The Wreckage Season Two - American Jewish Historical Society

Episode 201

(Coming January 8, 2025)

The Committee

In 1938, as fascism continued to spread across Europe and Asia, the Dies Committee was formed to investigate “subversive activities” within the United States. The committee, headed by Texas Democrat Martin Dies, was tasked with targeting Nazi sympathizers, but soon shifted its primary focus to rooting out those they believed to have Communist ties, and paved the way for a second American red scare.

Episode 202

(Coming January 22, 2025)

The Unionists

The film, television, and theater industries were represented by some of the largest unions in the United States, and in the late 1940s, with the full cooperation of Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan, organizations like the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Values sought to root out what they deemed the Communist threat in entertainment.

Episode 203

(Coming February 5, 2025)

The Hollywood Ten

In November 1947, ten Hollywood writers and directors were cited for contempt of court for their refusal to testify before HUAC. Criminal charges were issued against the group that would become known as “the Hollywood Ten,” and the first systematic Hollywood blacklist had begun. Of the ten, six were Jewish - as were many of the studio executives who voted to blacklist them.

Episode 204

(Coming February 19, 2025)

The Professors

College professors and other educators were among those HUAC targeted, but the postwar search for Communists in the U.S. education system began much earlier. The so-called “Red-ucators” were among the first deemed subversives, and Harvard University, City College of New York, and many other schools found themselves at the center of HUAC’s ire.

Episode 205

(Coming March 5, 2025)

The Defendants

On April 5, 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death under the Espionage Act of 1917. The couple was accused of spying for the Soviet Union and providing classified information about nuclear weapons, radar, sonar, and jet propulsion engines. The trial, which was presided over by Judge Irving Robert Kaufman, captured international attention.

Episode 206

(Coming March 19, 2025)

The Army

In the spring of 1954, Senator McCarthy set his sights on a new target: the United States Army, alleging Communist infiltration of the Army Signal Corps lab at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey - the same lab where Julius Rosenberg had once worked. The hearings, which were televised on ABC and NBC and watched by an estimated 80 million people, unveiled to the nation the true cost of McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade. Had the senator from Wisconsin finally gone too far?

Episode 207

(Coming April 2, 2025)

The Activists

Increasingly, organizations and individuals alike began to speak out against HUAC, but rather than back down, committee members escalated their targeting of activist groups and individuals, with particular emphasis on Civil Rights leaders. As the Red Scare continued unabated, prominent Jewish and Black activists found themselves subjected to a new level of interrogation and scrutiny.

Episode 208

(Coming April 16, 2025)

The Yippies

HUAC’s continued targeting of activists spread to Jewish Americans and others at the forefront of the anti-Vietnam War movement. In 1967 - a year that would become one of the deadliest for U.S. military casualties as more than 11,000 American soldiers perished - counterculture activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were among those subpoenaed.

Episode 209

(Coming April 30, 2025)

The Termination

During this live-to-tape episode recorded with an in-house audience, historians will discuss the 1975 termination of the House Un-American Activities Committee, the aftermath of the Red Scare, and the lingering impacts of McCarthyism on American politics.

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SEASON 2: AMERICAN SUBVERSIVES

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