Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy - Tapa blanda

"In this inclusive, impressive, deeply pondered and finely spun study, G. Edward White has provided a definitive analysis of the Hiss case. Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars should provide a welcome close to the controversy over this historic imbroglio."―Washington Times

"With its incisive analysis and readability, this is a worthwhile addition to the vast Hiss literature."―Publishers Weekly

"With his portrait of the man himself―as well as supporters, for whom almost no evidence was convincing―Mr. White has written the best book ever about Alger Hiss." ― Michael J. Ybarra, The Wall Street Journal

"White's painstakingly careful demolition of Hiss is not a casual read, but it will inveigle, and probably convince, most who are conversant with the case and its decades-long afterlife."―Booklist

"An extraordinary book, packed with information and fresh insights. Part detective story, part cultural history, part psychodrama―I couldn't put it down."―Cass Sunstein, author of Republic.Com

"What White accomplishes in this innovative and brilliant new book is not yet another attempt to show Hiss's guilt, but rather an examination of how Hiss was both a gifted Soviet agent and 'a successful publicizer of his innocence,' able to convince so many people.... It is the achievement of G. Edward White to have provided the final unmasking of Alger Hiss, and, one hopes, put an end once and for all to the campaign waged on the traitor's behalf."―Ronald Radosh, National Review

"An intriguing portrait of an enigmatic man who stood center stage during the most electrifying moments of the Cold War."―Library Journal

"If you accept Hiss's guilt, as most historians now do, you will profit from G. Edward White's supplementary speculations about why, after prison, that serene and charming man sacrificed his marriage, exploited a son's love and abused the trust of fervent supporters to wage a 42-year struggle for a vindication that could never be honestly gained."―Max Frankel, The New York Times Book Review

"A significant contribution to a subject that continues to fascinate Americans.... White presents an Alger Hiss with some depth and significance, a consummate spy who was able to maintain the facade of innocence for nearly half of his life."―New York Sun

"Should be the final and definitive history of the famous case. Brilliantly written and massively researched, White's deeply understanding analysis of Hiss's obsessive, life-long and at times almost successful efforts to repudiate the charge of treason should convince all but those to whom his innocence has become a matter of dogma."―Louis Auchincloss

For decades, a great number of Americans saw Alger Hiss as an innocent victim of McCarthyism―a distinguished diplomat railroaded by an ambitious Richard Nixon. And even as the case against Hiss grew over time, his dignified demeanor helped create an aura of innocence that outshone the facts in many minds.
Now G. Edward White deftly draws together the countless details of Hiss's life―from his upper middle-class childhood in Baltimore and his brilliant success at Harvard to his later career as a self-made martyr to McCarthyism―to paint a fascinating portrait of a man whose life was devoted to perpetuating a lie. White catalogs the evidence that proved Hiss's guilt, from Whittaker Chambers's famous testimony, to copies of State Department documents typed on Hiss's typewriter, to Allen Weinstein's groundbreaking investigation in the 1970s. The author then explores the central conundrums of Hiss's life: Why did this talented lawyer become a Communist and a Soviet spy? Why did he devote so much of his life to an extensive public campaign to deny his espionage? And how, without producing any new evidence, did he convince many people that he was innocent? White offers a compelling analysis of Hiss's behavior in the face of growing evidence of his guilt, revealing how this behavior fit into an ongoing pattern of denial and duplicity in his life.
The story of Alger Hiss is in part a reflection of Cold War America―a time of ideological passions, partisan battles, and secret lives. It is also a story that transcends a particular historical era―a story about individuals who choose to engage in espionage for foreign powers and the secret worlds they choose to conceal. In White's skilled hands, the life of Alger Hiss comes to illuminate both of those themes.