Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies

Beware of Reviews from Persons Who Have Not Read This Book

I read this book and found it fascinating. Whether you like McCarthy or not, and whether you agree with the author's conclusions or not, this book is well researched and well written. It draws on newly-available material (mostly primary sources from Senate records and declassified FBI files). It even includes photo-copies of relevant documents, including the list of suspected Communist agents who were employed by the US Federal Government.

Beware of review by people who have not bothered to read the book, and who are merely expressing their political viewpoints.

18 out of 18 people found this review helpful.

Outstanding. Informative. Truthful. Viciously hated by the American left.

If one were to attend a public university book burning these days 'conducted by leftists, of course...conservatives aren't afraid of the truth', this book, along with the Bible and anything written by Ann Coulter would form the bulk of the blazing pile of 'politically incorrect' books that are banned, burned, and blasted by the American left. Don't read this book if you can't handle the truth. It will change the way you look at American culture.

12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.

Eye opening Truth!

This is one of the best books I have ever read. The research to complete this book was amazing I hope that this quality information becomes public knowledge to all Americans. Keep up the great work.

7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Bringing a little light to the dark ages

It is intellectually enlightening to finally read a researched book on a non likable politico. The usual dribble concerning Joe McC. is too obvious with the political slant well intended to cover the late 40's and 50's verbal left mask. The obvious research that is this book was needed to uncover the seedy cover of the hearings and Roy Cohn and the shrill media attack force. Joe was anything but perfect and had warts but so did the forces that still today want to throw more dirt on McCarthy's long rotted corpse. The book should be given more light in the media contrary to Archie Bunker's kid Kay.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

Evans has written a book that arch-conservatives of the Ann Coulter school can happily rally around and praise to the heavens. Indeed, Coulter herself did this quite literally when she called it 'the greatest book since the Bible' (no, I'm not making that up). Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, no serious student of history will find any reason to rethink the 'conventional wisdom' on McCarthy in this volume. Evans is to be credited for putting a lot of work into his research, but despite his pretensions to the contrary, his labors failed to turn up anything of significance. To any rational reader with a mote of critical thinking skills, Joseph McCarthy's body still lies at the end of this book where it has lain for 50 years: In the grave of a malicious liar. The last semi-scholarly attempt to revise history and 'rehabilitate' McCarthy was Arthur Herman's 'Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator'. In that book, Herman could usually be relied on to report the facts honestly. Only after giving the facts would he move heaven and earth to invent excuses for his hero. For example, Herman reports that McCarthy lied, often and extravigantly and on-record, about his military career. But Herman then hastens to tell us that other politicians have been known to exaggerate their wartime exploits, implying that that makes it okay. And when McCarthy launched his career as an anti- communist with his pathetic and largely fictional 'lists' of 57 or 81 or 205 communists in government service, Herman tells us McCarthy 'was making a good point badly'. Evans doesn't follow this game plan. His book is more deeply researched than Herman's, but it's also far less honest. Evans isn't interested in any facts that don't make McCarthy look like a hero. Thus, the sticky issue of the Great Man's military service is swept under the rug with a single misleading sentence: 'There would be wrangles later about the citations he received for his wartime service and the number of missions he flew...' The only 'wrangles' over these points were between McCarthy and the truth. Similarly, Evans spends one entire chapter of his book, exerting vast and strenuous efforts of research, to establish that maybe, just possibly, McCarthy used the number '57' in his Wheeling, WV speech as the number of 'card-carrying Communists' he claimed were in the State Department, rather than the number '205' that most historians believe he used. (McCarthy used '205' in the written copy of the speech he gave to reporters, but according to Evans it was disgracefully dishonest of those reporters to actually use this document.) Well that's just fine, though no historian or biographer has ever denied that this was a possibility, and in any case Evans ignores the vastly-more-important fact that either number was a complete and utter fabrication on McCarthy's part. Though he tries to hurry the reader past the issue, his own words make it clear that McCarthy didn't have anything remotely resembling a list of 57 'communists' in the State Department. The book is comprised entirely of deceptions like this. Many more examples could be given, but the basic pattern is the same: focus on some irrelevant detail that makes McCarthy look good and his opponents look bad, and ignore the larger truth. Early in the book, 100 pages are expended in a rapid-fire jumble of names the names of communists in America, of people who had 'contact' with communists, were roommates of communists, who had spouses with cousins who had once been seen with communists, etc., etc. It's obvious, even from Evans' own words, that the evidence against many of these people exists only in Evans' imagination (and before Evans, in the hugely overactive imagination of J. Edgar Hoover). This is all the more obvious to readers who know a lit

4 out of 29 people found this review helpful.

McCarthy Was Right!

I've been eagerly anticipating this book for some time now. I was not disappointed it was well worth the wait! Well written, masterfully researched, irrefutable! Proves the maxim that no good deed goes unpunished. Buy it for the useful idiot on your Christmas list!

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

An Enlightening History

It is curious that the reputation of a man can be so distorted that the truth about him is doubtful. Such is the reputation of Joseph R. McCarthy, a man reviled almost as much as Adolf Hitler. The author begins writing this book by ignoring all of the sources traditionally used by academicians and historians and consults only the official records. Evans¿ examination of the official records reveals many surprising twists and the truth about Joe McCarthy. Many will not believe Evans conclusions, despite the stacks of official documents and declassified FBI recordings backing him up, but will instead remain under the influence of propaganda that has its origins in the former Soviet Union. As a history, I find this book to be an excellent account of this period of the Cold War and I have learned a great many things from Evans¿ work, including the fact that the seeds planted by the communists then are now in full bloom today. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the facts concerning the Cold War.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Very informative - you won't believe what you will learn!

A book that details information that McCarthy was putting out was right! The author has put in a lot of research on this book and it is well worth the read. It will really open your eyes!

Blacklisted and Wronged by History

This is one of several books that I have read recently regarding the premise of the gradual erosion of American freedom through liberal policies. McCarthy was born at the wrong time, and though he has been selected by the general media for scorn and ridicule, I believe that he was a zealous super patriot who, unfortunately, let his passion take him to extremes of rhetoric and action that did much to harm his own historical record. He was one of several at the forefront of illuminating the communist influence and infiltration of American systems. It is amazing to me how intelligent and well-intentioned people allowed themselves to be used as puppets by a malignant foreign power, but I believe that the American media of the time and the power elite were henchmen in the relegation of McCarthy to the category of an over-zealous extremist and allowed the strenthening of the Communist grasp throughout the world. Communism wasn't yet identified as an obvious villain among the general public, but the political leaders of the US at the time were aware of its danger and allowed it to operate relatively unscathed for fear of connecting its outreach with some well-known and popular American political leaders of the time (including Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman). If McCarthy had been alive now and had access to even a slightly effective public relations machine, the outcome of his efforts would have been entirely different, and we would not be constantly rehabilitating many of the social policies that are taking our nation gradually toward a socialist state in the form of helping the poor and downtrodden. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is honestly looking for new light on the past and seeks what can be learned in order to prevent us from making some of the same mistakes over and over again.

At The Maple Grove MN Barnes and Noble store, I found this book in the 'New age - Paranormal' section. What? This should be in American History, government, etc. Was this mis-shelving someone's idea of a joke?

As a child, I remember the news of McCarthy and the congressional hearings, then McCarthy's seeming fall from grace due to misinformation. Seems now, that he was largely correct in his assumptions, but the media and progressives attacked him. Wake up USA.

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