White Collar Radicals: TVA’s Knoxville Fifteen, the New Deal, and the McCarthy Era

Contents

Contents Acknowledgments • xi Cast of Characters • xv Abbreviations • xix Introduction • xxi Part One Visions Chapter 1. A Fertile Ground The Birth of the Tennessee Valley Authority • 3 Chapter 2. “We Were a Bunch of Radicals” The Early Years of the Knoxville Fifteen • 13 Chapter 3. Reds in the Mailroom The TVA Years, 1933–1939 • 39 Part Two realities Chapter 4. Wars at Home and Abroad First Investigations and Second Chances, 1940–1945 • 77 Chapter 5. “Saw Plenty” Confirmations and Investigations, 1946–1947 • 109 Chapter 6. “Oh, You Mean the Square Dancing” HUAC, the FBI, and the Remington Trials, 1947–1954 • 137 Part Three aftermath Chapter 7. Return to Knoxville, 1955–Present • 171 Postscript • 191 Notes • 195 Selected Bibliography • 229 Index • 245 illustrations Gay Street, Main Street of Downtown Knoxville, 1930s • 7 New Sprankle Building, TVA’s Downtown Knoxville Headquarters, 1941 • 8 Arial Shot of the University of Tennessee with the Fort Sanders Neighborhood in the Background, 1930s • 14 John Frantz, Age Fifteen, Incoming Freshman at the University of Tennessee, 1931 • 17 Mabel Abercrombie, Image Submitted in 1934 with Her Application for Employment with TVA • 19 Bernard “Buck” Borah, Sophomore at the University of Tennessee, 1930 • 20 Merwin “Pat” Todd, Image Submitted in 1935 with His Application for Employment with TVA • 21 Howard Frazier, Incoming Freshman at the University of Tennessee, 1930 • 23 Burton Zien, Senior at the University of Wisconsin, 1935 • 24 Howard Bridgman, Senior at Amherst College, 1933 • 26 Katherine “Kit” Buckles, Junior at the University of Colorado, 1928 • 27 Forrest Benson, Junior at the University of Colorado, 1929 • 29 Muriel Speare, Senior at Mount Holyoke College, 1935 • 31 Christine Eversole, Senior at the University of Colorado, 1933 • 32 Henry Hart, Senior at Vanderbilt University, 1936 • 33 William Remington, Image Submitted in 1936 with His Application for Employment with TVA • 35 TVA Mailroom and Central Files Division, 1930s • 40 x Illustrations TVA Office Worker in the Central Files Division, 1930s • 41 Norris Dam Site during the Earliest Stages of Construction, 1934 • 42 Benton MacKaye on the Appalachian Trail near Newfound Gap, 1933 • 45 Howard Bridgman on the Chimneys Trail with F. W. Beckman, June 1937 • 47 Family Living Near the Hiwassee Dam Site, 1944 • 53 Interior of Appalachian Mills, 1940 • 62 TVA Stenographer, 1930s • 65 David Stone Martin’s “Electrification” Mural, 1940 • 71 Laurent Frantz, Senior at the University of Tennessee, 1932 • 83 Roxie Paris, Cooperative Witness for the Government, Testifies before the Dies Committee, Summer 1940 • 85 David Stone Martin, 1950 • 97 Elizabeth Winston, 1940s • 102 Tennessee Senator Kenneth McKellar, Anti-TVA Advocate, 1921 • 116 Muriel Speare, 1986 • 176 Henry Hart on the Faculty at the University of Wisconsin, 1963 • 184 Howard Bridgman, Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, 1971 • 187 Howard Bridgman’s Diary, 1936 • 189 ...