I started reading a book from BARD yesterday, A Good American Family by
David Maranis DB95489 (I think that's the number). Anyway, Maranis is a
writer, perhaps a historian. He wrote a book about Clinton several years
ago. But this book is about his father who was a Communist in the 1930's,
and who was called to testify by the House Unamerican Activities Committee
in 1952. He was born in Brooklyn to a Sephardic Jewish family and was
working as a reporter in Detroit when he was called to testify. At the time,
he was still a member of the party. I find the book really fascinating. Much
of it is very familiar because I was so aware of what was happening then. We
knew people like the author's father, and my family knew people whose lives
were destroyed by McArthyism. But there are all sorts of details in the book
that, of course, I didn't know. One of the most interesting things is the
parallel between the political thinking of the Left in the 30's and the Left
right now in 2019. Many of the same phrases, the same reasoning, the same
arguments between the far Left and the more centrist Left, sound identical.
Miriam