What a timely exhibition, seeing that America under Trump has returned to an ugly practice that ruins lives: the weaponization of government against citizens who are acting within their constitutional rights. The Red Scare, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the Hollywood Ten (the blacklisting of screenwriters and directors)—all were part of a postwar phenomenon that had right-wing politicians looking under every rock for communists. Joseph McCarthy, a Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, took the witchhunt to the next level, meanwhile adding homosexuality to the list of sins. This exhibition, created by the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, tells the story of these midcentury attacks on writers and artists. “Our aim with Blacklisted is to prompt visitors to think deeply about democracy and their role in it,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and C.E.O. of the New York Historical. “The exhibition tackles fundamental issues like freedom of speech, religion, and association, inviting reflection on how our past informs today’s cultural and political climate.” (For a quick look at 1950s Hollywood pull up the 1973 romantic drama The Way We Were.) —Laura Jacobs