Witness - Whitaker Chambers

[Tim Steelersfan]

I've had too many friends and colleagues tell me about this book, and I've not read it. Who here has?

I buckled down and bought it tonight. I'm anxious to get into it. Just the prefaces are fantastic. I've been told it's a life changing read. And scary. It speaks to how modern Socialism is Communism. How Liberalism then is just as sinister as it is now.

For instance, from the Foreword:

"Witness was a bestseller when it was published by Random House in 1952. But Random House was uncomfortable with the book. Whittaker Chambers was a bete noire of the liberal establishment, while the man he fingered as a Soviet spy, Alger Hiss, was a liberal cause celebre. So Random House allowed the book to slip silently away. We acquired the rights in the mid-sixties and have kept it in print ever since."

Alger Hiss isn't taught in schools. But Richard Nixon is. Richard Nixon was a Congressman at the time who championed this trial and was the main reason Chambers got his day in court and Hiss rotted away in prison.

Liberals LOVED Hiss. A Soviet spy in our own Government.

What happened then still happens today. The parallels uncanny. Can't wait to dive in.

If you've read this, drop your thoughts here.

 

[Steeltime]

Amazon, and ten seconds later in my queue. Will read soon and share thoughts.

 

[BLITZ]

please let us know how you like it. I almost bought it last year but didn't.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

Some teaser cuts from the Forewords. One written by William F. Buckley, another (and the better) from Robert Novak

From Buckley:

From Bob Novak:

This, the whole page, especially the last full paragraph.

"He views this struggle as inseparable from faith in God, asserting that "man without mysticism is a monster." He goes on to assail liberals as sharing with Communists "a similar vision" of man without God and indeed sharing complicity with them."​