As far as books covering Communism (and politics in general) in Hollywood
leading up to and during the time of the blacklist, the best book I have
ever read is called _The Conspiracy in Hollywood_ . . . I don't have a cite
handy but it was written late '70s or early '80s by two authors named (I
believe) Ceplair and England and published by Univ. of California.  It covers
the growing political awareness of the Hollywood community (particularly
screenwriters) in the 1930s and traces Hollywood politics through the war and
the HUAC hearings.  Its portrait of the Popular Front in Hollywood might be
a bit romanticized, but in terms of telling a fairly complete and always
engaging story it's certainly worth checking out.
 
There's also an essay by Lary May in a volume called _Recasting America_
which was published sometime in the last five years.  The collection is a
somewhat disappointing series of essays on the Cold War U.S., but the May
piece is an intelligent survey of post-war Hollywood labor politics and the
ways in which the studio heads fought for greater power (Ronald Reagan and
Ayn Rand play interesting and fairly evil parts in the story . . .)
 
-- Ben Alpers
   Princeton University
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