Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers and the Case That Ignited McCarthyism
This is a consensus-challenging history of the Alger Hiss-Whittaker Chambers controversy of 1948 to 1950, a criminal case in which Hiss was convicted of perjury after two long trials. Chambers claimed that Hiss had passed classified State Department documents to him in 1937 and 1938 for transmittal to the Soviet Union. Hiss denied the charges but was found guilty at his second trial (the jury could not reach a decision in the first). Hiss was not charged with espionage because of the statute of limitations.

The main focus of this narrative concentrates on the early months of the affair, from August 1948 when Chambers appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and denounced Hiss and several others as underground Communists, to the following December when Hiss was indicted for perjury. The truth emerges as the story unfolds, based in part on grand jury records unsealed by court order in 1999, leading to the conclusion that the stories Whittaker Chambers told the authorities and later published about himself and Alger Hiss in the Communist underground are completely fraudulent.

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Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers and the Case That Ignited McCarthyism
This is a consensus-challenging history of the Alger Hiss-Whittaker Chambers controversy of 1948 to 1950, a criminal case in which Hiss was convicted of perjury after two long trials. Chambers claimed that Hiss had passed classified State Department documents to him in 1937 and 1938 for transmittal to the Soviet Union. Hiss denied the charges but was found guilty at his second trial (the jury could not reach a decision in the first). Hiss was not charged with espionage because of the statute of limitations.

The main focus of this narrative concentrates on the early months of the affair, from August 1948 when Chambers appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and denounced Hiss and several others as underground Communists, to the following December when Hiss was indicted for perjury. The truth emerges as the story unfolds, based in part on grand jury records unsealed by court order in 1999, leading to the conclusion that the stories Whittaker Chambers told the authorities and later published about himself and Alger Hiss in the Communist underground are completely fraudulent.

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Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers and the Case That Ignited McCarthyism

Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers and the Case That Ignited McCarthyism

by Lewis Hartshorn
Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers and the Case That Ignited McCarthyism

Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers and the Case That Ignited McCarthyism

by Lewis Hartshorn

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Overview

This is a consensus-challenging history of the Alger Hiss-Whittaker Chambers controversy of 1948 to 1950, a criminal case in which Hiss was convicted of perjury after two long trials. Chambers claimed that Hiss had passed classified State Department documents to him in 1937 and 1938 for transmittal to the Soviet Union. Hiss denied the charges but was found guilty at his second trial (the jury could not reach a decision in the first). Hiss was not charged with espionage because of the statute of limitations.

The main focus of this narrative concentrates on the early months of the affair, from August 1948 when Chambers appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and denounced Hiss and several others as underground Communists, to the following December when Hiss was indicted for perjury. The truth emerges as the story unfolds, based in part on grand jury records unsealed by court order in 1999, leading to the conclusion that the stories Whittaker Chambers told the authorities and later published about himself and Alger Hiss in the Communist underground are completely fraudulent.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780786474424
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date: 07/17/2013
Pages: 228
Product dimensions: 6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Lewis Hartshorn is an independent scholar who lives on the Texas Gulf coast.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viii

Preface 1

I Enemies Within 3

II Richard Nixon Ascending 10

III Close Friends 19

IV Star Chamber 27

V HUAC Questions Hiss Privately 45

VI Showdown at the Hotel Commodore 54

VII "The Truth Doesn't Matter" 64

VIII Wall Street Lawyer 74

IX Confrontation Under Klieg Lights 108

X Libel: Hiss v. Chambers 118

XI Comrade Carl 128

XII Saint Whittaker 142

XIII Suicide Watch 165

Appendix: Adolf Berle Notes of Meeting with Whittaker Chambers, September 2, 1939 195

Chapter Notes 209

Bibliography 212

Index 215

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