Cover image for A Generation on Trial : U.S.A. v. Alger Hiss.
A Generation on Trial : U.S.A. v. Alger Hiss.
Title:
A Generation on Trial : U.S.A. v. Alger Hiss.
Author:
Cooke, Alistair.
ISBN:
9781497639966
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (581 pages)
Contents:
Cover Page -- Title Page -- Contents -- Preface -- I. Remembrance of Things Past: The 1930's -- II. An International Episode: Summer, 1948 -- III. From an Accusation to an Indictment -- IV. The First Trial -- The Jury -- A Plea for Dismissal -- The Openings -- The Case for the Government -- The Documents -- The Case for the Defendant -- The Rebuttals -- The Summations -- Judge Kaufman's Charge -- The Verdict -- V. The Second Trial -- Judge, Jury, and Counsel -- The Conspiracy -- The Friendship -- The Characters of Hiss and Chambers -- The Typewriter and the Documents -- Judge Goddard's Charge -- The Verdict -- VI. The End of It -- VII. Epilogue -- Chronology -- Index -- About the Author -- Copyright Page.
Abstract:
The case that defined an infamous era, as reported by one of the twentieth century's most celebrated journalists In August 1948, a former Communist Party member named Whittaker Chambers testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee that a secret cell of Communists had infiltrated Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal administration. Chief among the conspirators, according to Chambers, was Alger Hiss, a former government attorney and State Department official who had taken part in the Yalta Conference and been instrumental in the creation of the United Nations. Hiss's categorical denial of the charges, which led Chambers to produce evidence linking both men to Soviet espionage, quickly escalated into one of the most divisive episodes in American history and ignited the widespread fear and paranoia of the McCarthy era. As the US correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, Alistair Cooke reported extensively on the Hiss affair. In an atmosphere that he memorably compares to that of a seventeenth-century religious war, Cooke maintained a clear head and his signature intellectual rigor. A Generation on Trial, which begins with a brilliantly succinct summary of the case-"We are about to look at the trials of a man who was judged in one decade for what he was said to have done in another"-is both a fascinating historical document and a stirring example of journalistic integrity.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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