A Blacklist Education
Jane S. Smith
(Author)
This title will be released on:
Jul 15, 2025
Description
Beginning in 1949, amid widespread panic about supposed communist subversion, investigators questioned teachers in their homes, accosted them in their classrooms, and ordered them to report to individual hearings. The interrogations were not published, filmed, open to the public, or reported in the news. By 1956, hundreds of New York City teachers had been fired, often because of uncorroborated reports from paid informers or anonymous accusers.
Most of the targeted teachers resigned or retired without any public process, their names recorded only in municipal files and their futures never known. Their absence became the invisible outline of an educational void, a narrowing of thought that pervaded classrooms for decades. In this highly personal story, family lore and childhood memory lead to restricted archives, forgotten inquisitions, and an eerily contemporary campaign to control who could teach and what was acceptable for students to learn.
Product Details
| Publisher | Rutgers University Press |
| Publish Date | July 15, 2025 |
| Pages | 224 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781978845053 |
| Dimensions | 8.5 X 5.5 X 0.9 inches | 0.9 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"In this chilling and timely investigation of her father's experience as a New York City public school teacher blacklisted for his political beliefs, Smith meticulously uncovers a family mystery--personal, political, and searing in its resonance. A Blacklist Education is gorgeous and sad; as it turns out, it is also very urgent."--Rebecca Traister "author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger"
"A beautifully written account of Smith's discovery of the impact of McCarthyism on her father, forced to resign his position as a New York City school teacher because of his early political affiliations. The book reads like a mystery as Smith plumbs the archives to uncover a long-held family secret. Part memoir, part historical account, A Blacklist Education has striking resonance with the attacks on education we are witnessing today."--Joan W. Scott "Institute for Advanced Study"
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