No comments about Representative Americans: The Revolutionary Generation (Risjord, Norman K. Representative Americans.).

2 comments about James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928 (Working Class in American History).

1. This is a long overdue biography of an outstanding figure of the American labor movement. Cannon was a member of the IWW and the left wing of the Socialist Party, a founder of the Communist Party and one of its leaders until 1928. He was almost alone to have the moral courage and theoretical understanding to resist the corrupting and fatal domination of Stalinism and founded the Trotskyist movement in the United States.
   This volume (the author promises to follow it up with a second volume) traces Cannon's roots in the turn of the century America, the sweep of the radical labor movements of the first thirty years of the 20th century, and the factional and theoretical struggles of early communists.



2. I have reviewed many of the writings of the American revolutionary James P. Cannon elsewhere in this space. This review should serve as an interim evaluation of this excellent biography of the premier Communist leader to come out of that movement in the 20th century. As such it is long overdue and, as pointed out below timely. I have read through this book once but want to read it again before making a full evaluation. I also want to dig more deeply into the incredible number of footnotes, perhaps more than the average reader may desire, the author has provided. More on this later. In the meantime kudos to Professor Palmer.
   
   
   If you are interested in the history of the American Left or are a militant trying to understand some of the past mistakes of our history and want to know some of the problems that confronted the early American Communist Party and some of the key personalities, including James Cannon, who formed that party this book is for you.
   
   At the beginning of the 21st century after the demise of the Soviet Union and the apparent `death of communism' it may seem fantastic and utopian to today's militants that early in the 20th century many anarchist, socialist, syndicalist and other working class militants of this country coalesced to form an American Communist Party. For the most part, these militants honestly did so in order to organize an American Socialist Revolution patterned on and influenced by the Russian October Revolution of 1917. James P. Cannon represents one of the important individuals and faction leaders in that effort and was in the thick of the battle as a central leader of the Party in this period. Whatever his political mistakes at the time, or later, one could certainly use such a militant leader today. His mistakes were the mistakes of a man looking for a revolutionary path.
   
   For those not familiar with this period a helpful introduction and copious footnotes by the author give an analysis of the important fights which occurred inside the party. That overview highlights some of the now more obscure personalities, where they stood on the issues and insights into the significance of the crucial early fights in the party. These include questions which are still relevant today; a legal vs. an underground party; the proper leftist attitude toward parliamentary politics; support to third party bourgeois candidates; trade union policy; class war defense as well as how to rein in the intense internal struggle of the various factions for organizational control of the party. This makes it somewhat easier for those not well-versed in the intricacies of the political disputes which wracked the early American party to understand how these questions tended to pull it in on itself. In many ways, given the undisputed rise of American imperialism in the immediate aftermath of World War I, this is a story of the `dog days' of the party. Unfortunately, that rise combined with the international ramifications of the internal dispute in the Russian Communist Party and in the Communist International shipwrecked the American party as a revolutionary party toward the end of this period.
   
   As an addition to the historical record of this period this book is a very good companion to the two-volume set by Theodore Draper - The Roots of American Communism and Soviet Russia and American Communism- the definitive study on the early history of the American Communist Party. I have, as is the nature of the case, dwelt here on Cannon's development as a Communist in the early days of that party. When I update this review I will discuss his formative years in Kansas, his father's tutelage in his development as a socialist, his self-education in the rough and tumble of socialist and IWW (Wobblies) politics and some details of his personal life as they affected his political development. For now, if you want to know what it was like in the 'hothouse' (some would say loony bin) in the early days this is the book for you. Hopefully the author will continue this biographic effort further to analyze the later more decisive events that finished Cannon's education as a communist leader.

2 comments about My Life as a Revolutionary: Reflections of a Former Guerrillera.

1. My wife is originally from Ecuador and her best friend is from Colombia. So, through staying with her friend's wonderful family in Pasto, I have had the opportunity to explore and experience this vibrant country full of some of the most kind and generous people I have ever met. Tragically, Colombia's history, from far into the past until today, has been marred by devasting political violence and warfare.
   
   When Maria Vasquez was a young, idealistic student she joined a group of revolutionaries, known as the M-19s, hoping to transform Colombian society. Vasquez is an excellent writer who paints a vivid and compelling portrait of her youthful adventures and political activites. That is why I give this book a high rating.
   
   Unfortunately, Vasquez's actions included such atrocities as robbery, kidnapping and hostage taking at a foreign embassy. Obviously, her actions caused suffering to many innocent people. She and other M-19 guerillas also receiving military training in Castro's Cuba and Gadaffi's Libya. In contemporary terms she would likely be called a terrorist. Vasquez does take some responsibility for her actions in the final chapter. But most of the book is a highly romanticized account of her "glory days" as a guerilla, in which little remorse is expressed. In that respect I was disappointed.
   
   Still this book has an amazing story to tell and I do recommend reading it. But, sadly, instead of changing Colombia for the better Vasquez and her fellow M-19s only continued Colombia's brutal legacy of political violence and killing. This beautiful country and its people deserve better!



2. "My Life as a Colombian Revolutionary; Reflections of a Former Guerrillera," by Maria Eugenia Vasquez Perdomo is primarily a guerrilla narrative of Colombia's violent past. To this end, the author provides an intimate understanding of "how" young urban and rural Colombians flock to revolutionary movements. However, this book has two major shortcomings. First, the author fails to adequately explain "why" Colombians turn their back on establishment institutions to promote change. And secondly, Vasquez makes a very feeble attempt to demonstrate contrition for living the life of a terrorist for 18 years.
   
   On that note, it is no surprise that the Spanish-language version of this book was awarded the Colombian National Prize for Testimonial Literature in 1998. Colombian readers have a good understanding of the absence of political, economic, social and land reforms inside their country. American readers of this text should be warned to pay close attention to the strong 22-page historical "Introduction" by Arthur Schmidt. Otherwise, they will never completely figure out "why" Colombians join guerrilla organizations. The author fails to give a comprehensive understanding of significant historical events. For instance, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, the Bogotazo, La Violencia, The National Front, the controversial 1970 elections and Camilo Torres take a back seat to her day to day anti-imperialism, anti-oligharchy, anti-sectarianism guerrilla activities. Had the author dedicated more time to weave Colombia's complex history to her narrative this would be a benchmark book.
   
   Still and all, this is an extremely valuable text. Vasquez is harassed, hunted and tortured by state institutions. She also renounces motherhood twice for her senior leadership position in the M-19 guerrilla organization. Consequently, her explanation of the turmoil on the Colombian urban campus and the era of war for the sake of peace is useful. Moreover, information on legendary M-19 leaders, Jaime Bateman, Gustavo Arias (a.k.a. Boris), Carlos Pizarro, Ivan Marino Ospina, Antonio Navarro, and Alvaro Fayad is priceless. It just would have made more sense for the author to have developed a better "connect" between the revolutionary consciousness and Colombia's long history of state-inspired violence.
   
   Bert Ruiz

1 comments about Communism and the Remorse of an Innocent Victimizer (Eastern European Studies, 16).

1. At the center of Z. Anguelov's memoir is the intriguing concept that life choices can be the result of one's political environment. For us, people raised in democracy, Bulgarian communist reality looks worlds apart. Yet, I found this memoir extremely interesting and admirable on several levels. First of all, the complexity of the several stories, the description of how communism really worked, and the author's personal odyssey through that system are very impressive: to sort all that out and to present it to the reader, especially one unfamiliar to the system, in a way that is absolutely unambiguous is indeed impressive.
   
   I found that the American editor of the book was very astute and sensitive to the author's voice. It comes through very clearly and makes the story even more poignant. For example, one thing that so bothered me initially was the seeming insensitivity of the author to the women he became involved with. At one place, he said that his wife complained before they were married that she was pregnant. And the editor left the word 'complained,' although it is obvious that, if that sentence were to be shown to any American woman, she would immediately say: whoooa ... this man has no responsibility for this event?? Regardless of what he really felt or meant, the word 'complained' in this context is a red flag signaling his inconvenience. But he speaks with his old 'voice,' at the level of sensitivity he was at that distant time, and the choice of word is actually quite precise. At another place, I found it rather endearing that the author described himself as a "spoiled brat," and, of course, why wouldn't he be? He was a super-star among stars in the educational community.

   I found deeply moving the descriptions of the little cottage in the country where he and his third wife were able, for at least a few hours, to find their true selves. I think for many of us it is difficult to comprehend on a really profound level how deeply landscape contributes to our emotional life. I am who I am in part because of the Alaskan landscape, which is seared into my unconscious as well as conscious life. The author of the memoir has a very profound understanding of that.

   But even more, his descriptions of the continuous assaults on one's personal integrity show why the insidious and devastating effect of communism were so powerful. I think every sociologist and history or political science major should read this book.

5 comments about Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership.

1. This book depicts the differences and similarities between two of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century. This book can be used to complement Leadership courses at a Doctoral level as examples of transformational leadership.



2. For people out there who enjoy a reading an excellent novel, or know someone who enjoys reading this is a must have, or a wonderful gift. In this novel they compare the differences and at the same time their similarities of leadership between the two men, how they were both very committed to lead their country to victory, and would do anything in their power to do so. "Secrets of Leadership" has points or facts that you would have never known about both Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler, how Hitler wasn't mean and tough all the time, and at time's actually showed affection ( that's all I have to say on the subject), also they have three very interesting sections of illustrations, and explains how they used the media or the press to inspire and motivate their followers and soldiers. All in all this is a great book for anyone who is interested and even for those who are not into the whole war thing.



3. Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership
   This is a wonderfully written book comparing a fine leader who was a good man with a fine leader who was, probably, the twentieth century's most evil man. The message is that fine leadership does not imply goodness or badness. Oddly enough, with this serious theme the book contains some delightful humor.



4. I found the book fascinating and read most of it in one sitting. The author's intent is to provide a comparison of two massively competent leaders pitted against one another, with the implied idea that Churchill's was better because he was on the right side. In fact, the author stumbles over himself sometimes to remind us several times that Hitler was evil (which, of course, he was). But after reading, I came away with the two both being geniuses and both being spellbinding leaders who brought out the best in their subordinates. Both had severe limitations as well. And the two leadership styles were complete contrasts. So what are the lessons here? Both leaders did many things right. Both did many things wrong. I think the case can be made that Hitler's style finally proved his undoing--he held the reigns too tightly and surrounded himself with sycophants. But remember that WWII was a very near thing. The author makes the point that after the Americans entered the war in a serious way, Churchill's supreme leadership was gradually eclipsed by Roosevelt and Eisenhower. But Churchill ultimately comes out a hero, which I like because I greatly admire him. Fascinating book? Yes. Worth reading? Absolutely.



5. It's a nicely written, enjoyable read. I thought it would be dry, but it really isn't. The contrast between the two leaders couldn't be more stark, but not necessarily in the way you'd think. Roberts does a good job of bringing out the positive and negative in both leaders.

5 comments about Mouthpiece: A Life in -- and Sometimes Just Outside -- the Law.

1. I can't put this thing down. If you want to feel strong and like life is truly exciting, invigorating, and anything is possible, read this account. This amazing story of the rise and life of a popular celebrity lawyer is awe inspiring: I found myself truly impressed both with the the sheer tenacity and the deeply ethical fiber of Ed Hayes--perhaps surprising given the impression one might get when casually glimpsing at the list of some of his more infamous clientele.
   As a New Yorker who grew up in Manhattan, the setting and backdrop of these often gritty tales rings true, to the last detail. I could actually smell the city in the 70's and 80's when I read parts of this book. Hayes' power of observation is uncanny. I wanted to be transported back to the city I remembered..
   Overriding all, beyond the sense of admiration that grows greater with each page, is the fast pace and understated humor evident in the telling of each of these (true) tales.



2. Excellent book. Portrays both the personal and professional life of Ed Hayes in two parallel tracks which help the reader understand what motivates this very successful attorney to will victories in his cases.
   
   The book goes into equal and elaborate detail describing both Hayes' difficult childhood and his legal career which began as a prosecutor in the South Bronx and eventually morphed into his current prolific, high profile, and legally diverse practice. Hayes provides a glimpse into the inner workings of his cases from an "out of the box" perspective i.e. the ways in which politics and the media can often decisively impact the outcome of a case.
   
   "Mouthpiece" is a compelling, entertaining, and well written book.



3. An insightful, worthy, read... "narrative" from a man who fights the good fight and wins...and keeps on winning which encourages one to keep on reading! I appreciate Mr. Hayes' pluck,and look forward to the rest of this New York lawyer's story.



4. 
   
   If the famed Joseph Mitchell - the best American writer whose best work profiled guys like Eddie Hayes, a dashing lawyer who lives on the matchete-edge of the New York underbelly - was still alive and writing for the New Yorker he may not have captured the lawyer as well as this book did. As a former New York crime reporter who moved in the same circles as Hayes, I love the way Mouthpiece tells the story behind the most notorious stories. It's a must read. Michele McPhee, former Police Bureau Chief of the New York Daily News.



5. Loved this book. This is a real life story about a can-do , refuse to lose personality. I found it quite inspirational

No comments about Does People Do It?: A Memoir (Stories and Storytellers).

4 comments about Princess Alice: The Life and Times of Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

1. This is a very readable book that moves you quickly along this biography of Alice, and her family. Page 16 mentions Teddy's attacks of asthma and cholera morbus, and his interest in animal specimens. Could this exposure to arsenic explain his problems? The book says the Roosevelt family was wealthy, but does not say how it was acquired. TR entered politics after his honeymoon, but the book does not tell why (p.25).

   Alice's mother died in childbirth. TR's mother died the same day. Expected happiness was replaced by unexpected sorrow. TR left for the Dakotas where he tried out cattle ranching; he lost most of his fortune in the 1886 drought and the severe winter. He returned to NY and the steady income of a Government job, and married again. Young Alice never knew her mother, but only her stepmother (p.37). Alice grew up lonely with no playmates (p.41). She caught a disease that left one leg shorter than the other. Alice enjoyed her semiannual trip to her Boston grandparents, who spoiled her (p.37). Her stepmother would tell her that her mother was stupid, her father wanted to give her away, and TR proposed to her first and was rejected (p.47)! What a heavy emotional load for an 8 year old! Page 49 tells more about this disfunctional family. Alice was the only female member of an all-boys club where the boys dressed in girls clothes! Alice rejected Christianity and grew up a pagan with no formal education (p.53). Would she be considered an abused child today?

   TR's enemies prevented him from a second term as Governor and shunted him off as Vice President. Then a lone gunman appeared and changed Administration policies. Alice began to socialize with the new-monied "Four Hundred" who disregarded old-money proprieties; TR and Edith held them in "high-minded contempt" (p.57). Alice had an income from her mother's parents. Was her behavior a way to gain attention from her parents (p.66)? Does this explain the rest of her life? There is a lesson here for any parents in a similar situation. Alice wrote "Father doesn't care for me ... as much as he does for the other children" (p.70). Alice was anxious to escape her parents by a marriage, like countless other girls from more humble backgrounds. It was a dynastic marriage: she got a rich heir of a Congressman, he got the President's daughter and a political ally. But change continued like a flowing river.

   Page 113 shows an old political trick. Get some background facts before meeting a new person, then feed it back as a compliment in feigned admiration. It works every time! Page 129 tells how a political deal was made to keep a Bull Moose candidate out of Nick Longworth's district. Page 130 gives another example of Alice's perverse personality. She bragged about having caused her husband's defeat (p.131)! I wonder if her problems were genetic, or caused by her environment? The rest of the book covers the next 60 years of her life.

   Chapters 10 and 11 make it seem that Paulina and the country would have been better off if Alice died in childbirth. What good has she ever done? These portrayals of the members of the Ruling Class will never be printed in your local newspaper.




2. In her many years in Washington, Alice Roosevelt Longworth saw and considered all. The biting wit she so happily shared (she had a pillow made that said,"If you have nothing nice to say, sit next to me)
   with friends and, more pointedly, enemies is on view.
   
   It was not a happy life, death seemed too often and too soon to be a companion. Starting with her own Mother at child birth and continuing to include her Father, husband and Daughter. Privately she grieved but publicly she knew she had a responsibility to keep fresh the memory of the deceased.
   
   Never one to not do what wasn't acceptable, she cheerfully tells of being drunk in Japan, plotting to marry Nicholas Longworth, who would become Speaker of the House and writing a colume to rival her distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. (Mrs. Longworth's was more amusing).
   
   As hardcore biography this isn't a gem but as the view of a fascinating life it reveals what we need to know of a famous American. Certainly, her influence and power-which were real-did not extend beyond the beltway of Washington D.C. Too often viewed as a "society lady" by the country at large, (hence the title "Princess Alice")known outside Washington principally for a popular song, "Alice Blue Gown" she was the keeper of that now dead feature of that stimulating, intellectual life, the salon.
   
   What is noted is her great humanity that was never part of her public persona. Reaching out to a pre-married Eleanor (and subsequently being rebuffed and vilified by this same person) or allowing her home to be used as a hostel during a war, was all part of what was a very private person. She had discovered, and the reader can learn a lesson here, that to be very private, you need to be a bit public. Liked or Loathed, all of Washington came to her-if in some cases a bit reluctantly.
   
   Only in one instance did her instincts for the country she truly loved let her down;her involvement, along with Charles Lindbergh, in the abortive movement, America First. It was an episode she regretted, but, as was typical of the Lady, never quite apologized for.
   
   A subject such as Alice Roosevelt Longworth needs a book about them for posterity. She belongs to a group of people that while time will never entirely forget, the personality and importance of her and her times will be diminshed.
   
   It's an easily read book, an enjoyable glance at a character, in a time when character meant something more than a strange person, who in subtle ways had a pleasantly nasty way of influencing people. Enjoy her that way and this book is a good place to make her acquaintance.



3. A good biography I couldn't help but feel sorry for Alice. Her mother died at birth and there were many examples where her father didn't seem to care about her. Leaving her with her aunt to go out west. The second review gives more examples. A lot of her behavoir and wild antics seemed to steam from a lonely girl looking for attention from her family. No wonder Alice loved all the attention she got at as the president's daughter.



4. I read this book about 10 years ago, skimmed it actually at the time, and enjoyed it for its gossipy detail.
   
   I re-read it in the past few days and realize how.....how shall I put this....mean-spirited it is. I believe that this is because of the style of Carol Felsenthal first and foremost.
   
   Now, Alice Roosevelt Longworth was no saint. She was a narcissistic trouble-maker, a beautiful and spirited and intelligent woman who could have done so much more with her life. Instead she delighted in bitterness , and witty and smart thought she was, her character was riddled with anger.
   
   Her childhood was tragic. Her mother died 2 days after her birth. Her father, Theodore Roosevelt, had adored her mother almost to the point of goddess worship. Received opinion is that Alice Lee Roosevelt, mother of the subject of this book, was warm, open and loving. And beautiful (this without the cosmetics that enhance beauty today.) It is interesting to imagine what would have happened if Alice Lee had lived on to parent her daughter in a different way.
   
   So, Alice Lee dies suddenly and unexpectedly two days after baby Alice's bith. What does Theodore Roosevelt do with this little girl who bears an uncanny resemblance to her late mother? Does he cherish her, nurture her, think of her as a connection to her late mother's spirit?
   
   No. He basically shuts her out of his life. He doesn't want to see her and pays scant attention to her. He ships her off to be raised by his sister Bamie, a wonderful woman who loved little Alice dearly and would also have made a good parent, Then he marries Edith Carew, who was a childhood friend of his and whom he had thrown over to marry the idolized Alice Lee. Edith Carew insisted on taking care of Alice, but her parenting was based partly, I think, on punishing this daughter of her rival -- how easy it was for her to pretend to care and then muck up this step-daughter's self-esteem entirely. It's really an ugly story, and it's almost painful to read about Edith Carew Roosevelt's subtle and uncharitable coldness toward the little girl whom she could pretend to care about -- when she was actually effecting a very subtle and uncharitable revenge.
   
   No wonder Alice Roosevelt was messed up.
   
   My problem with Carol Felsenthal's book is that she does not examine fully the reasons for Alice Longworth's troubled, combative personality. She takes a light and almost National-Enquirer type tone and, in the end, makes everyone seem like a cartoon stereotype. Does anyone come out of this book as truly likeable and a good person? Even Eleanor Roosevelt is turned into a buffoon.
   
   I wish someone like Joseph Lash or Edmund Morris would write, or would have written, a bio about Alice. (I think both gentleman have passed away, so I probably should say "I wish someone with their depth and even-handedness had written a bio about Alice.")
   
   I would suggest learning more about the sad ramifications of this woman's life by reading about other members of the Roosevelt family -- Alice is mentioned often.
   
   Does anyone else know of a better-written bio of Alice Roosevelt Longworth? I'm really interested in reading one.

5 comments about Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy.

1. Historian Jeff Kisseloff has written an excellent debunking of G. Edward White's poorly researched and argued book on Alger Hiss. It can be found at this link: http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html. To summarize:
   
   * White never bothers to re-investigate the case, and substitutes a re-indictment for a re-trial. He presents only the evidence for the prosecution, and omits the defense. White has looked nowhere for new facts, and has instead been content to reassemble and rearrange from secondary sources all the accusations previously leveled at Hiss. His retelling of the case against Alger Hiss is a stripped-down model, thoroughly cleansed of complexity, and dismissive of any materials that might exonerate Alger Hiss. Factual errors, errors of omission, and errors of interpretation abound in the book.
   
   * White (without the benefit of a certificate in psychoanalysis) devotes the bulk of his book to constructing a psychological profile of Hiss. White, who never met or spoke to Hiss, made no attempt to get in touch with anyone who knew Hiss well, such as his son or stepson. Hiss's lifelong quest for vindication, in this reading, somehow becomes further evidence of his guilt.
   
   * U.S. government documents summarizing the substance of many of Chambers' interviews have been released. They contain numerous contradictions and demonstrably false allegations, so many in fact that even the FBI questioned Chambers' credibility. Hardly any of these issues, however, are examined by White.
   
   * Regarding the search for the Woodstock typewriter, White claims that the defense didn't want it to be found. Instead of damaging Hiss's credibility, however, defense files actually support his story - consistently. Defense file documents suggested investigators check on a number of places where it might be found.
   
   * White repeats Chambers' claim that Hiss had been a member of the underground organization the Ware Group. But while White points out that Hiss's former colleague, Lee Pressman, was an admitted member of the group, he omits Pressman's testimony before HUAC that Hiss was never a member. Two other admitted Ware group members, John Abt and Nathan Witt, said that Chambers both exaggerated the scope of the Ware group and also his own relationship with it.
   
   * In 1992, Russian historian Dmitri Volkogonov stated that he had examined govt. archives in Moscow and determined that Hiss had never been an agent of the USSR. White erroneously claims that Volkogonov later "retracted" his statement, acknowledging that he had spent only two days looking in the KGB archive. White misrepresents both Volkogonov's research and his subsequent clarification for the press. In a follow-up interview Volkogonov was specifically asked whether he had looked through military intelligence files. Volkogonov responded, "Yes, we also asked to examine the military intelligence files and there, too, no traces of Alger Hiss have been found." Some months before the publication of "Looking-Glass Wars" - in time for White to include the information in his book, had he chosen to do so - General Julius Kobyakov, a retired Russian intelligence official, revealed that he had been the person who actually searched the files for General Volkogonov. Kobyakov in his postings said that he prepared his 1992 report that there was no indication that Alger Hiss had been either a paid or unpaid agent of the Soviet Union only "after careful study" of KGB archives and "after querying sister services" (military intelligence).



2. With the release of declassified materials in Russia and the United States, there is no doubt that Alger Hiss was indeed a Soviet spy. However, Mr. White goes beyond the evident conclusion of Hiss's guilt and explores the convict's tireless campaign for vindication. Since others have posted review links at this site, I would reccomend that readers consult Dr. Stanley Kutler's review at: http://www.hnn.us/blogs/entries/7050.html
   
   Dr. Kutler, one of the foremost historians of our time and hardly a rabid conservative(infact Ann Coulter calls him the "liberal luminary."), provides the best scholarly review of "Looking Glass Wars." He also makes an important point:
   
   "The mystery White adeptly explores is why some liberals persisted in reacting so defensively and for so long - especially when the result was to hand a victory to the opportunistic characters who went beyond Hiss's particular guilt to indict and convict a generation of New Dealers and liberals. A rotten apple did not spoil the barrel; liberals and leftists could and should have conceded Hiss's guilt; instead, they harmed their own credibility by maintaining his innocence."
   
   What if Truman and Acheson had not foolishly defended Hiss? Would there have been a McCarthy era? Would Truman have had more bi-partisan support in shaping his foreign policy? We will never know because Truman and many New-Dealers ruined their credibility be defending a Soviet spy that would end up having a damaging effect on the U.S. for fifty years.
   
   Excellent book...highly reccomended



3. Those who believe that that human understanding progresses over time may take comfort in the fact that for all but the most ideologically besotted and intellectually corrupt the question of Alger Hiss's guilt is no longer of much interest. For G.E. White, the Traitor Hiss was self-evidently just that and the real issue instead: why did he lie, lie for 40 years after his conviction and imprisonment for perjury, lie to his supporters, lie to his friends and, most of all, lie to and thereby debauch his own son, enlisting filial devotion in his selfish and ultimately futile quest for a thoroughly underserved vindication? White, the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, organizes his study around these psychological questions, but also he supplies an admirably concise review of the Hiss case, and, most importantly, describes the intellectual climate in which the traitor and his allies succeeded for a time in muddying the historical waters, not least for a younger generation of Americans raised on tales of America's Cold War perfidy.
   
   Alger Hiss, for those schooled after the Vietnam War persuaded much of the American Left that anti-Communism merely licensed McCarthyite hunter-gatherers to trample civil rights and cut doe-eyed New Dealers from the pack, transcended relatively humble origins to fashion an identity as a rising star of the old Eastern Establishment. As Clerk to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston and New York attorney, and Agriculture Department price regulator, Hiss cultivated the erect posture, firm handshake and sincere bearing that carried him to the Department of State, where he again rose through the ranks, numbering among his friends future Secretaries of State Edward Stettinius and Dean Acheson, attended the Yalta Conference, then presided over the San Francisco Conference that created the United Nations, then as now the collective repository for mugwumpish internationalist idealism.
   
   Hiss also was a Soviet agent, and eventually was fingered as such by former Party operative Whittaker Chambers. Chambers was portly, religious, dentally challenged--- hardly the sort for whom John Foster Dulles would arrange, as he did for Hiss, a golden parachute at the Carnegie Endowment when Alger's State Department career dimmed. But Chambers had stashed away typewritten copies of purloined State Department documents, as insurance against retribution when he broke with the Party. Those copies, the FBI concluded, had been typed
   on the Hiss family typewriter. A perjury conviction and 44 month jail sentence followed, after which, in 1954, Alger Hiss began his life-long campaign to re-write the history books.
   
   White's calls this campaign Hiss's `looking-glass wars.' A natural spy, Hiss "appears to have taken pleasure in the pursuit of covert goals and in the creation of devices to shield that pursuit from others." His strategy was to cultivate a persona of temperate reasonableness; in other words to convince others that "he was not the sort of person who could conceivably have such secrets." White traces this theme through four phases of Hiss's life: his Supreme Court Clerkship, when he dissembled his way past Justice Holmes' mandate that clerks remain unmarried during their term of employment; his `pillar of the establishment' defense to Chambers' charges; his term in Lewisburg federal penitentiary, where Hiss gradually earned the respect of his fellow prisoners; and finally, the serene countenance he subsequently presented, an invitation to all who gazed upon it to conclude that a man so at peace with himself (so different in this respect than his two principal tormenters: the at-times suicidal Chambers and the tenebrific Nixon) surely was innocent.
   
   To the extent that internal peacefulness was genuine, its true source was of course Hiss' ideological commitment to Communism and political loyalty to the Soviet Union. A traitor to the end of his days, Hiss adhered to the standard Moscow demanded of all its agents: if exposed, deny; if convicted, maintain innocence all your life. Thus, while White is persuasive on the tactics of Hiss's campaign, the most interesting parts of his book explain instead how Hiss persuaded so many of his innocence in the face of mounting evidence from U.S. and Soviet archives to the contrary. The Hiss defense, it helps to recall, amounted to the assertion that Hiss was more credible than Chambers, toward whom the Hiss forces directed a notably vigorous whispering campaign alleging among other things Chambers' homosexuality, coupled with the lame hypothesis that it was all a set-up, involving the FBI and assorted other baddies (one that rather improbably required a duplicate typewriter and a decade-long conspiracy, all to frame one self-important mid-level official). Given the weakness of Hiss's case, the thorough and damning 1978 study by Allen Weinstein (appointed Archivist of the United States by President Bush in the face of an ad hominem attack not unlike the one Hiss's allies launched against Chambers), the documents that became available after the fall of the Soviet Union and finally the release of the "Venona Papers," transcripts of coded Soviet transmissions deciphered by the National Security Agency, all of which supported Chambers' allegations, the question remains: how could any one have been taken in?
   
   As Hiss recognized from the very first, he at least was fortunate in his enemies. Chambers was a quixotic character, and his supporter was the Prince of Darkness himself. A Democrat congressional staffer once remarked "I don't think we can clearly nail Nixon as a liar, although he undoubtedly is one, in this instance, as in all others." Given the sheer venom that much of what we today call "Blue" America directed at Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and their ilk, Hiss shrewdly positioned himself as one of their many victims: were his accusers' reputations to suffer, ideally for misconduct toward real victims, Hiss would benefit. By depicting himself as the victim par excellence of rabid anti-Communism, Hiss similarly reaped the post-Vietnam rewards when American liberalism, with a few honorable exceptions, went AWOL for the balance of the Cold War.
   
   By draping his cause in ideological standards, Hiss freed his supporters from contesting the still unfriendly facts of the case. And there should be no doubt that those supporters cared about defending Soviet Marxism and not the truth. When Allen Weinstein began work on Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, he was somewhat sympathetic to Hiss and expected to argue for his innocence. When the evidence persuaded Weinstein otherwise, friends of Hiss regretted bitterly their decision to cooperate with the project. "Weinstein came to see me under false colors," said one, "I never would have said a word to him if I'd known he was friendly to Chambers." Another announced tartly that the purpose of his assistance was "to prove that Alger was framed and a victim of McCarthyism. Otherwise, I was given a bum steer and my time and trouble was for nothing."
   
   Hiss's campaign sought far more than his personal vindication. Were he to persuade Americans that prosecution of a Communist and genuine traitor was instead anti-Communist persecution of a liberal New Dealer, he would discredit anti-Communism as fundamentally illiberal and serve his Soviet masters even beyond their own ignominious demise. Among the segments of American society most susceptible to this anti-anti-Communism were the academy and the liberal media. While White does not address the former, John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr's Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage more than amply plumbs how some American historians continue to prostitute themselves, debase their profession, and sully the cause of truth, the better to brand opponents of social collectivism as "McCarthyites" and worse.
   
   White devotes considerable attention to "mainstream" media coverage of Hiss, contrasting nicely PBS's 1983 Hiss-friendly American Playhouse offering with the Reagan Administration's
   decision to award the Medal of Freedom posthumously to Whittaker Chambers. Still worse was the Pavlovian response to the 1992 Volkogonov incident. In that year, Hiss cleverly wrote a number of Russian officials, asking that they attest he had never served the Soviet Union. One, the historian and former General Dimitri Volkogonov, on the basis of a mere two days research in the KGB archives (Hiss had spied for Soviet military intelligence, not the KGB) and after some prodding by a Hiss confederate issued the desired clean bill of health, which Hiss's allies released to the press on October 29.
   
   With the publication of Volkogonov's letter, the liberal media was quick to trumpet Hiss's triumph. All three "major" television networks reported the story that very evening and CBS followed the next morning with the assertion that Hiss had been "apparently exonerated." "Hiss never spied," added USA Today while Newsweek announced the "bittersweet vindication." CNN aired a commentary asking why the U.S. government had not yet exonerated Hiss. The New Yorker afforded Tony Hiss a platform for "My Father's Honor," and, least surprising of all, National Public Radio reached into its stable of "experts," finding one who duly confirmed that the "vindication" of Hiss revealed the excesses of anti-Communism.
   
   Unfortunately for the media pack, it only took a few weeks for Volkogonov to issue a damning retraction. "What I saw gives no basis to claim a full clarification," he wrote on November 24. His motives for writing the letter had been "primarily humanitarian" and an accommodation to Hiss's agent, who argued that Hiss "wanted to die peacefully" and "pushed me to say things of which I was not fully convinced." None of the television networks that reported Volkogonov's first letter, White observes, ever covered the retraction. No newspaper mentioned the retraction until December 17. As late as December 13, The New York Times still reported that Volkogonov had exonerated Hiss and that Chambers had never been a Soviet agent. The Palme d'Or, though, must be reserved for Peter Jennings, favorite news mannequin of Americans who otherwise take their news from the BBC. On Hiss's death in 1996, Jennings reported: "Hiss... protested his innocence until the very end.... And last year, we reported that the Russian president Boris Yeltsin said that KGB files had supported Mr. Hiss's claim."
   
   Alger Hiss had the good sense to pass away just before the floodgates opened. In 1997, Allen Weinstein published the second edition of Perjury, grounded in primary research in the Comintern archives, and a subsequent analysis of KGB files. By 1999, these and the aforementioned VENONA transcripts had put paid to all but the most slippery claims for Hiss's innocence.
   
   Even so, the name Alger Hiss retains enormous significance. Stripped of any respectable claim to innocence, Hiss remains a useful tool for those who would discredit his opponents--- not for accusing an innocent man but for defending freedom from a murderous ideology and the United States from an aggressive totalitarian adversary. For this reason their successors--- academic fellow travelers and media dupes--- seek to muddy the historical waters. We must not let them.



4. White attempts to get behind why Alger Hiss, a Soviet spy code-named "Ales", fought so hard and was able to convince so many leftists in the US (who apparently wanted to be convinced) of his innocence. Unfortunately for them (and Hiss), he was conclusively identified in the decoding of the Venona intercepts to be a Soviet spy. This information was released in 1995 & is now available to anyone who really wants to know in Romerstein & Breindel, "The Venona Secrets" (2000) and Haynes & Klehr, "Venona, Decoding Soviet Espionage in America" (2000). My criticism of White is that he skips over this information in five pages even though White's book wasn't published until 2004. The 50 year-long discourse on Hiss between those who wanted to believe that a patrician Harvard grad could not be a Communist or Soviet spy is now over. He was, and anyone (read the 1 star review) who still maintains he wasn't is delusional or has his own agenda. After all, there are still close to 200 Soviet spies found in the Venona transcripts that haven't been identified. But I.F.Stone (much respected by leftist journalists) was one (code-named Pancake), along with Julius Rosenberg, Laurence Duggan, Hiss, Harry Dexter White, Frank Coe, Lauchlin Currie, Ted Hall, Klaus Fuchs, Duncan Lee, Maurice Halperin, Harry Hopkins (yep, Roosevelt's most trusted advisor -- see Romerstein & Breindel) and Victor Perlo. The list goes on and on, a veritable "who's who" of leftists in the US. White's book as a psychological study of Hiss also throws light on the other spies and their stonewalling of the truth about their activities. The mystery is that so many people still believe that this was all a vast right-wing witch hunt. Maybe so, but the witches were there & they now (about 1/2 of them) have been conclusively identified. Watch out for those who "doth protest too loudly" about their possible activities, whether it's taking steriods or their patriotism.



5. A recent but very welcome trend in the study of the Cold War era is the emergence of books that don't seek to rehash worn out partisan fighting. The authors are going back to the source material, seeking out new source material and weighing the facts rather than resorting to received wisdom. In doing so they don't claim that everyone subjected to HUAC or other investigation as a "communist" was wrong accused (although some clearly were) or automatically "guilty. They investigate both sides and seek to answer why the accused were unfairly or unreasonably treated, without punishing the accused for their political beliefs or granting them absolution based on the politics of their accusers. Perhaps more importantly they seek to learn what those dark events mean for our times and what fueled the motivations of all sides. This is what real history is supposed to do.
   
   A Shadow of Red is one fine example of this trend and Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass wars is another, even better example. White thinks and writes like the legal scholar that he is. He's weighed the evidence and determined that Alger Hiss was correctly convicted of perjury and that Whittaker Chambers was truthful when he accused Hiss of being a spy for the Soviets. The question he seeks to answer in this book is "why did he going on claiming to be innocent for so long regardless of the emotional or reputational costs to everyone else?" Given the preponderance of evidence, this is a question worth asking.
   
   White traces the source of this deception back to Hiss's youth when he argues he needed to create secret places in his life in order to deal with the stress and demands of life with his widowed mother. This isn't a hatchet job by any means, White doesn't treat Hiss like a monster, instead he seems fascinated by Hiss's calm and cool ability to lie and manipulate and raise the stakes while doing so.
   
   Still Hiss becomes even less likable under this scrutiny. I've long found his willingness to exploit the prevalent homophobia of his times to discredit Chambers particularly loathsome. He allowed supporters to insinuate and ultimately flat out claim that Whittaker Chambers falsely accused him because a) Chambers was gay and b) Hiss reminded Chambers of his dead brother for whom he'd harbored homo-erotic longings. "He's gay, so he must be a lunatic and a liar." To allow others to question Chambers sanity based on the suicide of his father when Hiss's own father and sister were suicides was equally sensitive. Now I can add to this Hiss's trashing of his wife - why stop at homophobia when you can add a little misogyny? Courtly, gentlemanly Alger intimated that he was trying preoccupied with preventing anyone from finding out that his wife, Prossy, had an abortion before they married that when he was questioned by the FBI. Not that there's a shred of evidence that the FBI ever questioned Hiss about his wife's health or anything that happened to his wife prior to their marriage. And he didn't want the FBI to find out but he's willing to have that fact published in a book? Emily Post would be proud, Alger. He seems to have passed this on to his son, Tony, who aside from claiming that living with his mother made him gay (I kid you, not) suggests that dear old dad "went to jail to get away from Prossy." There's a fresh conspiracy theory!
   
   It would be easy to write Hiss off as a sociopath but White, to his great credit, goes deeper. He views Hiss's sympathies with the Soviet Union, hardly unique during the Depression, coupled with his ability to manage those "secret places" made him willing to become a spy. White makes a convincing case that Hiss's continued claims of innocence were simply his way of staying true to the spying game and that he took a perverse pride in never breaking. A greater pride, one suspects, than he did in the beliefs that lead him to spy.
   
   If you harbor a belief in Alger Hiss's innocence, don't read this book. It will simply annoy you as White takes Hiss's guilt as a given. He assembles the evidence and presents it clearly but there's nothing new here.
   
   The tone is lawyerly through and through but still highly readable. If you are interested in understanding the times better or in delving behind the many masks of this American enigma, this is a good book although probably not for someone new to the case. Highly recommended for those interested in Cold War politics and American History.
   
   Kindle note: the e-book version retains the type-set of the printed version which can result in some odd hyphenation.

4 comments about Self Portrait Che Guevara.

1. If you are tired of the same books on Che Guevara, this is the different book. Formed by texts and images based upon Che's own life it follows mainly the same path of its biographers but in such a beautiful way it made his own daughter Aleyda (who rarely saw him) exclaim: "the photos in this book are so magnificent you feel a desire for kissing him, embracing him and keep talking to him" (she means with his own personal texts based in his own testimony).
   
   The selection, prepared on the first hand with the remembrance of a lost love (by his widow) and on the other, by the professional eye of Victor Casaus (a Cuban cinematographer who had been many times a judge on international film competitions) you can follow Dr. Guevara from his childhood, young age, his travels, the Sierra Maestra up to his last days in Bolivia.
   
   Sorry, no Christ figure photo (in the words of its own editor). Keep in mind this is a pro-Cuban Government book so you instead will find Fidel, but judge by yourself. My only last opinion is that if this people can produce such a book in a system so full of censorship, I do wonder what they can achieve in liberty!



2. A very interesting way of portraying the Cuban hero through pictures. My one criticism is that the pictures at the end of the book are not captioned to tell us what they are or when they were taken.



3. I purchased Self Portrait because it sounded like a good biography/autobiography of Che Guevara. What the book actually is is a coffee table book, with small excerpts from Che's diaries and letters and commentary by the editor, Victor Casaus. It seems in some parts of the book that Casaus is more the author and that his words fill the pages more than Guevara's. This book has great photos of Guevara and it decorates my coffee table quite nicely, but if you are looking for a good history of Guevara, look elsewhere.



4. The usual revolutionary psychosis on display. Committed to "saving the world" once he got power he was at a loss to do anything but make vacuous speeches and, of course, kill, until he was up to his elbows in blood.
   As he discovered that the real world was a bit more complex than his teenage formulations, he tried time and time again, Congo, Russia, China and finally Bolivia to escape into the role playing and costumes of "man of the people" but never duplicating the thrills of the Sierra Maestra until betrayed by Fidel he died alone in a mud hut, with the solace that millions of like wise vacuuous teenagers would someday wear his picture on a t-shirts while getting stoned.