Celebrate the launch of Ed Yellin and Jean Fagan Yellin’s book, "In Contempt: Defending Free Speech, Defeating HUAC," with a virtual panel discussion by Julie Herrada, U-M Library curator of the Joseph A. Labadie Collection; Howard Brick, U-M Louis Evans Professor of History; Erin Ramamurthy, assistant United States attorney; and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, associate professor of philosophy at Sam Houston State University and the authors' grandson. Register to receive a Zoom link: https://myumi.ch/RWWPk

The Yellin family, which included three young children, faced a decade of hardship in the 1950s and 60s when they faced the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The repressive weight of the U.S. government, caught up in the throes of McCarthyism, crashed down upon their careers, their daily household budget, and their relationships to colleagues, neighbors, and their country.

The authors drew heavily upon materials that are now part of the Labadie Collection for the book; an online finding aid for the collection will be available soon.

Presented by the U-M Library's Special Collections Research Center and Michigan Publishing.