The film parallels 1950s American history, specifically HUAC hearings and the civil rights movement. The hearings, where witnesses were demanded to "name names" of supposed communist sympathizers, resemble the climactic scene when the slaves, asked by Crassus to give up their leader by pointing him out from the multitude, each stand up to proclaim, "I'm Spartacus". Howard Fast, who wrote the book on which the film was based, "was jailed for his refusal to testify, and wrote the novel "Spartacus" while in prison". The comment of how slavery was a central part of American history is pointed to in the beginning in the scenes featuring Draba and Spartacus, where Draba sacrifices himself by attacking Crassus rather than kill Spartacus. The fight to end segregation and to promote the equality of African-Americans is seen in the mixing of races within the gladiator school as well as in the army of Spartacus where all fight for freedom. Another instance of the film's allusions to the political climate of the United States is hinted at in the beginning where Rome is described as a republic "that lay fatally stricken with a disease called human slavery", and describing Spartacus as a "proud, rebellious son dreaming of the death of slavery, 2000 years before it finally would die"; thus the ethical and political vision of the film is first introduced as a foreground for the ensuing action.