Seventy years ago America was on the precipice of becoming a full blown police state. Many lived in fear that they might be suspected of having ties to the communist party and be called in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). If this happened, they would be asked to name other people who might be categorized as subversives. If they refused, as many did, they could expect to lose their jobs and serve some time in prison. In 1950 Howard Fast, a novelist, was called in front of HUAC. The committee asked him to for the names of donors to an orphanage Fast had set up, an orphanage for the children of Americans who had fought with the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Fast refused, and was sentenced to a few months in prison for contempt of Congress. After he was released, Fast wrote Spartacus , a novel about a Thracian slave who leads other slaves to revolt against Rome. It's a loosely veiled critique of HUAC. No pub
Malcolm Coates