Publisher's Synopsis
Remembered as an unscrupulous, self-serving, and hypocritical man who recklessly destroyed people's reputations and lives through hysterical, anticommunist witch hunting, Senator Joseph McCarthy is one of the most vilified figures in American history. Yet Arthur Herman's reassessment of McCarthy's legacy shows that, in retrospect, his disgrace came at a certain price to historical truth. Historians have been reluctant to examine all the evidence. McCarthy's true role in anticommunism, as well as his place in the making of modern American political culture, remains both unexplored and unexplained.
In this fascinating re-evaluation, Herman shows that the more we learn about communism in America, the more he feels McCarthy is proven to be accurate in his charges. Many people in the State Department were security risks; there were individual cases of spies and traitors; and there were many sympathisers with influence over American foreign policy. JOSEPH MCCARTHY offers a compelling case for reassessing the life of one of the most powerful Senators of the 1950's.
