Perspective

No one could have better perspective to tell her story than Lillian Hellman herself. She lived through the anger, anguish and fear that was rife in the environment during the blacklist and McCarthy years. Being a renowned, professional writer Hellman, of course, is able to provide her account of those years in a logical, thoughtful and interesting way. Hellman provides the emotion and perspective of one of the principal targets of the anti-radical movement. Looking back to her college years, she admits to a measure of naivete.

in the ways of the world. As a young Jewish girl, she made the strange choice of attending a university in Bonn, Germany, just prior to World War II. Had she been more aware of current events, she would not have been surprised when her German improved to learn that her peers were anti-Semitic and boastfully talking about war.

Later, when...