Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars

G. Edward White deftly draws together the countless details of Alger Hiss's life--from his brilliant success at Harvard to his later career as a self-made martyr to McCarthyism--to paint a fascinating portrait of a man whose life was devoted to perpetuating a lie. White catalogs the evidence that proved Hiss's guilt, from Whittaker Chambers's famous testimony, to copies of State Department documents typed on Hiss's typewriter, to Allen Weinstein's groundbreakinginvestigation in the...
More Description

G. Edward White deftly draws together the countless details of Alger Hiss's life--from his brilliant success at Harvard to his later career as a self-made martyr to McCarthyism--to paint a fascinating portrait of a man whose life was devoted to perpetuating a lie. White catalogs the evidence that proved Hiss's guilt, from Whittaker Chambers's famous testimony, to copies of State Department documents typed on Hiss's typewriter, to Allen Weinstein's groundbreakinginvestigation in the 1970s. The author then explores the central conundrums of Hiss's life: Why did he become a Soviet spy? Why did he devote so much of his life to an extensive public campaign to denyhis espionage?