Senator Joe McCarthy

Rating:
Summary: Verdict from 2002: Onesided and Hopelessly Outdated
Review: A lot has transpired since Richard Rovere died in 1979 that makes his book outdated and irrelevant: Venona and the disintergration of the Soviet Union, for example. Both have put paid to such questions as "if there were Communists in the State Department." Arthur Herman's book "Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator" --using the revelations and documents from the former Soviet Union-- clarified these issues once and for all. McCarthy may have been an eccentric demogogue and an alcoholic (so what makes him different from many other politicians?) but history shows that he got it essentially right. Diehard communists, progressive communist sympathizers and all those misguided souls that believed and still believe that it was a "noble" cause-- will never forgive him for getting it right.

Rating:
Summary: Verdict from 2002: Onesided and Hopelessly Outdated
Review: A lot has transpired since Richard Rovere died in 1979 that makes his book outdated and irrelevant: Venona and the disintergration of the Soviet Union, for example. Both have put paid to such questions as "if there were Communists in the State Department." Arthur Herman's book "Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator" --using the revelations and documents from the former Soviet Union-- clarified these issues once and for all. McCarthy may have been an eccentric demogogue and an alcoholic (so what makes him different from many other politicians?) but history shows that he got it essentially right. Diehard communists, progressive communist sympathizers and all those misguided souls that believed and still believe that it was a "noble" cause-- will never forgive him for getting it right.

Rating:
Summary: American Madness: The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy
Review: Just before the American Civil War, a Southern congressman explained why Abraham Lincoln's election was a sufficient cause for secession. He said that it was not merely the election of dangerous man, which he realized was part of the political process. Abraham Lincoln, he argued, was elected because he was dangerous.

Senator McCarthy was not elected because he was dangerous. That McCarthy came to dominate American politics for the last years of the Truman administration and the first few couple of years of the Eisenhower administration was unforeseen by anyone, least of all himself. His rise from anonymity to become among the strongest people in the Unites States, and therefore in the world, was sudden. His decline was even faster, and if McCarthy started 1954 as a major player, by January 1955 Vice President Nixon could report that he was no longer any danger to the administration.

Richard H Rovere, a journalist and an observer of the politics, wrote in 1959 what was seen at the time as the definite account of the Senator from Wisconsin. Rovere, a master of prose, is best when making a psychological portrait of McCarthy, seeing him as an empty cynic, a vain man who believed in nothing, who hunted not for power, but for money and glory. He was a dangerous man, who turned America away from important foreign policy issues and focused on looking for spies, traitors and "bad security risks" - and, although he terrorized the government, forced conformity, and shrank American freedoms, never found any.

Yet there is also a certain mischievous appreciation in Rovere's description. He says that McCarthy was not in the Republican San Francisco convention of 1956, and that it was duller for his absence (p. 242). His descriptions of McCarthy's manipulation of the press, the way he knew how to create a story, appreciates the ingenuity of the Senator. And if McCarthy was a cynic, who ruined people who have not sinned, he also did it without spite or malice. As Rovere has it, McCarthy never took himself seriously, even as the world did (p. 58)

Perhaps the best insight Rovere has into McCarthy is his description of McCarthy's great innovation "The Multiple Untruth". Not a single lie or even a few, McCarthy's lies were so huge and inconsistent, that they were almost impossible to disprove. Any part of it that you knocked down would also make the rest seem the more solid. McCarthy blew so much smoke that people assumed there must have been a fire somewhere.

Rovere's greatest weakness is in explaining the chronology of McCarthy, and the background. Much of it is because he wrote for people of 1959, who knew the general outline. But for people with only a very general knowledge of the 1950s, Rovere's book never quite explains things all the way through. This is especially bad in his description of the Army-McCarthy hearings. As someone who is not very familiar with the events, I emerged from that vital part only slightly more enlighted then before.

Another failure is the journalistic defense of sources, which keeps several of the people involved disguised. It is a little annoying to have pages devoted to either an "unnamed reporter" or to an "X".

Both failures could have been addressed by the introduction, written in 1996 by historian Arthur M Schlesinger Jr. Unfortunately, except for a few none too revealing comments on Rovere himself, Schlesinger chose to waste his introduction on a summery of the book's argument.

If the lack of background and specifics make the book a less then perfect history of McCarthy and his time, Rovere's fantastic prose make it a most pleasurable read nonetheless.

His discussion of the effectiveness of McCarthy's networks of informants: "If any communists [existed in the government agency], they were so well hidden that the sort of people who were in the underground [i.e. McCarthy's informants], would never find them - unless, of course, some of those in the underground were communists, which was not altogether out of the question". (pp. 197-98)

Elsewhere, Rovere comments that "Hollywood has always been a hotbed of conformity, and advertising it always ready to ride with any hounds. By their very nature, these institutions yield before external pressure; it is, in fact their substitute for inspiration".

Though dated, Rovere's is still a fascinating and very well written study.

Rating:
Summary: American Madness: The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy
Review: Just before the American Civil War, a Southern congressman explained why Abraham Lincoln's election was a sufficient cause for secession. He said that it was not merely the election of dangerous man, which he realized was part of the political process. Abraham Lincoln, he argued, was elected because he was dangerous.

Senator McCarthy was not elected because he was dangerous. That McCarthy came to dominate American politics for the last years of the Truman administration and the first few couple of years of the Eisenhower administration was unforeseen by anyone, least of all himself. His rise from anonymity to become among the strongest people in the Unites States, and therefore in the world, was sudden. His decline was even faster, and if McCarthy started 1954 as a major player, by January 1955 Vice President Nixon could report that he was no longer any danger to the administration.

Richard H Rovere, a journalist and an observer of the politics, wrote in 1959 what was seen at the time as the definite account of the Senator from Wisconsin. Rovere, a master of prose, is best when making a psychological portrait of McCarthy, seeing him as an empty cynic, a vain man who believed in nothing, who hunted not for power, but for money and glory. He was a dangerous man, who turned America away from important foreign policy issues and focused on looking for spies, traitors and "bad security risks" - and, although he terrorized the government, forced conformity, and shrank American freedoms, never found any.

Yet there is also a certain mischievous appreciation in Rovere's description. He says that McCarthy was not in the Republican San Francisco convention of 1956, and that it was duller for his absence (p. 242). His descriptions of McCarthy's manipulation of the press, the way he knew how to create a story, appreciates the ingenuity of the Senator. And if McCarthy was a cynic, who ruined people who have not sinned, he also did it without spite or malice. As Rovere has it, McCarthy never took himself seriously, even as the world did (p. 58)

Perhaps the best insight Rovere has into McCarthy is his description of McCarthy's great innovation "The Multiple Untruth". Not a single lie or even a few, McCarthy's lies were so huge and inconsistent, that they were almost impossible to disprove. Any part of it that you knocked down would also make the rest seem the more solid. McCarthy blew so much smoke that people assumed there must have been a fire somewhere.

Rovere's greatest weakness is in explaining the chronology of McCarthy, and the background. Much of it is because he wrote for people of 1959, who knew the general outline. But for people with only a very general knowledge of the 1950s, Rovere's book never quite explains things all the way through. This is especially bad in his description of the Army-McCarthy hearings. As someone who is not very familiar with the events, I emerged from that vital part only slightly more enlighted then before.

Another failure is the journalistic defense of sources, which keeps several of the people involved disguised. It is a little annoying to have pages devoted to either an "unnamed reporter" or to an "X".

Both failures could have been addressed by the introduction, written in 1996 by historian Arthur M Schlesinger Jr. Unfortunately, except for a few none too revealing comments on Rovere himself, Schlesinger chose to waste his introduction on a summery of the book's argument.

If the lack of background and specifics make the book a less then perfect history of McCarthy and his time, Rovere's fantastic prose make it a most pleasurable read nonetheless.

His discussion of the effectiveness of McCarthy's networks of informants: "If any communists [existed in the government agency], they were so well hidden that the sort of people who were in the underground [i.e. McCarthy's informants], would never find them - unless, of course, some of those in the underground were communists, which was not altogether out of the question". (pp. 197-98)

Elsewhere, Rovere comments that "Hollywood has always been a hotbed of conformity, and advertising it always ready to ride with any hounds. By their very nature, these institutions yield before external pressure; it is, in fact their substitute for inspiration".

Though dated, Rovere's is still a fascinating and very well written study.

Rating:
Summary: Check the Facts
Review: No one will be offended by Rovere's much-racking depiction of Joseph McCarthy. Seriously, how many people are there left in America, or anywhere around the world, still willing to stand up and smugly look you in the eye and say Joseph McCarthy was a necessary man fighting for American freedom in a time when Communists were hiding in every shadow? But the book, written in 1959, just isn't all that up-to-date. Of course much of the information we now know was suppressed at that time and J. Edgar Hoover--viciously complict in the development of all the Red Scare and blacklisting craziness--was still in power at the time of publication. Nobody would want to make an enemy of Hoover, so anything dealing with McCarthy and Hoover's contact is treaded over very lightly. This, unfortunately, makes the book somewhat inaccurate, which is a shame because so many dark secrets and shameful public deeds are recorded with a passion and an obvious intense desire to destroy the image of the drunken old demogogue. In 1959, just three years after McCarthy's death, and five years after his disgrace, this was an important book because so many people were still unsure of their opinions towards Tailgunner Joe. I imagine that this book made quite a difference as even Hoover himself took the opportunity to smear the late Senator, drawing comparisons to Krushchev's posthumous denunciation of Stalin. The book is certainly worthwhile for anyone interested in a recreation of the terror of the 1950s, written from the perspective of the 1950s, but there are several more contemporary biographies of Joseph McCarthy and, regardless of the fact that this one is likely written with more beautific prose, in a case study like this, information beats out pretty words every time.--Lance Polin

Rating:
Summary: Check the Facts
Review: Richard Rovere should consider himself a comedian. The book has so many flaws about Senator McCarthy that I can't believe Mr. Rovere can be classified as a legitimate historian.

Declassified Soviet documents are proving that Senator Joe McCarthy was right. Biased historians like Rovere should be academically scorned for thier years of lies and distortions.