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Senator Joe McCarthy

Richard H. Rovere

3.76 · Rating details · 74 ratings · 17 reviews

The story of Senator Joseph McCarthy's rise to unprecedented power and the decline of his influence is a dramatic one. Richard Rovere documents the process by which a clever, power hungry individual came to mislead and manipulate members of Congress and the American public and to damage countless lives. A new foreword for this edition by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. places th ...more

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Paperback, 288 pages

Published April 12th 1996 by University of California Press (first published 1959)

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May 25, 2019 Christopher Saunders rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019-reads, red-scare-peekskill

One of the most influential books on Joe McCarthy, Richard Rovere's biography seems, somehow, both dated and valuable today. Certainly Rovere, a journalist who knew McCarthy well and covered his time in Washington, provides a valuable portrait of the climate of hysteria and recrimination wrought by McCarthy's charges; certainly he gives interesting views of McCarthy's personal style, a broad, bullying bonhomie that could be used to flatter or destroy colleagues, officials and reporters as he saw One of the most influential books on Joe McCarthy, Richard Rovere's biography seems, somehow, both dated and valuable today. Certainly Rovere, a journalist who knew McCarthy well and covered his time in Washington, provides a valuable portrait of the climate of hysteria and recrimination wrought by McCarthy's charges; certainly he gives interesting views of McCarthy's personal style, a broad, bullying bonhomie that could be used to flatter or destroy colleagues, officials and reporters as he saw fit. Yet Rovere often seems content to spin facile, simplistic views of McCarthy: he portrays him as a shallow opportunist with no interest in Communism, nor an understanding of what his actions wrought, manipulated by others (Catholic officials, conservative millionaires, anticommunist reporters) into a crusade that wasn't his. This is so shallow a depiction of its subject that it's barely worth remarking on after more thorough biographies by Herman, Oshinsky and Reeves; nor does Rovere's peddling long-debunked rumors about McCarthy's supposedly grim childhood (it was difficult, but hardly repressive) and alleged dishonesty as a Judge (ironically, the one time in McCarthy's career where he behaved honorably and honestly), or mouthing Drew Pearson's assertion that McCarthy flippantly grasped onto Communism after a chance conversation with some conservative backers. I don't make these comments to defend McCarthy, as odious a figure as American politics has produced, merely to assert that caricaturing the man affords us little understanding of him personally or why he was so successful. For that matter, Rovere offers little view of the Red Scare as a broader phenomenon; more than any other work, I suspect this one is responsible for the idea that the witch hunts were primarily McCarthy's responsibility and essentially vanished when he did. The book has marginal value today as an historical document, but it's still engaging and highly readable as an acid diatribe - an insight, more than anything, into liberal responses to McCarthy and how they shaped our later understanding of this era. ...more

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Jan 31, 2021 Cameron Holmes rated it it was amazing

Senator Joe McCarthy by Richard H. Rovere is essentially an essay that illustrates the negative actions that he took, and he then explains how he got to that point. It also shows how he was just a man, allowing people to show sympathy to the villain so to speak. It is a spectacular essay that shows the similarities and differences between demagogues such as Senator Joe McCarthy and common politicians. This book is a great essay that illustrates the actions of this demagogue and the effects of hi ...more

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Feb 07, 2014 Chris Gager rated it really liked it

Picked up last night off my own shelves while looking for something to read. I have SO MANY books that I've obtained in various ways and yet about half the books I read come from the local libraries! I wanted to read some non-fiction... I vaguely remember the Army-McCarthy hearings being on TV back in the day because my mother was glued to the tube watching them. Along with "The Guiding Light" and "Search for Tomorrow"...

Nowadays there's plenty of remnant McCarthyism about in the political worl ...more

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Jan 04, 2010 Paul Leddy rated it really liked it

The playbook that Joe McCarthy wrote in the 1950s is being played out in today's political arena. The book, which was written 2 years after McCarthy's death, builds the case that he was demagogue (one that, according to the Merriam Dictionary, "...makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power." McCarthy fed the flames of fear surrounding communism in the United States with blatant lies. He expertly worked the press to report stories that kept the sensationa ...more

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Mar 27, 2017 Jerry Wall rated it did not like it

he was condemned for conduct that tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute. p. 5
he was the first American ever to be actively hated and feared by foreigners in large numbers. p. 10
. . . the Chief Justice of the U. S. was probably right when he said that if the Bill of Rights were put to a vote, it would lose. p. 23
Thucydides . . . The meaning of words had no longer the same relation to things but was changed by them as they thought proper. Reckless daring was held to be courage, pr he was condemned for conduct that tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute. p. 5
he was the first American ever to be actively hated and feared by foreigners in large numbers. p. 10
. . . the Chief Justice of the U. S. was probably right when he said that if the Bill of Rights were put to a vote, it would lose. p. 23
Thucydides . . . The meaning of words had no longer the same relation to things but was changed by them as they thought proper. Reckless daring was held to be courage, prudent delay was the excuse of a coward; moderation was the disguise of unmanly weakness, to know everything was to do nothing. Frantic energy was the true quality of a man. . . . He who succeeded in a plot was deemed knowing, but a still greater master in craft was he who detected one. * * * His (McCarthy) tongue was loose and always wagging; he would say anything that came into his head and worry later, if at all about defending what he had said. Joseph Welch said he had something of a genius for creating confusion. p. 46
good at . . . leading the populace to mischief with empty words. p. 52
McCarthy's charges of treason, espionage, corruption, perversion are news which cannot be suppressed of ignored, Walter Lippmann once wrote. They come from a U. S. Senator and a politician in good standing at the headquarters of the Republican Party. When he makes such attavks agains the State Department and Defense Dept., it is news which has to be published. * * * because McCarthy was a true innovator, because he lied with an unprecedented boldness, because he invented new kinds of lies -- even those newspapers tht were willing to expose him found that they lacked the technical resources. p. 166
And he knew something even more arcane and delicate -- that we will take the symbols of the "established fact" for the fact itself. p. 167
I know of no sinner so quick to attribute his own sings to others. p. 171
. . . the conduct of the Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy, is contrary to Senatorial traditions and is hereby condemned. * * * . . . acted contrary to Senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity; and such conduct is hereby condemned. p. 230
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Nov 21, 2020 Andrew Figueiredo rated it really liked it

It's remarkable how relevant this book is today. Rovere, harshly critical of McCarthy, has an important perspective on a conviction-less, cynical demagogue with zero regard for the truth. What's conventionally taught about this figure masks just how crooked he was, from his county judgeship on up to the US Senate. In so doing, we miss a lot of McCarthyism's lessons for the current moment. While Rovere skipped connecting details, making sections of the book seem a little disjointed, it's one HELL ...more

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Sep 10, 2018 Rob Rains rated it really liked it

You could replace "McCarthy" with Trump for 80% of this book's description of the late-Senator and it would be just as relevant. Just the right amount of background on the subject without too much psycho-analyzing his methods and madness. Incredible detail of sustained graft and corruption and the way McCarthy used his limited means as the leader of a "weak" subcommittee to launch his red scare. Well worth a look. ...more

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May 30, 2020 Bronwyn Echols rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Riveting. Beautifully written, about a very ugly subject. Takeaway: we are living today in the era of the second coming of McCarthy--if not his person, his techniques, his tactics, his strategies, and his utter shamelessness driven by an amoral lust for glory without any redeeming principles. Call it Roy Cohn's legacy, and revenge . . . ...more

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Aug 03, 2020 Steve H rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, us-history

Interesting book. I didn't like more things than I liked. I don't think I'll read another one of
Rovere's books. I can't believe that a man like McCarthy could last as long as he did. But we have another today in Trump. I think our educational system has failed. ...more

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May 21, 2020 Marni rated it it was ok

I was going to click 'I liked it', but couldn't because the reporting of McCarthy's actions brought to mind Donald Trump too often. Well written book (published 1959) by a journalist of the day. ...more

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Dec 14, 2018 Peter rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography-autobiography, history-american, fascism

This was given to me by a friend who purchased it used at a bookstore established in 1970 in North Olmstead, Ohio.

What a read! This guy was a world class nut job. Unfortunately, while the initial detail about his life before he became famous is very interesting and told carefully, details about his actions during the height of his popularity are very thin. The writing, by a New Yorker contributor, is top shelf.

His made up facts, obfuscations and scaremongering put me in mind of a similar presen ...more

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Dec 01, 2009 Mk100 rated it it was amazing

This book was actually first published about 1959. Walter Lippman read the book and thought there was nothing left to be said about McCarthy. Rovere does surgery on McCarthy without anasthesia, and leaves no blood on the blade. Fascinating, penetrating and a reminder that demagoguery flows from many springs, and not just the spring of ambition. Conditions have to be right. A great book and still relevant.

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Aug 17, 2015 Kathy Petersen rated it really liked it

Shelves: x-feb-15-thru-jan-16, read-non-fiction

For reasons rather beyond my ken, I've always been fascinated by Joe McCarthy and the intense search of Communists. From this 21st century vantage point it all seems bizarre and obvious, but in his time he must have been really scary. A good, solid book with no attempt on Rovere's part to imitate any objectivity. ...more

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