Perjury: Hiss-Chambers Case, The: Amazon.ca: Allen Weinstein: Books

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In this updated version of the landmark book on one of the truest contenders for the title of "trial of the century," historian Allen Weinstein shows beyond all reasonable doubt that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy. The book is meticulously detailed and sharply persuasive. Its cast of intriguing characters include Hiss, who maintained his innocence until his death in 1996, and his accuser Whittaker Chambers, a pair who became respective icons for left- and right-wing politics in America during the Cold War years. J. Edgar Hoover and a young Richard Nixon also play key roles. The best quality of Perjury, however, is the uncommon clarity of Weinstein's prose. The very first paragraph neatly sums up the controversial case:

Once upon a time, when the Cold War was young, a senior editor of Time accused the president of the Carnegie Foundation of having been a Soviet agent. The Time editor made his charge stick, aided by an obscure young Congressman from the House Committee on Un-American Activities, a tough federal prosecutor, and the director the FBI. As a result, the Endowment president spent forty-four months in jail and became a cause celebre; the magazine editor resigned and died a decade later, still obsessed with the case; the prosecutor became a federal judge; the director of the FBI lived to guard the republic against real or imagined enemies for another twenty-five years; and the young Congressman left obscurity behind to become the thirty-seventh President of the United States.

--John J. Miller

About the Author

Allen Weinstein is the president and CEO of the Center for Democracy. A historian by training (with professorships at Smith, Georgetown, and Boston University), he is based in Washington, D.C.

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10 Reviews

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4.2 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Important and well-written, Jan 3 2001

By

Schmerguls "schmerguls" (Sioux City, Ia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perjury: Hiss-Chambers Case, The (Paperback)

I decided to read this after reading Sam Tanenhaus's superlative bio of Whittaker Chambers, and finally located a copy at a used book store. So I have not read the revised edition, but the original book is very convincing. Those critical of it do not explain the evidence and how it fails to show Hiss guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. What Hiss did seems incredible, but the evidence remains convincing, despite all the efforts to show that the evidence in some way should not be believed. And I speak as one who at the time of Hiss's trial very much was hoping that it would be shown he was not guilty, and as one who voted against Nixon every chance I had (1952, 1956, 1960, 1968, and 1972).

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3.0 out of 5 stars Good but a bit long winded, Dec 8 2000

By

Tom Munro "tomfrombrunswick" (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perjury: Hiss-Chambers Case, The (Paperback)

What was this all about? In July 1948 the Democrats had controlled the White House for sixteen years. In the previous elections the Republicans had gained control of Congress, this allowed them to dominate the various committees. One committee the House Committee on Un-American Activities had some success in the previous year inditing some Hollywood identities over communist based issues. It now hoped to be able to find some links between the communist party and government as a further way of advancing the Republican Cause. That is by showing that the "liberals" and the communists were hand in hand, it would be possible to discredit the Truman administration.

Whittaker Chambers of journalist who was a self-confessed communist was called to give evidence about his associates when he had been in the party some ten years earlier. In evidence he named Alger Hiss as a fellow communist. Hiss had been an important bureaucrat at one time having a role in organizing the Yalta talks and after that organizing the United Nations. By 1948 he had been eased out of government because of security concerns but he was the head of the Carnegie Foundation a prestigious position. If it could be proven that he was a communist then it was something that would embarrass the Truman administration.....

The main attraction of the book is that it is written at some distance from the events. The main problem that it has is rather than telling the story in a brief succinct way it attempts to develop an epic by interweaving the biographies of Chambers and Hiss into the narrative to illustrate something or rather. Thus it tends to go on and on at some points with grand points illustrated by colorful literary outpourings rather than focusing on the legal issues and the political context. An account of the trial and evidence would have taken about half the length.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece of American Historical Writing, Aug 10 2000

By

R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Perjury: Hiss-Chambers Case, The (Paperback)

This is one of *the* books that made me want to become a historian. It's a miracle of research and writing. Weinstein started out as a left-wing partisan who wanted to prove Hiss innocent, and he received blessings from the man himself. But as he dug deeper and deeper, the professor discovered the remains of the secret world of Soviet espionage in America, and became convinced that Hiss was guilty. And he proves it in a tour-de-force of historical analysis: I would go so far as to say their is really no reasonable doubt left. This new edition contains the evidence of the recently declassified "Venona" Soviet documents that were decoded by the CIA at the time. One can argue about the wisdom of keeping such damning evidence secret for so long, but their release now puts the last nail in the coffin of the ill-considered faith of those who still, after everything, mock Whittaker Chambers. The writing of this book affected Weinstein so much he left academia to set up a foundation to help the U.S. goverment build democracy around the world. He recently wrote a sequel, "The Haunted Wood", about the history of Soviet espionage in the U.S. during the '30's and '40's.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Truth Wins Out
By the time I reached the end of this fascinating work, I was convinced of Hiss's guilt. However, the book is tedious in spots, and the reader occasionally finds himself drowning... Read more

Published on May 2 2000 by Kerr Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars Truth Wins Out
By the time I reached the end of this fascinating work, I was convinced of Hiss's guilt. However, the book is tedious in spots, and the reader occasionally finds himself drowning... Read more

Published on May 2 2000 by Kerr Smith