"A Few New Shades of Gray to a Story That Has All Too Often Been Told in Black-and-White"

"'From a hard-nosed business perspective,' observes Doherty, with sober detachment, 'the blacklist was a splendid success.' Through their carefully choreographed efforts to expunge the studios of any and all known Communists and fellow travelers, the Hollywood moguls were able to convince Washington and the movie-going public that they were at core true patriots. Loyal Americans, like the housewife who wrote to Hedda Hopper, could go to the movies with a clear conscience. To jeopardize the ample box-office profits on which they relied was, for most studio producers, and for a sizeable number of writers, directors and actors, not an option."

Noah Isenberg at The New Republic reviews Thomas Doherty's Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist.