J. Edgar Hoover Goes to the Movies: The FBI and the Origins of Hollywood’s Cold War

J. Edgar Hoover Goes to the Movies: The FBI and the Origins of Hollywood’s Cold War

John Sbardellati (History, University of Waterloo, Ontario)
Thursday, May 23 / 4:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

In the 1940s and 1950s, J. Edgar Hoover’s F.B.I. conducted a sweeping investigation of the motion picture industry. Convinced that film content endangered national security, Hoover’s G-men, joined by conservative pressure groups, accused Hollywood of subverting “the American Way” through its depiction of social problems, class differences, and alternative political ideologies. Employing voluminous archival research and penetrating analysis, John Sbardellati brings Hollywood’s Cold War vividly to life.

John Sbardellati is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. He is the author of J. Edgar Hoover Goes to the Movies: The FBI and the Origins of Hollywood’s Cold War, published by Cornell University Press in 2012. His articles have appeared in Pacific Historical Review, Film History, and Cold War History. A native Californian, Sbardellati received his Ph.D at UCSB in 2006. He is a proud alumnus of UCSB’s Center for Cold War Studies and International History.

Sponsored by the Center for Cold War Studies and International History and the Dept. of History.