Customer Reviews

The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy

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3 star:		(6)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Well written and very informative. Appropriate for adults, high school students, and gifted middle school students. The author does not ignore controversial topics, such as questions about peoples' sexual orientation and how the prejudices of the 50s were used against people. He constructs a portrait of McCarthy that humanizes him more than other texts. McCarthy comes off more pitiful than evil. Everything McCarthy did, and the responses to him, are placed in the context of the age in which he lived. This book has a slightly left of center political orientation, but the author goes out of his way to remain objective and as unbiased as possible, considering the topic.

The photos supplement the text well.

I highly recommend this book. Like many young adult non-fiction books, they can be a great way for adults to quickly learn about topics about which they would like to know more.

THE RISE AND FALL OF SENATOR JOE McCARTHY by James Giblin is a 290 page book. The book is medium format--7 ½ inches by ten inches. A black and white photograph can be found every three or four pages. The photos are either half-page or quarter-page. The paper is bright white, not cheap off-white as one finds in some books.

The book is suitable for teenagers and adults. The writing style is straightforward. The author does not try to draw attention to himself by trying to writing fancy. The reading level is that of a typical "big city" newspaper.

The book concerns U.S. politics in the early 1950s, with a focus on Mr. McCarthy. The narrative starts like this, "In his teens, Joe liked to wrestle with his pals at church picnics" (page 2). Up until page 53, the book progresses just as one might expect for a biography about any American hero, such as Charles Lindbergh, Mohammed Ali (Cassius Clay), or Jonas Salk. But as most baby-boomers know, Mr. McCarthy is not exactly an American hero.

From page 54 on, we learn of the following milestones. These milestones provide a context and rationale for Mr. McCarthy's abberant behaviors. We learn that the U.S.S.R. tested its first atomic bomb in August 29, 1949 (page 73). We learn of important milestones from the era, for example, that Mao Zedong declared victory of Chiang Kai-shek in the 20-year civil war in China (October 1, 1949) (pages 73, 128). Another milestone from the era is when North Korea invaded South Korea (June 25, 1950) (page 111), and that the main city in South Korea, Seoul, was in complete ruin (March 1951) (page 123). Another legendary milestone was when President Truman fired General MacArthur for advocating his own ideas, as far as military action in Korea was concerned (page 124). Yet another milestone was the Marshall Plan, which involved American foreign aid to all of Europe, including Germany, after World War II (page 128). Eventually, Truman decided not to run for a second term because the Korean War was going badly (page 132). Peace arrived in the Korean War in July 1953 (page 150). Another milestone was Stalin's death, after having ruled the U.S.S.R. as a brutal dictator for 30 years (page 160). And then, of course, there were the first hydrogen bombs tested by the United States (November 1, 1952) and by the U.S.S.R. just nine months later (page 173).

Senator Joe McCarthy used these events to fuel the feeding frenzy among the American public to engage in witch hunts, where the witch hunts involved accusing thousands of Americans of being Communists, with adverse consequences to the accused. One component of Mr. McCarthy's agenda was the snowball effect of newspapers and radio, all too eager to report dramatic news of McCarthy's continuing accusations.

Fortunately, the author James Giblin maintains a neutral tone throughout the book. The fact is, that Communist spies were an extremely serious problem, for example, in U.S. military research sites. But false accusations against Americans for being Communists was also a serious problem. These were two independent problems.

Much of the book is spent disclosing "he said/she said" encounters, where prominent Americans were accused by McCarthy of being Communists, and where these persons were compelled to defend themselves. The term "he said/she said" refers to opposing viewpoints between two people, where it is nearly impossible to verify either viewpoint. Here are some of the "he said/she said" scenarios:

(1) New York lawyer Dorothy Kenyon was called an "extremely bad security risk." Hearst newspapers proclaimed that she was "linked to Reds." But Kenyon told newspaper reports that "Senator McCarthy is a liar." (page 92).

(2) Owen Lattimore was an expert on China, and director of the School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University. McCarthy accused him of being a Soviet agent. But Lattimore replied that this was "pure moonshine" and a Democratic senator Theodore Green called McCarthy's attacks "reckless and unfair, and did irreparable damage to America's image abroad." (page 99).

(3) John Steward Service was assigned to the U.S. diplomatic corps in China and became second secretary at the American Embassy in Chungking, the Chinese capital after World War II. He was arrested by the FBI for being a spy. Regarding Mr. Service, McCarthy states, "Do you want on your payroll a man who admits turning government secretes over to a Communist?" However, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine defended Service, "too much harm has already ben done with irresponsible words of bitterness and selfish political opportunism." (page 109).

Eventually, Kenyon, Lattimore, and Service were completely cleared of charges by the Tydings subcommittee, in a report issued on July 17, 1950 (page 114).

(4) Adlai Stevenson, who ran against Eisenhower in the presidential election in 1952, was accused by McCarthy of consorting with Communists. McCarthy proclaimed, "I am checking your record since the day you entered government service at about the same time and in the same department as Alger Hiss [a Communist]" (page 139). But Stevenson denied that he ever had a close association with Alger Hiss. Hiss was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. After a mistrial due to a hung jury, Hiss was tried a second time. In January 1950, he was found guilty on both counts of perjury and received two concurrent five-year sentences, of which he eventually served 44 months.

To conclude, this book is an excellent introduction to any aspect of the era of the 1950s. In other words, whether your interest is politics, the development of the U.S. interstate system, the U.S. space race, or racial relations and integration, this book serves as an excellent, must-read back-drop for that era. In that era, Americans were very much afraid of Communists, but they were also concerned about the rise of McCarthyism. FIVE STARS.

For five years (1950-54) of his two term tenure in the Senate, Joe McCarthy was one of the most well-known politicians in America. McCarthy was the nation's most notable fighter of Communist subversives during a time when it was an important issue for the American constituency. `The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy' by James Cross Giblin gives the reader a meaty yet succinct portrayal of the conservative senator from Wisconsin.

His style of politics is still used today, although anyone who uses guilt by association or who makes unfounded accusations runs the risk of becoming an easy target for opponents. Joe McCarthy first used these tactics to attack the city editor of the Madison Capital Times, and he got more publicity for questioning the loyalty of Cedric Parker than anything he had done before. Shortly after that, McCarthy made a speech at West Virginia where he claimed 205 Communists were in the State Department. McCarthy received thousands of letters from supporters for his crusade against security risks.

Several world events made it a propitious time for McCarthy to fight Communism in the United States. Russian scientists detonated a nuclear bomb, and there were rumors that spies had passed them secrets to help them develop this technology. Just over a month later, Mao Zedung crushed the Nationalist Army of Chiang Kai-shek for control of China. Alger Hiss was convicted of two charges of perjury related to Communist spying a month after that, and Dr. Klaus Fuchs was arrested in London as a Soviet spy.

The 1952 midterm elections made McCarthy as powerful as he was popular. He gave a speech at the Republican National Convention where the punch line said One Communist in any agency is One Communist Too Many. You can just imagine the delegates reciting it along with McCarthy. He handily won his reelection bid, while his foes were defeated - not just in Burton in 1952, but Tydings in 1950. The Republicans also won a majority of the House and Senate, which gave McCarthy chairmanship of a subcommittee on Government Operations that McCarthy used to investigate Communists.

`I can investigate anybody,' McCarthy boldly stated. At first, it was a promise to the American people in the early 1950s. McCarthy was popular for his investigations into Fort Monmouth and Irving Peress, but he lost his way trying to place a dunce cap on Ralph Zweicker, a genuine hero from D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. It ultimately led to the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, where the Army came off sympathetically and McCarthy did not. A good supplement to this book is the 1964 documentary film, `Point of Order,' which contains riveting excerpts from the hearings.

By 1954, the country became more interested in avoiding nuclear conflict than raking over charges of subversion and espionage. The mid-term elections of 1954 returned the House and Senate to Democratic majorities. People were beginning to see the dark side of Communist inquiries, and they didn't like the encroachment on civil liberties. The accusatory style of McCarthy rubbed people the wrong way, particularly when it was used against Annie Lee Moss.

This was a fine summary of McCarthy's career; but it could have used a longer post-script. Two pages hardly seemed enough. There's no follow-up to Fred Fisher. There are no quotes from people today assessing McCarthy's career, just comments pro and con, basically along party lines, at his death. It is nevertheless a quick, enjoyable synopsis of a very important Senator who shaped Cold War policy during part of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.

Incredibly written book. It portrayed tons of information in ways a five-year-old could understand. It was a little bias but these days it is hard to find anything on the subject that isn't. I knew nothing about the McCarthy era when i first picked up the book and now I know everything.

Regardless of whether one believes Joe McCarthy was a total nut-case or a near prophet, or anything in between, this book will be a good addition to one's history collection if politics is of interest. I did find it a bit troubling that the majority of references were to a previous biography of McCarthy by Thomas C. Reeves, as well as numerous Wikipedia references. Some may not find the latter particularly troubling, but it seems to be too fluid to be useful as a definitive source for factual material. Clearly, however, the author did a great deal of study for this book, and presented the material in a readable fashion.

At the same time, I found a concluding "prediction" to be so very ironic these days, both because the advance copy of the McCarthy book I received was only published in December 2009, and also because of what I'd consider a rather naive statement, especially given not only recent political events, but also what the nation endured with McCarthy and others in between. In his epilogue, the author contemplates the possibility of the rise of another "leader who claimed to have the answer." His conclusion? "Thoughtful Americans, however, would probably question and challenge the new leader's simplistic solutions, especially if they conflicted with the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. ... One thing is certain: Our democratic form of government, with its checks and balances, has survived serious assaults in the past. With luck, and the attentiveness and dedication of its citizens, the nation and the principles on which it relies will continue to prevail." In light of the current and just-past administrations, at minimum, such a statement seems exceptionally naive, if not detached from the reality we've witnessed these past several years. It could leave some of the author's other conclusions in the book a bit suspect.

Still - if you want to get a relatively clear idea of what McCarthy was about, this is a good entry point at minimum. It's just not without bias, and it certainly isn't the definitive piece on Joe McCarthy.

I found this to be an outstanding book. This is one I will place in my bookcase at school and use when I teach McCarthyism. Joe McCarthy ia famous as a senator who made false accusations about others being Communists at a time when Americans were terrified of Communism. He exploited the American people and the government in a way that held a terrible sway over them. When the majority finally woke up, many had lost their careers and reputations on false information and people became less trusting of the government. The era also saw the rise of Roy Cohn and Richard Nixon who also had profound affect on the country in years to come. I found this book to be absorbing, engrossing and very informative. The writer is very clear and easy to understand. The story is very hard hitting. I wish there were more children's books like this. Some kids really enjoy reading about history and biography and this book is made for them. I highly recommend it! I think I'll look for a book on Edward R. Murrow next!

I give much credit to the author for keeping this bio of McCarthy fairly neutral, but its unfortunate that he couldn't make it more interesting.

This is due, partly, to the events themselves which consisted of a bunch of name calling and finger pointing. You get around two hundred pages of McCarthy raising baseless accusations and the ensuing aftermath. Its amazing how much this guy got away with by taking advantage of a nations paranoia.

But again, its two hundred pages of petty fights and name calling. All presented in a very objective, just-the-facts type of writing style. It gets tiresome.

But thats just me, if you want to know more about McCarthy, this does a good job of relating that story, but don't expect to be riveted by it.

Joseph McCarthy was a fascinating figure in American Politics. He entered the senate in the 1940's, but made a name for himself in the 50's in his relentless pursuit of communists. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, McCarthy damaged and ruined many lives in his vigor to remove any one remotely suspected of having ties to communism. You were guilty without facts and due justice if he found anything he felt was a shred of evidence.

This book written for the younger crowd does present McCarthy in a more sympathetic light than some biographies while decrying his actions that ruined so many lives through his obsessive pursuit of communists and communist sympathizers and his climate of fear.

McCarthy in his own mind was a devoted American with a mission to save our country from those that, at least in his mind, would seek to undermine it and let it fall to communism. As Senator McCarthy once said "...if witnesses are not frank and truthful--whether military personnel or not--they will be examined vigorously to get to the truth about communist activities."

McCarthy targeted the entertainment community, the military, and anyone who came to his attention in a negative way. People were blacklisted, jailed, discharged from the military because they had subscribed to a paper that had communist leanings, because when they were young they had a communist contact, and even for having relatives and friends who had minor contact with a communistic organization or person. If McCarthy disliked a person he wasn't above ordering his assistant(s) to find information that was damaging.

McCarthy's purge reached a peak in early 1954 and in March of the same year, Edward R. Murrow, a respected journalist took him on in his "See it Now" television program and McCarthy's grip of terror began to wane. Both political and public opinion began to shift from pro to anti-McCarthy tactics. In December he was censured although he remained in the senate. His power was gone. He died in 1957 of hepatitis, but many think his decline and slide into death began with the censure.

This certainly isn't the most comprehensive biography of McCarthy and that era, but it is readable and well written. For those interested in this time in history, the book has tidbits about Lyndon Baines Johnson (anti) and Richard Nixon's (pro)interaction with McCarthy--both became President.

Political discourse is so vile now that I specifically wanted to read this version of McCarthy's political career in order to refresh my memory about whether or not it has always been so. Were there any similarities with Senator Joe McCarthy's rise to power with what is happening today with a weak majority and a very vocal minority? How did he acquire such power and why didn't someone stand up to him much earlier than they did? And had the Democrats not taken over the majority so that McCarthy lost his power base, would he have damaged more lives?

This book is classified as juvenile nonfiction. It is well researched and well written. Mr. Giblin opens the book with a description of McCarthy's early life, then covers his first run for office and his subsequent campaigns. This was after WWII when communism was assumed to be akin to satan himself and it didn't seem to take McCarthy long to figure out that "fighting communism" would lead him to great power. No doubt there were some in this country who supported the communist party or who believed communism might be a superior form of government to our flawed democracy. But, and that is a big but, McCarthy knew the people he went after were probably not communists, especially once he turned his malice on the Army (or at least most of them were no danger to our government) but he simply didn't care. He wanted power at any cost. Finally, the book covers McCarthy's downfall. One would have to wonder how McCarthy himself thought he'd stay on top forever when he should have known he had built his house out of straw (or was lacking in intellegence otherwise)!!

It would seem there are two roads to power, doing the right thing OR just doing whatever it takes. I hope young people reading this book will give a great deal of thought to which path is superior. It does seem that those seeking power for flawed reasons usually do get their comeuppance just as McCarthy finally did. I also hope young people reading this book will consider the role the press plays in such matters (after all it's more entertaining to cover controversy than it is covering someone who prods through his/her days doing the right thing for our country or for humanity). I got from the book that it took awhile for many politicians who knew McCarthy was out of line to stand up to him because in the beginning he was so popular many of them did not want to risk any political backlash. So much for any profiles in courage back then!!

The author remained objective about McCarthy and this era but reading this book raised many questions for me. I highly recommend this book for juveniles and for adults who, like me, would not want to take the time to read a 500+ adult book to refresh their background on the politics of the McCarthy era.

ISBN 0618610588 - For ages 12 and up. I love history, particularly political history, so choosing to read this one was an easy pick. Joe McCarthy, a man who set some stunningly low bars for behavior in politics, has been something of the monster under the bed for a good portion of my life, so a chance to revisit his life story was one I was glad to take.

Born into a large, close knit, Irish farming family, Joe McCarthy seemed to aspire to something - almost anything - all the time. He temporarily skipped high school to pursue a career as a chicken farmer, a business he built himself and which was quite successful. When disaster struck and his business was destroyed, Joe picked himself up and carried on, a trait that would define him for most of the rest of his life. The self-made chicken farmer pursued various other jobs, all successful, until he settled on politics, almost by accident.

As Joe was growing into his role as a politician, the world was changing. When Joe was born, there was Imperial Russia. When he was a child, Soviet Russia was born and Communism was on the rise. When Joe met Communism, years later, there was already a great deal of fear in the US about Communism. Joe, who had already developed the habit of telling blatant lies about his opposition in local elections, took great advantage of that fear to get publicity and power for himself. As a senator, Joe pursued Communism wherever he saw it and he saw it everywhere, or claimed he did. As quickly as he rose, he fell. The country finally woke up to the fact that he was simply fearmongering and his fellow senators finally put a stop to his activities. For once, Joe didn't pick himself up and carry on. His health added to his problems and Joe died, an unredeemed drunk, probably of the effects of alcoholism. For a man whose career in the spotlight was stunningly short, Joe certainly made a long-lasting impression.

Author James Cross Giblin does a very good job of not extrapolating, most of the time. Rather than fall into the trap of trying to explain why McCarthy did things, Giblin simply tells the story of what he did, puts it in context and allows the reader to draw his/her own conclusions about McCarthy's motives. This, coupled with the author's fluid, clear, writing style, makes this book an excellent read for the intended audience of young adults. While the books does mention some hot-button topics (homosexuality, alcoholism), the target audience is old enough for those topics, particularly because they are handled somewhat delicately. There is very little bias, a tough task in a book about one of the most reviled men in American political history. The only negative, for me, was that McCarthy's wife Jean, who was at least as bad as her husband, wasn't much of a player in this telling. I appreciated Giblin's pointing out - more than once - that McCarthy had nothing to do with HUAC and that the author didn't waste time on the blackballing in Hollywood that that committee (not McCarthy) was part of. I couldn't help but find it amusing, but not at all surprising, that Greta Van Susteren's parents were early, and constant, supporters of McCarthy.

Surprisingly, adults who haven't got a great depth of knowledge about McCarthy will find this to be a worthwhile book, as well. The author didn't "dumb down" the telling, other than a couple definitions, so it's a good fit those who just want to brush up on McCarthy or fill in the educational gap, for those whose history books ended with WWII. Well worth reading, although very similar to Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy.

- AnnaLovesBooks