What Can We Learn About Today From The McCarthy Era Blacklist?

The Maraniss family in 1952, shortly after Elliott went before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The Maraniss family in 1952, shortly after Elliott went before the House Un-American Activities Committee. David Maraniss

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There’s a word that’s been popping up a lot lately —McCarthyism. Are there really parallels today to the censorship and the fear that dominated America during that period? To find out, journalist and historian David Maraniss decided to dig up his own family history, when his father, also a journalist, was blacklisted.