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Alger Hiss: Why He Chose Treason Hardcover – April 17, 2012

by Christina Shelton (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 56 ratings
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A definitive and comprehensive biography of infamous Soviet spy Alger Hiss by a former U.S. Intelligence and analyst who confirms both Hiss’s guilt and how deeply the Soviets had infiltrated the government during and post WWII.

In 1948, former U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss was accused of being a Soviet spy. Because the statute of limitations on espionage had run out, he was convicted only of perjury. Decades later—after the Hiss trial had been long forgotten by most—archival evidence surfaced confirming the accusations: a public servant with access to classified documents had indeed passed crucial information to the Soviets for more than a decade.

Yet many on the American Left still consider Hiss an iconic figure—an innocent victim accused of unsubstantiated crimes. They prefer to focus on the collectivist ideals Hiss stood for, rather than confront the reality of a man who systematically and methodically betrayed his country.

Former U.S. Intelligence analyst Christina Shelton employs an in-depth knowledge of Soviet intelligence affairs as well as recently released Hungarian and KGB archival material to shine a fresh light on one of the most famous espionage cases. The story is dramatic, but Shelton’s analysis goes beyond sensationalism as she explores both the ideological motivation behind Hiss’s behavior and the lasting influence it has had on U.S. foreign policy.

Why exactly were the intellectual elite so deter-mined that Hiss was innocent? His accuser, Time magazine senior editor Whittaker Chambers—originally Hiss’s Soviet handler—presented compelling written evidence. However, the intelligentsia were intent on supporting one of their own. They ignored the facts, a willful blindness that helped contribute to a polarization still in place in our country today.

Thirty years of intelligence analysis gives Shelton the expertise to approach the story from many different angles, especially:

• Her persuasive argument that Communism and Fascism are not polar opposites, as has so long been claimed, but highly similar ideologies.

• How Hiss’s central role at the Yalta Conference and the founding of the United Nations are examples of the significance of Soviet intelligence recruitment of high-level Americans who could influence U.S. foreign policy in their favor.

• Why the silence surrounding the implications of Hiss’s espionage continues—and why apologists fear that smearing his name would undercut New Deal policies and the United Nations. Shelton doesn’t just detail the body of evidence pointing to Hiss’s guilt; she suggests new layers of meaning in light of the current political landscape.

Today, the importance of understanding Hiss’s ideological commitment has never been more vital. His advocacy of collectivism and internationalism still resonate among the political elite, making this book an important and timely analysis of American thought at this critical juncture in our country’s life.
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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Threshold Editions
  4. Publication date
    April 17, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1451655428
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1451655421
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A vigorous reappraisal of the Hiss-Chambers espionage affair, leaving no doubt of Hiss’s guilt.
The author makes a good case for the willful blindness practiced by pro-Hiss parties involved ...

A solid look at the specifics of the case as well as a useful overview of the ideological debate gripping America." --Kirkus

“A timely reminder that the worries about national security and loyalty—concerns often derided as paranoiac, right-wing delusions—were entirely justified.” —Wall Street Journal

"Rigorous and carefully documented analysis...[Alger Hiss] is a rare thing: a good book about an important subject. Shelton makes a sledgehammer of a case…a sustained artillery assault." --National Review

“ A much needed book... With clarity, conciseness, and a sure hand, Christina Shelton guides the reader through what has become an otherwise nearly impenetrable jungle of controversy.”” -- Tennent H. Bagley, author of Spy Wars


“In Alger Hiss: Why He Chose Treason, Christina Shelton ably captures the real Alger Hiss—his path to communism, his treason, and his conviction and imprisonment. Her evidence is overpowering: Alger Hiss was indeed a communist spy. Shelton carefully connects Hiss to his historical context inside America’s political elite, which was chagrined and strangely baffled when Hiss’s treason was exposed.” --Burton Folsom, Jr. and Anita Folsom, authors of FDR Goes to War

“Shelton makes clear what Hiss did and the impact it had on U.S. intelligence. . . . A well-done book written by someone who knows.”

—David Murphy, retired chief of Soviet operations at CIA HQ and author of What Stalin Knew

About the Author

Christina Shelton is a retired U.S. intelligence analyst. She spent twenty-two years working as a Soviet analyst and a Counterintelligence Branch Chief at the Defense Intelligence Agency. She has also been a staff analyst at various think tanks.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Threshold Editions; 1st Edition in this form. (April 17, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1451655428
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1451655421
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 56 ratings

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Christina Shelton

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
56 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book carefully researched, excellent, and unequivocally declarative. They describe it as a good, absorbing read that reads like a spy novel. Readers also praise the writing quality as well-written, gripping, and easy to read.

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12 customers mention "Research quality"12 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-researched, excellent, and unequivocally declarative. They say it's incredibly in-depth and well-written. Readers appreciate the admirable job of assembling all the evidence against Alger Hiss. They also describe the book as comprehensive and accurate.

"...She is refreshingly definitive and unequivocally declarative of Hisses' Communist convictions, his perjury and his treason...." Read more

"...Shelton does an admirable job of assembling all the evidence against Hiss. It isn't thrilling reading but it is comprehensive...." Read more

"...For the general reader, it is an excellent, short summary of the whole Case...." Read more

"I thought this book was well written, and carefully researched. It addressed opposing points of view in an objective manner...." Read more

9 customers mention "Readability"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable, absorbing, and well-written. They say it reads like a spy novel and is compelling.

"......" Read more

"This book is certainly worth reading...." Read more

"...In it's totality it is compelling...." Read more

"...It also reads like a spy novel, which should also be no surprise, except to the vulnerable activists on the left who still insist Hiss was framed..." Read more

3 customers mention "Writing quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the writing quality of the book well-written and easy to read.

"...'s book is accurately and well researched, yet most readable and concise...." Read more

"I thought this book was well written, and carefully researched. It addressed opposing points of view in an objective manner...." Read more

"Well-written, gripping, easy prose, and freed from political correctness. Most Republicans will like it betterthan most Democrats. For history buffs." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Roan Purgatory
5.0 out of 5 stars Alger Hiss was a Communist Traitor, no "Alleged" about it.
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2015
Verified Purchase
Christina Shelton has written the definitive book on the treasonous Alger Hiss. "Witness," Whittaker Chambers' autobiographical account of the His Perjury Trial was the excellent account from Chambers,' but was all too up-close and involved as his personal story. It didn't reveal the full extent of Alger Hisses' background and his deep Communist Conviction.
Christina Shelton's fine book fills in the missing information that allowed Hisses' admiring supporters and ever fawning media to chronically label Hiss as "the alleged" to the time of his death and still even today. Hiss was the suave, Harvard Lawyer, who worked for the New Deal's State Dept. He accompanied FDR to Yalta for the near end of the World War conference with Stalin and Churchill. This was the meeting that was to determine the spheres of influence and control for the post war world and for the United Nation's Charter. Hiss was the State Dept. adviser to FDR and a key author of the UN Charter. Hiss was also a devoted, ideological Communist, working for Stalin.
When Hisses' treason was exposed, it was denied, at the time, by some of the most influential members of the Truman Administration, academics and the press. Hiss was considered as one of them, by them. Hiss was accused of being a Soviet Communist Spy. He was! But he was able to honestly deny that he worked for the KGB. He didn't. Hiss was a spy for the GRU, Soviet Army Intelligence. This gave him and his supporters a dodge.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the KGB files were open, the Venona Intelligence Descriptions were declassified and 'fellow travelers' confessed, Hisses' treason was definitely exposed beyond doubt. However, true leftist believers never let go of the fiction of the innocence of Hiss.
Christina Shelton's book is accurately and well researched, yet most readable and concise. She is refreshingly definitive and unequivocally declarative of Hisses' Communist convictions, his perjury and his treason. Her book is pleasure to read especial after more than half a century of hearing a disdainful tone used in relation to Whittaker Chambers and his "pumpkin papers," HUAC and the McCarthy witch hunt used to support the fiction that Hiss was innocent (McCarthy was after the Hiss Trials and had nothing to do with him).
Christina Shelton's book is refreshing after decades of hearing misguided support for Hiss. This was long ago, but we are still dealing with the unfortunate aftermath from Soviet Spies and their dirty work. We still face problems, in part, of their creation with the UN, the former Soviet Bloc, Ukraine, the Middle East and China.
5 people found this helpful
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Jeffrey J. Ward
4.0 out of 5 stars Convicing Proof of Guilt of Alger Hiss
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2014
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This book is certainly worth reading. The author makes the point that fascism has much more in common with the communist left wing than it has in common with the democratic societies. She is far from the first to draw that conclusion. What I think the author misses, is that the Soviet international rhetorical support for the international proletariat hid their real agenda which was a new version of the old Russian imperialism. Like the National Socialists (Nazi party), the Russian communists were a national socialist party. The Comintern demanded subservience of all of the world's communists to decisions made in Moscow. Hiss was a traitor who served at a very high level, but his allegiance was to Moscow and not the international proletariat. The author rails against those in academia and I would add especially some in politics who refuse to admit that Hiss was a spy, including the former press secretary to Hillary Clinton, Karen Finney. She makes the same old McCarthyism arguments even though the Wisconsin Senator did not embark on his spies in high places crusade until after Hiss was convicted of perjury. The identity of Hiss as a spy has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt. In his 1998 book "Secrecy", then Democratic New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan points out that the evidence of spying by Hiss had been long known by the government based on classified secret documents, including the Venona Project, but kept secret for about 50 years. The question remains whether there needs to be a fundamental reassessment of the Franklin Roosevelt administration, not just because of Soviet spies in high places, but because of the high confidence FDR placed in unqualified people like Harry Hopkins. The really highly qualified professionals like George Kennan and Charles Bohlen were dismayed by the ineptitude of the Franklin Roosevelt administration in dealing with the Soviet Union. The first U S ambassador to the Soviet Union, appointed by FDR, William Bulitt, Jr, became completely disenchanted with the Stalin regime. He was later the U S ambassador to France and was warned by French intelligence shortly before the U S entered World War II that Alger Hiss was a spy. His successor as ambassador to Moscow was Joseph Davies whose only qualifications for being an ambassador were that he was an old chum and supporter of FDR and was married to the fabulously wealthy Marjorie Merriweather Post. He was completely bamboozled by Stalin's regime, attended one of the show trials and became convinced of the guilt of the accused even though he was a lawyer and should have known better. He was a willfully blind fellow traveler rather than a spy. Ambassador Davies was a complete embarrassment to professional diplomats and Soviet specialists including Charles Bohlen. So how great was the presidency of FDR? Roosevelt's support for Great Britain when it faced invasion and his somehat hidden agenda in preparing the United States for entry into Wotld War II secures his well deserved reputation as a great President. But the way the administration was run in the following years is the model of how not to run a presidential administration.
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richard mcconnel
5.0 out of 5 stars The most complete coverage and analysis of all evidence concerning Alger Hiss to date
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book is really a compendium of the evidence of active espionage over many years against Alger Hiss. As such it collects massive amounts evidence and cross references the various connections to show that the facts are corroborated by various sources. The book fills a definite need as it collects the evidence against Hiss from all the various sources and puts the interconnections in context - as such it is the "best" and most complete listing and analysis to date.The book also shows the extent of the spy rings operating in the executive level echelons of the government. This does not include the many operating in the various engineering projects, such as, the Manhattan Project (Nuclear bombs), electronics laboratories, etc during the 40's and 50's. Because the book is arranged so as to put all relevant data concerning various aspects of Hiss's actions, life, and testimony in separate sections, the text becomes repetitive in places. To those in these reviews that state that the author never answers the title question - I disagree - the author answers the question in Hiss's own words - I paraphrase - "I believed in world wide communism but I would not want to live under communism due to the lack of freedom". This is commonly referred to as hypocrisy and/or delusion. He lead two different lives and deceived everyone that knew him to the extent that many of those will not accept the truth of Hiss's deception to this day.
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Top reviews from other countries

DSCH
4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful book to "understand" treason.
Reviewed in Japan on July 18, 2024
Verified Purchase
Well written, quite readable for me - my mother language is not English.
There seems to be a huge gap between two factions, Hiss defenders and its opponents. The former often neglect "what" Hiss did, while the latter tends to miss the context "why" he became communist, because of too much enthusiasm on emphasising evilness of the communism.
One advantage of this book is that, as the book title shows, the author digs into the "why" aspect even though she is decisive about Hiss' treason. Owing to this attitude, the book provides insight on many aspects about Hiss other than his espionage, including his early life, family relationships and in-prison life etc.
Though I am not completely agree with the author, this book is very helpful to understand one espionage who chose treason under deep commitment of communism. One point which I disagree is the claim that two atomic bombs effectively caused Japanese surrender (written on the page 152). As a Japanese I have to say, with irony and sort of paradox, the most significant factor is not atomic bombs but Soviet invasion that crushed Japanese war effort finally. I suggest if you learn deeply on Japanese political and miritary situations at that time, you may understand this.
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O. G. M. Morgan
4.0 out of 5 stars Should be the Last Word
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2014
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Alger Hiss was a fraud, a spy and a traitor. The fraudulent part was the least of his failings. He pretended to be a patrician in America's supposedly classless society, which, of course, is anything but. There was no disgrace in coming from a humble background and using genuine ability to pursue a career closed off to previous generations of his family. American patricians, convinced Hiss was "one of them", queued up to give him character references, during the central period of his long life.

Hiss was also a spy, who betrayed his own country and Poland. When rumbled, he loudly protested his innocence. He was sunk by his own lies. Incredibly, the United States had a statute of limitations of just three years regarding espionage, so Hiss could be convicted only of perjury. He was so convicted, after two trials, and he served his term (reduced for good behaviour) and then spent the last four decades of his life protesting his innocence. Contrary, no doubt, to his expectations, those years saw revelations which made his guilt ever more evident: the testimony of Oleg Gordievsky; the Venona transcripts; Alexander Vassiliev; Hungarian secret archives.

Hiss was a passionate communist (along with his brother, Donald), through the very worst years of the Stalin regime. It's noticeable, but not altogether surprising, to see leftist "historians" defend him. The reality, as Christina Shelton observes, is that they see nothing to object to in his behaviour. Weirdly, they defend his espionage, which clearly took place, by supposedly justifying his politics, while simultaneously insisting that the spying never happened. Hiss flip-flopped about his communism, denying that he had ever been a party member at various times, but conceding that, after all, he had been, when that seemed socially acceptable.

Shelton makes clear that Hiss was a dreadful man, who became a communist at a time of extreme repression in the new soviet union and remained devoted to Stalin throughout the dictator's atrocities. His nemesis was Whittaker Chambers, whom Hiss ironically miscalculated. A former communist spy himself, Chambers, unlike Hiss, hadn't groomed himself to pass himself off as a natural member of the elite (when they met in court, Hiss and his lawyers would openly disparage the appearance of Chambers). Shelton emphasizes, however, the problem for Hiss: Hiss was pretty clever, but Chambers outstandingly so.

Members of the Washington DC upper class lined up to give testimonials for Hiss at his trials, but Shelton points out that several men who had employed Hiss, during the period of his espionage, refused outright to provide character references.

This is a very good book. Shelton stresses, a few times, that she isn't trying to re-capitulate all of the mountain of evidence about Hiss. That may be the only failing. If you check the very numerous footnotes, Mr (or Ms) Ibid is rather prominent and that is why I give this only four stars. Christina Shelton has collated a large range of sources, however, and writes very well. Anyone continuing to declare Alger Hiss innocent has to be utterly desperate now.
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