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Historians have debated the political and cultural aspects of the 1950s intensely. Most acknowledge the creation of a powerful political consensus aimed in a broad sense at stemming the spread of communism in the world. This was a period in which political figures like Senator Joseph McCarthy appealed to the “hyperpatriotism” of many Americans and gained some political advantage by conducting searches for communist sympathizers and accusing fellow citizens of subversion and treason. The political effort to fight communism in the world and to defend democracy and liberalism, in other words, also involved a simultaneous campaign to regulate the behavior of Americans at home. McCarthy saw the communist threat not only in the shape of Soviet dictators abroad but in the form of bureaucrats in the American state department or even directors on a Hollywood sound stage. In the culture of the Cold War, many who backed the Wisconsin senator also exhibited suspicion toward homosexuals, independent women, and militant labor organizations. In other words, the defense of democratic and liberal ideals also involved strong expressions of illiberalism and intolerance.1 Scholars like Stanley Nadel have argued that culture during the earliest years of the Cold War was ruled by the idea, or the “privileged American narrative,” of containment. Aspects of this culture like its veneration of capitalist values or its disdain for state planning exhibited powerful strains of liberalism but could also give evidence of illiberalism in attacks on strong labor organizations or individuals who deviated from standard sexual practices. Containment, in other words, was intended to govern worlds that were both public and private, social and emotional. As such, it desired to restrain thought and behavior that were at odds with the dominant institutions of the United States after World War II, institutions that 133 BEYOND CONTAINMENT IN THE FIFTIES FOUR were deemed responsible for helping to pull the nation through the recent war and for sustaining the American way of life: patriarchy, capitalism, the military, and organized religion. Thus, as Nadel brilliantly explains, the fetish with domestic security in the fifties was not only about curbing political subversion but about “deviant” sexual practices as well. In a sense, he also suggests, the dominant thrust of the culture was congruent with the center of politics much as it had been during World War II. Corporate production, biological reproduction, military forces, and televised espionage hearings were all “deployed” in a vast attempt to mobilize public thought, ensure consensus, and shape the production of culture.2 Although Nadel’s study is not particularly interested in the working classes, it offers much to ponder on how Hollywood narratives of the decade may have imagined a nation with little tolerance for deviance or opposition to traditional institutions. Nadel uses the film The Ten Commandments (1956) to illustrate many of his points. In a political culture where religion became very important in defining Americans in their struggle against atheistic communism, he notes the popularity of biblical epics. In the case of The Ten Commandments, the story was framed by a preamble from director Cecil B. de Mille, who called the movie “a story of the birth of freedom.” The extended treatment was necessary, according to de Mille, because the central theme of the picture was “freedom ”; it was about whether men ought to be ruled by God’s law or “by the whims of a dictator like Ramses.” Containment is further venerated because the story infers that freedom is not only compatible with deep religious faith but with corporate enterprise (but certainly not workingclass agency) as well. Thus, Nadel relates how Moses gained status in Egypt the American way—by earning it through his military exploits and his ability to organize a large mass of workers to efficiently build a city and monument to the Egyptian leader. Nadel is even able to detect the promotion of domesticity in this film and to explain how a prospective marriage partner made herself appealing to Moses by promising to “serve him.”3 The policy of containment had special relevancy for Hollywood. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), which had conducted an initial search for subversion in the film industry in 1947, announced in 1951 a new and broader inquiry into the relationship between the movies, its profits, and the Communist Party. In a series of hearings from 1951 to 1954, more than two hundred individuals connected with the industry were named as communists and consequently denied the op134 BLUE-COLLAR HOLLYWOOD [18...

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