1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910458285003321

Autore

Jacoby Susan <1945->

Titolo

Alger Hiss and the battle for history [[electronic resource] /] / Susan Jacoby

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven [Conn.], : Yale University Press, c2009

ISBN

1-282-50143-7

9786612501432

0-300-15584-0

1-4416-4560-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (272 p.)

Collana

Icons of America

Disciplina

364.1/31

Soggetti

Communism - United States - History - 20th century

Espionage, Soviet - United States - History - 20th century

Cold War

Political culture - United States

Right and left (Political science)

Electronic books.

United States Politics and government 1945-1989

United States Politics and government 1989-

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-242) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- One. Passions as Prologue -- Two. The Eye of the Hurricane, 1948-1950 -- Tree. Competing Narratives and Public Amnesia, 1950-1965 -- Four. The Best of Times, The Worst of Times, 1970-1980 -- Five. The Rise of the Right and the Cold War at Twilight, 1980-1992 -- Six. The Enemy Vanishes, 1992-2008 -- Conclusion. Passions as Epilogue -- Chronology -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Books on Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss abound, as countless scholars have labored to uncover the facts behind Chambers's shocking accusation before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the summer of 1948-that Alger Hiss, a former rising star in the State Department, had been a Communist and engaged in espionage.In this



highly original work, Susan Jacoby turns her attention to the Hiss case, including his trial and imprisonment for perjury, as a mirror of shifting American political views and passions. Unfettered by political ax-grinding, the author examines conflicting responses, from scholars and the media on both the left and the right, and the ways in which they have changed from 1948 to our present post-Cold War era. With a brisk, engaging style, Jacoby positions the case in the politics of the post-World War II era and then explores the ways in which generations of liberals and conservatives have put Chambers and Hiss to their own ideological uses. An iconic event of the McCarthy era, the case of Alger Hiss fascinates political intellectuals not only because of its historical significance but because of its timeless relevance to equally fierce debates today about the difficult balance between national security and respect for civil liberties.