Winner of the National Book Award: Considered by many to be the definitive account of the Army-McCarthy hearings, Victor S. Navasky's Naming Names rivetingly documents one of the most shameful eras in American history Drawing on interviews with over one hundred and fifty people who were called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee-including Elia Kazan, Ring Lardner Jr., and Arthur Miller-award-winning author Victor S. Navasky reveals how and why the blacklists were so effective and delves into the tragic and far-reaching consequences of Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts. A compassionate, insightful, and even-handed examination of one of our country's darkest hours, Naming Names is at once a morality play and a fascinating window onto a searing moment in American cultural and political history.
"Navasky has managed to function brilliantly as lawyer, historian, and psychologist all at once. Naming Names is a miracle of vividly responsible scholarship. At last I have a solid understanding of why so many important people behaved as they did."
Kurt Vonnegut
"A text in moral instruction, a lesson in the enormous social consequences of private failures of spirit . . . Everyone will have to read Naming Names and take a position on it."
Kurt Vonnegut
"An astonishing work concerning personal honor and dishonor, shame and shamelessness. A book of stunning insights and suspense."
