Dissertations and Theses
Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Thesis
Department
History
First Advisor
Craig Daigle
Second Advisor
Lauren Woodard
Keywords
HUAC, Federal Theatre Project, Dies Committee, Federal Project One, Federal Writers Project, Communist, Communism, Red Scare, Martin Dies, Hallie Flanagan
Abstract
This thesis explores the House Un-American Activities Committee’s (HUAC) expansive definition of ‘Un-Americanism’ through the body’s 1938 investigation of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP). The committee, then known as the Dies Committee after its chairman Martin Dies (D-TX), publicly presented the hearings as an attempt to root out communism in a deeply compromised government program. And indeed the FTP, an ambitious New Deal Program to provide work for unemployed professionals in the theatre, had an undoubtedly leftist bent. However, the hearings were consistently focused on the project's progressive stances on issues of race and gender, and effectively exposed the underlying cultural motivations of the infamous committee.
Recommended Citation
Summers, Matthew G., "Defining ‘Un-Americanism’ in Culture and Art: The Dies Committee’s Investigation of the Federal Theatre Project" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1213
Included in
American Art and Architecture Commons, Cultural History Commons, History of Gender Commons, Political History Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons
