Ayn Rand and Song of Russia: Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood

robert mayhew

In October 1947, more than twenty years after leaving Russia, Ayn Rand testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which was investigating communist infiltration of the motion picture industry. The focus of that testimony was Song of Russia , a 1944 pro-Soviet film that Rand decried for its unrealistic, absurdly flattering portrait of life in the communist country.

Ayn Rand scholar Robert Mayhew focuses on this controversial period of American and Hollywood history by examining both the film and the furor surrounding Rand's HUAC testimony. His analysis provides the first detailed history of any of the pro-Soviet films to come out of 1940s Hollywood. Mayhew begins by offering a brief synopsis of the MGM film, followed by an account of its production, as well as its reception. Most significantly, Mayhew analyzes Rand's appearance before HUAC and discusses the response to her much-maligned testimony.

By carefully scrutinizing this one episode in the history of communism and anti-communism in 1940s Hollywood, Mayhew presents a more accurate picture of those times and the issues surrounding them. His study allows for a re-evaluation of the role of communism in Hollywood, the nature of the HUAC, and even the Hollywood Ten.

This book should be of interest to anyone interested in the life and thought of Ayn Rand, as well as to anyone interested in the history of Hollywood communism and of American film.

Genres film

232 pages, Paperback

First published December 3,2004

This edition

Format: 232 pages, Paperback
Published: December 8, 2004 by Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 9780810852761
ASIN: 0810852764
Language: English

About the author

robert mayhew

Robert Mayhew is a professor of philosophy at Seton Hall University, where he has taught for over twenty years.
Dr. Mayhew's primary research interests are in ancient philosophy. His most recent publication in the field is Theophrastus of Eresus: On Winds (Brill). Other books are Prodicus the Sophist (Oxford UP); Aristotle: Problems (Harvard UP); and Plato: Laws 10 (Oxford UP). He recently completed a book on Aristotle's lost Homeric Problems.
Dr. Mayhew also has a serious scholarly interest in Ayn Rand. He is the author of Ayn Rand and “Song of Russia”: Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood, and editor of a collection of essays on each of her four novels. He has also edited some of Ayn Rand's previously unpublished works: Ayn Rand's Marginalia, The Art of Nonfiction, Ayn Rand Answers, and most recently, Ayn Rand's The Unconquered (a play based on We the Living).
Dr. Mayhew serves on the boards of the Ayn Rand Institute and the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship.