No Sense of Decency: The Army-McCarthy Hearings: A Demagogue Falls and Television Takes Charge of American Politics [Hardcover]

Robert Shogan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2009

"Have you no sense of decency, sir?" asked attorney Robert Welch in a climactic moment in the 1954 Senate hearings that pitted Joseph R. McCarthy against the United States Army, President Dwight Eisenhower, and the rest of the political establishment. What made the confrontation unprecedented and magnified its impact was its gavel-to-gavel coverage by television. Thirty-six days of hearings transfixed the nation. With a journalist's eye for revealing detail, Robert Shogan traces the phenomenon and analyzes television's impact on government. Despite McCarthy's fall, Mr. Shogan points out, the hearings left a major item of unfinished business—the issue of McCarthyism, the strategy based on fear, smear, and guilt by association.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Former Newsweek and Los Angeles Times political correspondent Shogan ... persuasively argues that the famous 1954 confrontation had a transformative effect on the nascent medium of television. ... His critiques remain sharp in the historical context of the '50s." --Kirkus Reviews, November 2008

About the Author

Robert Shogan, a former prizewinning national political correspondent for Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times, has also written Backlash: The Killing of the New Deal; Bad News; Constant Conflict; Hard Bargain; Riddle of Power; The Fate of the Union; and The Battle of Blair Mountain. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee; 1St Edition edition (February 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566637708
• ISBN-13: 978-1566637701
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,283,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast moving history, July 22, 2009

By 

Thomas Paul (Plainview, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Sense of Decency: The Army-McCarthy Hearings: A Demagogue Falls and Television Takes Charge of American Politics (Hardcover)

In the Spring of 1954, Senator Joe McCarthy was one of the most feared men in Washington. In the Summer of 1954, McCarthy had lost his power and no one was afraid of him. What happened in between was the Army-McCarthy hearings and why the hearings changed everything was because they were on TV. For thirty-six days, America got to see Joe McCarthy and what they saw they didn't like. His fall from grace in the eyes of America gave the Senate the nerve to censure him.

This is the story of those hearings but more it is the story of how television changed the world. The book starts with an introduction to McCarthy and how he came to power by using accusations of communism without actually finding any communists. It also introduces us to how early television covered the news and how the first televised Congressional hearings (the Kefauver organized crime hearings) changed how the public viewed Congress. But all this leads to a detailed look at the Army-McCarthy hearings and how McCarthy's massive ego led to his downfall.

The book is very well written by a journalist turned historian. Far from a dry historical outlook, the book is written as a fascinating, fast moving (less than 300 pages) view of a few short months of American history. Shogan then ties those events to today showing how TV news has and hasn't changed through Vietnam, Watergate, and 9/11. I can recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a review, but a comment, January 10, 2011

By 

historybuff - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Sense of Decency: The Army-McCarthy Hearings: A Demagogue Falls and Television Takes Charge of American Politics (Hardcover)

The famous and damning words directed to Joseph McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency?" were not spoken by Robert Welch, as stated in the product review, but by Joseph N. Welch. Robert Welch was a far-right conservative who founded the John Birch Society. Joseph N. Welch, a life-long Republican, was a partner at Hale and Door law firm in Boston.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars better books around, August 31, 2011

By 

D. Reed - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Sense of Decency: The Army-McCarthy Hearings: A Demagogue Falls and Television Takes Charge of American Politics (Hardcover)

Ultimately, Joseph McCarthy turned out to be right. You can see the names and the deeds openly in John Stormer's None Dare Call It Treason. McCarthy was squelched and smeared, the insiders kept their game gong, every president since Wilson has kept Communists (or Mae Brussell called them Nazi's) in the inner circles of VIP positions, regardless of party affiliation and they have succeeded, they have destroyed our country (our very world)and today, the public looks around and says "What happened?" We have been asleep. Another good one is None Dare Call It Education, (Stormer)and another is En Route To Global Occupation (Gary Kah). Finally, bringing it together, disregarding party labels because those are distractions, The World's Last Dictator by Kinman, shows us what the grand plan is, was and is hurtling toward. The goals are almost complete and the world is almost ready to accept her antichrist.