Book Pick: Nour Forties by Richard Lingeman

'Noir Forties' is a cultural history of the half decade between the end of WWII and the outbreak of the Korean War. The 1945 to 1950 period is a much neglected historical era and that oversight gets its full measure of recognition by Lingeman, an historian and senior editor at The Nation. Subtitled 'The American People from Victory to Cold War', a more apt one might be 'Death of the New Deal'. Three events coalesced in that sad development. First, the death of FDR which prevented his return to fulfilling the New Deal promise sidelined by WWII. Second was the explosion of the middle class under early New Deal reforms and war spending which dissipated widespread support for further reforms. Lastly, the rise of the Military Industrial Complex which needed a bogyman to keep the military contracts flowing. They found it in the form of Joe Stalin and the imaginary fear of a Russian Communist takeover, not just physically, but culturally, through progressive champions no longer protected by FDR's charisma. The thought police epitomized by the House Un-American Activities Committee and another Joe, as in McCarthy, used the Red Scare to demonize, even destroy the progressive New Deal movement. Many thousands were ousted from government, education, and most prominently, Hollywood. Films celebrating the common man like 'Grapes of Wrath' and 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' could no longer be made, considered Communist propaganda aimed at the young and naive. That is where the Noir in 'Forties Noir' comes into play. Lingeman uses the Film Noir wave of this exact period as a metaphor for the anxiety and ennui ignited by McCarthyism. Disaffected Hollywood intellectuals poured their angst into film noir instead of serious movies of social and political injustice.

FDR's successor Harry Truman had to purge his New Deal associates, institute repugnant loyalty oaths and declare cold war on Joe Stalin's Russia just to save his 1948 re-election campaign from defeat by the rising extreme right. Though safely re-elected, Truman relished the phony fight against world communism which made the WMD makers rich and the rest of the country poor, spiritually that is. The Noir Forties era officially ended on June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded the South, sucking a delusional US governing elite into a failed and murderous war; ushering in the endless cycle of senseless wars that continues today in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine and now Syria.

Disastrously, the Noir Forties era never ended. We now living in the Noir Teens of the 21 century, bombarded relentlessly by Xenophobes, racists and war mongers, not crawling out of cracks in sewer, but mainstream charlatans financed by grotesque billionaires as they seek the presidency. Born just 33 days before FDR escaped the madness about to be unleashed upon the nation he sought to elevate, I've lived into eight decades now under the cloud given birth by the Noir Forties. But the heroes, epitomized by dead end New Dealer and 1948 Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry Wallace, offer a glimmer of hope that we of good will must never abandon. Wallace's legacy today resides in Bernie Sanders, whose idealism and fearlessness should guide us all.

'Noir Forties' Note: check out the related film 'Trumbo' which perfectly captures the fear and loathing of the 1947 Hollywood Ten witch hunt.