Research Catalog

Legacy of a false promise : a daughter's reckoning / Margaret Fuchs Singer.

Title: Legacy of a false promise : a daughter's reckoning / Margaret Fuchs Singer.
Author: Singer, Margaret Fuchs
Publication: Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c2009.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	E743.5.F83 S54 2009	Off-site

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Details

Description

xii, 246 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

"Margaret Fuchs was thirteen in June 1955 when she learned that her parents had been Communists while working for the U.S. government in the 1930s and '40s. This book chronicles the years during which her parents were exposed and her father was subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Eventually he named names, and subsequently lost his job as a law professor at American University and was blacklisted from teaching. This book also details the author's quest as an adult to learn whether or not her parents ever spied for the Soviet Union." "Based on eight years of research using family records, FBI files, American University archives, personal interviews, and the declassified Venona cables, Legacy of a False Promise offers unique insights into the McCarthy Era. Most "red diaper babies" who have written on the subject had parents who refused to give in to HUAC's demands. Singer's work instead recounts the shame and series of betrayals that her father's decision to name names brought to her family. Furthermore, it explores the campaign of the liberal anti-Communist movement to publicize its political position while defending a fired ex-Communist professor, the nature and activities of secret Communist underground cells, and the motivation of New Deal government workers who spied for the Soviets." "This is a poignant meditation on family secrets, father-daughter relationships in times of crisis, teenage loneliness in the midst of trauma, and the effects of parents' actions on the lives of their children. It also serves as a timely reminder of the dangers of sacrificing civil liberties in the name of national security."--Jacket.

Subject

Genre/Form

Biographies
Case studies
History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

committed to retain

Contents

The family secret -- Paranoia -- The subpoena -- The word is out -- The demand for a public accounting -- Catch-22 -- About-face -- Awaiting the board's decision -- Public hearing, private coping -- Cause célèbre : fighting the blacklist -- Breaking away -- Red diaper babies -- "Fancy a baby named 'Herbert'" -- Secret cells -- "But what about your mother?" -- Too close for comfort -- Harry Magdoff : larger than life -- The FBI -- Naming names -- Remembering them -- Healing : old friends/new family -- Legacy of a false promise.

ISBN

9780817316747 (cloth : alk. paper)
0817316744 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2009010160

OCLC

316327163
SCSB-11938253

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library