Tag: Communism

• Down from Basswood: Voices from the Boundary Waters

  A friend of mine recently moved to northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. He said he’d been looking online for information about the region when he stumbled upon mention of an obscure book that was supposed to really capture the area well. It was the short story collection Down from Basswood: Voices from the Boundary Waters by…

  Feb 25, 2021

  # books, Boundary Waters, Chippewa, Cliff Huhta, Coen Brothers, Communism, Down from Basswood, fiction, Finland, history, Lynn Maria Laitala, Minnesota, Native Americans, nature, reading, review, Sigurd Olson, Wendell Berry, Wisconsin

• Refer Madness: A Name that Named Names

  Refer Madness spotlights strange, intriguing, or otherwise noteworthy questions I encounter at the library reference desk. A patron who calls regularly — usually looking for the value of an old book or baseball card — had a pretty direct question for me today: “Was Lee J. Cobb blacklisted?” Nope, but just barely. Born Leo Jacoby (get it? Lee J. Cobb[y]?), Cobb…

  Apr 13, 2016

  # 12 Angry Men, blacklist, Communism, Elia Kazan, history, Lee J. Cobb, libraries, On the Waterfront, politics, Refer Madness

• Standing Tall: Comparing ‘High Noon’ and ‘On The Waterfront’

  Published in the North Central Chronicle on Jan. 25, 2008 “I have here in my hand…” said Senator Joseph McCarthy in February 1950, effectively hoodwinking the country into a hysterical anti-Communism era known as the Red Scare. McCarthy claimed the list identified 200 Communists within the American government, so he and the House Committee on…

  Feb 1, 2008

  # America, Communism, Elia Kazan, film, Gary Cooper, High Noon, history, HUAC, Joseph McCarthy, Marlon Brando, movies, NCC Chronicle, On the Waterfront, politics, Red Scare