Defining ‘Un-Americanism’ in Culture and Art: The Dies Committee’s Investigation of the Federal Theatre Project

<p>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.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Summers, Matthew G

Contributors dc:contributor

• Craig Daigle
• Lauren Woodard

• HUAC
• Federal Theatre Project
• Dies Committee
• Federal Project One
• Federal Writers Project
• Communist
• Communism
• Red Scare
• Martin Dies
• Hallie Flanagan
• American Art and Architecture
• Cultural History
• History of Gender
• Political History
• Social History
• United States History

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1213

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:cc_etds_theses-2308