books', later in the same paragraph. What sort of censored books? Illegal political texts?

The fifth paragraph reads as though almost everyone in Hollywood was ruined, with just a few exceptions like Walt Disney. Although I know that a lot of people suffered, I don't think that the majority of Hollywood's citizens did. I'll do some research and try to find out how many people were persecuted, and the names of a few more famous victims.

Those are the main things I thought could be improved. There are a few mis-spellings, too - in particular 'committee', which has two 't's.

Hope all this doesn't seem too nitpicking. I really love the idea of the Entry, and when I get the chance I'll see if I can find some more stuff to add. One thing that I think should feature somewhere is the committee's catch-phrase, which went something like: 'Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?'

Whatever, good luck with this Entry!

Thanks, I'll get to work. You were right about the HUAAC, and you're also right I haven't expressed myself too clearly in places. I didn't mean the whole of Hollywood in that way. But it wasn't just the accussed who were affected.
The catchphrase is a good idea.
Thankyou.

Correction - the acronym for the Committee was actually HUAC.

Have you seen the Spartacus Schoolnet pages on McCarthyism? I obviously can't post a link here, but if you key 'McCarthyism' into a search engine, you should soon find it. There's loads of information on there.

The list of people who were blacklisted is amazing: Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Paul Robeson, Burl Ives, Dorothy Parker and Dashiell Hammett to name but a few.

I updated it a couple of hours ago (maybe you didn't see), complete with HUAC and a couple of the people you mentioned.

Yeah, I found the page. Actually learnt something . I'm going to enjoy doing this entry- something I can work hard on. It's the sort of subject that needs to be covered.

Sorry, hadn't seen the updates. I couldn't agree more about this being a subject that needs to be covered. The very best of luck with the Entry - I'll watch its progress with great interest!

Great! I love the way you've put the 'catch-phrase' right at the start - that makes for a very powerful opening. Perhaps it should be explained somewhere (maybe in a footnote) that this was a question repeatedly put to those called before the HUAC.

You've mentioned how writers would use pen-names to get their work through. One other peculiar phenomenon of the era was 'fronting', where someone would be hired as a 'front' to pose as the author of work actually written by blacklisted writers. There was a great film called 'The Front' released in 1976, starring Woody Allen as one such hired 'front'. It also featured a fantastic performance by Zero Mostel, a real-life victim of the HUAC, as a blacklisted comedian driven to suicide by the HUAC.

You've mentioned a HUAC victim who fled to Germany. I believe that was the great playwright and songwriter Bertolt Brecht. It's probably worth giving him a namecheck, since he was another major talent picked on by McCarthy.

Thanks for the writing credit, BTW! I don't want to pester you as you write this, but I am very interested in this subject and this Entry, so I hope you won't mind if I keep chipping in ideas and observations.

Any help is always greatly appreciated. I've been away but I'm back now (obviousely) so the article ought to progress.

Nice entry about the horrors Tailgunner Joe committed on the nation. I think this is well-suited for the Guide. Just a few additional comments I can make:

I think it is probably good to also include the famous quote made by Army counsel Jack Nye Welch to McCarthy during the Army-related hearings: "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" These words pretty much marked the end of the whole shebang.

In 1999, there were protests at the Oscars when director Elia Kazan was given an honorary Oscar, because he had informed on eight people in front of the HUAC. I remember pictures of Ed Harris and other actors refusing to rise and applaud. Oscars have also been bestowed on some blacklisted writers in the past.

For people's information, this was not the first red scare in America. There was a similar scare after the end of World War I, largely as a reaction against the growing Union movement. Some have suggested that McCarthy's crusade was not really about communism but instead represented an attack by a newly emergent middle class against the WASP patriarchs that controlled government at the time (eg, Rockefellers, FDR, Wall Street old money). This is an interesting little theory and nicely supported by the populist tone often adopted by McCarthy in his speeches (it's rather ironic that he would attack Communism through populism, but I suppose it's fighting fire with fire). It's an interesting way to look at things, although I'm not really advocating such a theory gets put in the article.

This certainly needs to be added to the guide!

A couple to things you may or may not want to add...

One of the most active members of HUAC was none other than Richard M. Nixon, of "I am not a crook" fame.

A few people managed to continue their careers in spite of McCarthy. In his book 'Talking to Myself', Studs Terkel relates an incident that took place while he was writing scripts for a Mahalia Jackson radio program. A man suggested that he (Studs) sign a piece of paper. Specifically, a loyalty oath. Studs refused. Enter Mahalia Jackson.

'He want you to sign that, baby'?

'Uh huh'.

'You goin' to'?

'Uh uh'.

'Okay. Let's rehearse'.

'Oh, but he MUST sign it, Miss Jackson'.

'If studs don't write the show, Mahalia Jackson don't sing.'

Studs wrote. Mahalia sang.

I've been busy with my polish. Perhaps you'd like to tell me if it's improved (hint, hint)?

You might want to add that a lot of the techniques mcarthy used would have been familiar to any military man of the time due to the "drum head trial", where you could be accused, tried, convicted, and shot for what you had been accused of, and almost totally without evidence. Definately summary justice. very popular in ww1, but still used ocasionally in ww2

I seem to have been added as an author for the article. Thank you kindly, but I feel I have only made a small contribution to an excellent piece, so I'm fine if you take my name out. Otherwise, it's looking rather nice.

Alright, but thankyou for helping, and if you change your mind I'll put your name back.

I've just taken a close look at your article Dastardly. I have one tiny nit-picky type thing and one fairly big factual error...

Tiny nit-picky thing: Paragraph three of the introduction - 'His first claims was directed at...' you probably want 'claims were'.

Fairly big factual error: Paragraph 4 of the introduction - McCarthy did not set up HUAC. HUAC was formed in 1938. McCarthy was first elected to the US Senate in 1950.

That's all I could find. Again (still), this is a topic that needs to be covered. I'm glad you did such a good job of it.

Thanks. That's the problem with not double-checking things, someone always catches you...
Hopefully it's OK now.

I can't begin to say how far beyond 'OK' I think it is.

This is great, I saw some tiny spelling mistakes though....

Allegedly doesn't have a "d" as far as I know. And "playwrite" I'm pretty certain should be "playwright"

But I hope this gets picked up and on the front page very soon.

Great opener, btw!

In case no one noticed, it's been stolen by the mods
Allegedly (spelt right) for a broken link, but it clearly isn't broken so I'm in a bad mood about it.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement- much appreciated.