Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator

Professor Herman does a great job in clarifying the real story of the so-called McCarthy era. Most books and movies rehash the same tired line: innocent Americans were persecuted by witch-hunting Congressional investigators. Herman shows that was not the case. As he points out, no one was deprived of legal counsel or of their Fifth Amendment rights. The McCarthy era was far more benign than the administrations of Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, where Americans were jailed by the thousands for speaking out against the government. Herman makes a vital point: McCarthy was concerned only with investigating Communist subversions among government employees. He had nothing to do with the Hollywood investigations. Herman makes an even more important point, one that is the heart of his book. There was a massive infestation of Communists in the government. The Truman state department did a horrible job doing background checks on government employees. McCarthyism was not, as most historians have said, a withchunt against innocent liberals. There was a legitimate problem with Communist subversion, and McCarthy was destroyed for trying to do something about it. Herman freely admits McCarthy made errors of judgment. He also points out McCarthy was often right. I wish more Americans would read this book. What people think they know just isn't so.

Feared and Smeared "Joseph McCarthy: Re-Examining The Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator" is a truly outstanding biography of one of the most controversial men in American political history. Previous biographies on the controversial senator from Wisconsin have focused on the politics of the Cold War and Red Scare during the 1950's. Author Arthur Herman takes a look at the actual facts and circumstances surrounding the life and times of Joe McCarthy to explore his historical situation. Herman properly synthesizes all of the earlier works from William F. Buckley's 1950's "McCarthy and His Enemies" through the tomes of Ellen Schrecker and Thomas Reeve. The result is an objective, unbiased look at what McCarthy accused others of doing and also what he himself did during those times. Herman looks at McCarthy's actions and statements and asks some basic questions: was there a basis for the claim? Where others saying the same thing? Could a reasonable person objectively come to the same conclusion, anti-communist predispositions aside? Today, we know that many of the claims accusing people of communism, espionage, or of being a security risk have been borne out by the revelations following the collapse of global communism. We know much more today about CPUSA subversion of American democracy from the 1930's through the 1950's (see, "In Denial" and "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage In America" by Haynes/Klehr and "The Haunted Wood" by Weinstein/Vassiliev for the extent of communist penetration in America). Herman relies heavily on many post-1990's analyses which have buttressed the claims of anti-communists like McCarthy. There are three key elements that Herman continually revisits throughout the book. First, Joe McCarthy was a Midwesterner and most of his opponents were East Coast elites. Second, he was a conservative Republican while most of them were liberal Democrats. Third, he was a Roman Catholic -- most of the people who despised him were aristocratic WASPs or liberal Jews. True, the substance of McCarthy's actions and words is what most animated his opponents and supporters (his early aides included a Catholic, Bobby Kennedy, and Jew, Roy Cohen). Herman's book is the first to note that McCarthy aroused tension along party, ideology, religion, class, and social status. Among most Americans -- even after the Army hearings -- McCarthy was still looked upon very favorably. Working class Americans generally supported McCarthy; elites in media, academic, and political circles despised him. Another unique focus of Herman's biography is his focus on the interplay between McCarthy and segregationist Democrats. One might expect Southern Democrats who were conservative on matters of national security to side with McCarthy. However, McCarthy was opposed to segregation and favored civil rights for blacks. This helped turn Maryland Senator Millard Tydings strongly against McCarthy to the point where McCarthy helped bring

I recently finished reading this biography of Joseph McCarthy by Arthur Herman and was impressed by his skill at handling the controversial senator. Herman is one of the few biographers who explain that McCarthy was trying to uncover security risks working for the United States government, not going after individual communists. McCarthy didn't care about them. Mr. Herman also takes great care in handling sensitive issues surrounding McCarthy, including his demeanor (admittedly, not exactly the best), his upbringing, and that pesky list of 57 (or was it 205? or 81?) communists.Also included in this work is evidence that McCarthy was respected by his colleagues and the public at large. Majorities of Americans supported McCarthy's work. Most people were not afraid of McCarthy -- they were afraid of communists leaking sensitive government information to the Soviets.This is the best work written about McCarthy that doesn't malign him as a madman out to destroy the lives and infringe upon the liberties of individual Americans. This is a fair assessment and criticism of America's most controversial politician.

A great book. Very well written and informative. I have read several books on this subject (Joseph McCarthy and the "red scare") and this the most balanced and clearly stated. Arthur Herman does a great job of summarizing a hugely complex subject in a relatively small book (337 pages not including notes and bibliography).

This is an extremely interesting and well-written book. The premise is that, despite his faults-and there were many, Senator Joseph McCarthy was correct in his underlying premise: that the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations were riddled with active Communist spies, knowing Communist sympathizers and Russian dupes. Making perhaps the single greatest marshaling of facts to date on this subject, Herman demonstrates that these spies and fellow travelers damaged the foreign policy interests of the United States in a variety of ways. Worse still, he demonstrates conclusively that high ranking members of the two administrations knew or should have known about the Soviet infiltration and did nothing about it. Herman, whose fact-dense writing clearly shows his background as a professional historian assembles proof from many sources, but relies heavily on the more recently declassified information and the materials released after the fall of the Soviet Union. Not a fact is stated that is not supported by an original source, all of which are documented in the book's extensive end notes. If you've ever been in an argument with anyone over whether or not Alger Hiss was a Communist spy, you need this book to settle it once and for all. Rather than trying to rehabilitate McCarthy, Herman is at pains to demonstrate McCarthy's mendacity, sloppiness in making allegations and his many other flaws on nearly every page. Nonetheless, Herman points out that since the liberal establishment could not disprove McCarthy's allegations and , in fact, was mortally embarrassed by them, it diverted attention from the charges by attacking McCarthy himself. The effect of this was to obscure the underlying truth of what McCarthy was saying and of what had really occurred. This "crust" around the issue has lasted for nearly fifty years so that as soon as anyone starts to discuss Communists in the government during the 40's and 50's, liberals deride them using McCarthy's name. I highly recommend this excellent book to anyone with an interest in the era or in the liberal-conservative dialogue in the U.S. since World War II.