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Monthly Review | The Prosecution of Professor Chandler Davis: McCarthyism, Communism, and the Myth of Academic FreedomNavigationReturn to Content

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The Prosecution of Professor Chandler Davis tells the true tale of a mathematician who found himselfat the height of the McCarthy era taking an involuntary break from chalking equations to sit opposite a row of self-righteous anti-Communist congressmen. Counted among a brave group of people who confronted a system rapidly descending into fascism as they asserted the First Amendment before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Davis was one of a small number of left wingers who served time for contempt of Congress.

In this fascinating and disturbing narrative, author Steve Batterson takes a deep dive into extant archival records generated by the FBI, HUAC, the University of Michigan, and repositories holding the papers of former Supreme Court justices. Focusing on the seemingly conflicting Supreme Court decisions on labor leader John Watkins and Vassar College Psychology instructor Lloyd Barenblatt, he examines the plights of six faculty and graduate students at the University of Michiganincluding three future members of the National Academy of Scienceswhose lifes work was impacted by the anticommunist actions of a wide range of personnel at the University of Michigan. In particular, he examines the role played in the trial by Felix Frankfurter, a longtime Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, close advisor of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and co-founder of the ACLU. In the process, Batterson exposes the ways that McCarthys righteous emissaries relied on all kinds of institutions in 1950s Americafrom Hollywood studios to universitiesto sabotage the careers of anyone with a trace of Red.

Carefully doneand good reading as well.Stephen Smale, UC-Berkeley mathematician, Fields Medalist (Nobel Prize for Mathematics)

At a moment when conservative forces are once more taking a sledgehammer to academic freedom, Steve Batterson tells the story of the intrepid and far-sighted H. Chandler Davis as it needs to be told.Calmly unpicking the tenacious fallacies used to rationalize the anticommunist purge of the 1950s, he provides a deeply researched and compulsively readable biography that is note-perfect for our time and full of surprising historical details.Alan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan, and author ofAmerican Night:The Literary Left in the Era of the Cold War

Steve Batterson is professor emeritus of mathematics and computer science at Emory University. He received his PhD in mathematics from Northwestern University in 1976, and soon embarked upon mathematical research at Emory, the Institute for Advanced Study, Boston University, and the University of California at Berkeley. In the 1990s he wrote a biography of the Fields Medal winner Stephen Smale, followed by two books and several articles on the history of mathematics.

Publication Date: 02/01/2024

Number of Pages: 200

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-68590-035-9

Cloth ISBN: 978-1-68590-036-6

eBook ISBN: 978-1-68590-037-3

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The Prosecution of Professor Chandler Davis: McCarthyism ... - Monthly Review