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Witness

Whittaker Chambers,

William F. Buckley Jr. (Introduction),

Robert D. Novak (Introduction)

4.37 · Rating details · 1,944 ratings · 263 reviews

First published in 1952, Witness was at once a literary effort, a philosophical treatise, and a bestseller. Whittaker Chambers had just participated in America's trial of the century in which Chambers claimed that Alger Hiss, a full-standing member of the political establishment, was a spy for the Soviet Union. This poetic autobiography recounts the famous case, but also r ...more

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Paperback, 808 pages

Published August 1st 1987 by Regnery Publishing (first published January 1st 1952)

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Nov 02, 2011 Kristen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013, nonfiction, memoir

Witness is the autobiography of Whittaker Chambers who grew up on Long Island, joined the communist party in 1925, and later worked as an agent in the underground in Washington DC. He defected from the party in 1937, due to a mixture of factors including his spiritual conversion to Christianity, his horror at Stalin's purges, and the night he "heard the screams echoing from Moscow." He realized that communism "is evil, absolute evil. Of this evil I am a part." He immediately went into hiding wit Witness is the autobiography of Whittaker Chambers who grew up on Long Island, joined the communist party in 1925, and later worked as an agent in the underground in Washington DC. He defected from the party in 1937, due to a mixture of factors including his spiritual conversion to Christianity, his horror at Stalin's purges, and the night he "heard the screams echoing from Moscow." He realized that communism "is evil, absolute evil. Of this evil I am a part." He immediately went into hiding with his family, fearing for his life.

Ten years later, Chambers testified in the now famous Alger Hiss trials in an attempt to expose the infiltration of communism into the US government.

This book was complex and overwhelming in ideas and heart. I highly recommend it. Although a page turner, some of the book is tedious. It is clear that Chambers wanted to present his case as thoroughly and as detailed as possible. He wrote the book right on the heels of the Hiss trial where he had been demonized by the press. (Some things never change.)

The poignant foreword of the book is in the form of a letter to his two children. The very existence of these children might be seen as a miracle. The communist party viewed children as a distraction at best and a hindrance at worst. Abortion was commonplace in party life. But when Chamber's wife became pregnant she could not go through with it. She explained, "we couldn't do that awful thing to a little baby, not to a little baby, dear heart." Chambers wrote that a wild joy swept over him.

In the foreword, Chambers describes this book as "a terrible book. It is terrible in what it tells about men. If anything, it is more terrible in what it tells about the world in which you live." The purpose of writing the book, he continued, was to try to make clear to his children and to the world the true nature of Communism and the source of its power. In 800 pages, I think Chambers pretty much covers it.

What I learned from this book:
1. Communism appeals to the human mind when people believe it's necessary to change the world. They want to fix the injustices and rid the world of sorrow. This, of course, is impossible and only destroys the agency of man. Therefore, it undermines the purpose of this life. This might explain why various siblings of communist thought continue to gain traction today. Personally for Chambers, it was the schoolyard bullies, his strange neglectful father, and his brother's suicide that led him to embrace communism.

2. The problem with communism (and socialism) is the principle of forced virtue. Like I mentioned before, it limits the agency of man. Furthermore, the Communist vision is the vision of Man without God. However, God alone is the guarantor of freedom, not man therefore communism is against the laws of God.

3. Communism is evil at its core. Once a friend of mine expressed the often prevailing idea that the principles of communism at the basic level were good, righteous even, but men, in their fallacy and desire for power, could never execute (no pun intended) the principles correctly. Chambers refutes this idea forcefully. He writes that the fascist, murderous character of communism is inherent from the beginning and the fruits of mass starvation etc. only discloses its real character. Once again the reason is the rejection of God. Because of this, communism can justify any means for the end.

4. History has been warped and rewritten to undervalue the fact that communism forces had penetrated the US government to an alarming degree. In school, I remember the focus on McCarthyism and the "witch hunts." Only later did I understand the infiltration at the highest levels of our government. They did pose a great threat to our country. In that regard, McCarthy was correct.

Chambers is a flawed character but his gift for language and the terrible insights infused with hope are some of the most powerful ideas I've read in a long time. Chambers leaves this for his kids: "True wisdom comes from the overcoming of suffering and sin. All true wisdom is therefore touched with sadness."

Amen. ...more

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Oct 21, 2007 Ben rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: favorites

If you hate politics, if you loathe old Cold War battles, if you have no interest in any of such things, you should still pick up this book. It is more eloquent and moving than anything you will ever read on the subject. And if you still do not believe me, then pick it up, and read the chapter entitled "The Child."

My wife ran over to me, took my hands, and burst into tears. ��Dear heart,�� she said in a pleading voice, ��we couldn��t do that awful thing to a little baby, not to a little baby ...more

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Nov 18, 2007 Conrad rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history

Witness, which treats the truth like a part-time mistress, is a masterpiece of evasion and embellishment, a perfect portrait of neurosis, and at the same time a hyperarticulate tale of religious conversion and helpless do-gooding. I suspect that some on the left still bother to revile Whitaker Chambers because they see him as a patsy for the Nixons and McCarthys of the world, an opportunistic imprisoner of innocents, and neglect the vortex of self-doubt and mystery that remains at the center of Witness, which treats the truth like a part-time mistress, is a masterpiece of evasion and embellishment, a perfect portrait of neurosis, and at the same time a hyperarticulate tale of religious conversion and helpless do-gooding. I suspect that some on the left still bother to revile Whitaker Chambers because they see him as a patsy for the Nixons and McCarthys of the world, an opportunistic imprisoner of innocents, and neglect the vortex of self-doubt and mystery that remains at the center of this, his autobiography.

Chambers was the man who fingered Alger Hiss and prompted a lot of the Red Scare by persuading The Powers That Be that the State Department was riddled with Communists. Not just any Communists, not just functionaries and toadies and fellow travelers, but malevolent pathological liars with a dirty secret desire to destroy the United States. The twist was that he could identify these people because he had been one of them! Whitaker's story goes that after serving for years as a loyal Red he suffered a crisis of conscience after hearing of Stalin's treaty with Hitler. He describes furtive meetings with the leaders of other sleeper cells; drop point procedures for communications with higher ups; procedures for smuggling NKVD agents into the U.S.; his guilt at finding real friendship with Government employees upon whom he spied under orders from Moscow. He describes Alger Hiss as a true believer who would have done anything to bring down the Republic, and who influenced Roosevelt to take it a little easier on Stalin than he should have.

There are a lot of things wrong with Chambers' story, but perhaps not so much as his detractors purport. Chambers was a closeted homosexual, a compulsive cruiser who conveniently omitted this aspect of his life from his own autobiography. Who can blame him, though? Alger Hiss's guilt or innocence does not hang on Chambers' sexual practices. Knowing this about Chambers does plant a seed of doubt in the reader's mind, since Chambers describes his marriage in such minute detail. Chambers spent the ass-end of his life insisting to anyone that would listen that Moscow had high-level plants in the American government. He also benefited personally and professionally from his denunciations. But the level of detail when Chambers describes how Stalin personally ordered the liquidation of Trotsky's supporters within the CPUSA is too exacting to have been invented out of thin air.

People will argue until the end of memory over whether Alger Hiss was really a Communist agent, though the newly uncovered evidence detailed in The Mitrokhin Archive would seem to indicate that he was. It is much to its detriment that the Left in America still has such trouble reconciling anti-Stalinism with its own criticisms of American capitalism, and it's likewise to our detriment that we liberals still dismiss Chambers out of hand. Personally, I think we should admire Chambers' early commitment to social justice as well as his rejection of Communism over the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

But all that aside, Witness's literary qualities make it well worth reading, and Chambers is a textbook example of unreliable narration, no less than the narrators of Cheever's story "Goodbye, My Brother" or Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills. My heart broke when I read about the author's awful childhood, and I cheered him on as he found a measure of inner peace with the Quakers. When he praises Richard Nixon for his zeal and humility, the book left me wondering: don't good people sometimes ally themselves with bad people for good reasons? But isn't that exactly what Molotov probably told himself, too? There are no conclusive answers in this most slippery of stories. And however you feel about Hiss, McCarthyism, or Communism, no one doubts the eloquence or intelligence of this book's voice. ...more

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Jun 12, 2009 G.M. Burrow rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography, history

My mom told me for years that I would love this book. She also said that, as a writer, I would be underlining every other word. Whittaker Chambers doesn't simply have an astounding story to tell (ex-Communist turned Quaker turned Time editor turned key witness in the earthquaking Alger Hiss case), but he has the gift to tell it profoundly well. It's almost impossible to overrate this 800-page monster. It does exactly what Chambers wanted it to do:

"In this book... I am leading you... up and up a ...more

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Jun 13, 2007 Richard rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone

the most poetic, eloquent and compelling book i've ever read. a must read. a narrative on human nature, strength, weakness, vulnerability, and what may or may not be inevitable. but also exciting. a biography written in the first-person by a man of incredible humility, wisdom, compassion and love for his family, mankind and the world. i am lucky to have read this book. it's not religious at all but for me a religious experience no doubt. eye-opening. and i'm not easily stirred. can't recommend e ...more

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Mar 16, 2009 Kristi rated it it was amazing

I usually do not finish an 800-page book and wish it were longer. I usually don't even read 800-page books (especially these days!), but I devoured Witness. I've heard that some conservatives have found Witness very influential in the development of their own beliefs, and it articulately and persuasively denounces Communism -- just as important, though, it's also a fascinating read. (World magazine put it in its top 10 most influential books of the 20th century re: Christian worldview.)

Witness I usually do not finish an 800-page book and wish it were longer. I usually don't even read 800-page books (especially these days!), but I devoured Witness. I've heard that some conservatives have found Witness very influential in the development of their own beliefs, and it articulately and persuasively denounces Communism -- just as important, though, it's also a fascinating read. (World magazine put it in its top 10 most influential books of the 20th century re: Christian worldview.)

Witness is a true-life spy story, detailing Chambers' work for the US Communist party and on behalf of the Soviet Union in the 1930s. I was amazed to learn that Communists had infiltrated the US govt at a high level -- State Dept and other federal agencies -- and not only committed espionage but also influenced US domestic policy such as the New Deal. Hmm, I remember learning only that the Red Scare was overblown and mostly affected harmless intellectual Communists like writers and Hollywood types. This book showed me that one of the successes of the Communist movement here was to seem harmless (and for its opponents to look like cranks).

Witness also shows, through its detailed account of Chambers' experience as a Communist, how evil Communism is -- anti-life, anti-love, anti-truth, etc. I knew Communism was evil, but the story Chambers tells puts flesh on this truth. Chambers rightly feared for his life (and his wife and children) when he quit working for the Communists.

Witness describes Chambers' journey from darkness to light -- first, his disillusionment with Communism; then, his becoming a Christian. Chambers includes autobiographical background info, including his childhood, so he is a fleshed-out character in the book. His integrity, willingness to suffer for the truth, and moral fiber make him an attractive figure.

All these aspects support the book's theme, i.e. how Chambers was a witness -- a witness to the truth of the Christian faith; the witness whose testimony led to Alger Hiss's imprisonment; a prophetic witness too, whose experience warns us now of the dangers of the socialist drift our government policies are taking. I started reading this book thinking it would be historically interesting -- didn't realize how relevant its message would be to current affairs. I could go on but this is long enough! ...more

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Oct 11, 2007 Paul rated it it was amazing

Perhaps the greatest work of political biography of the 20th century. Chambers spent many years in the Communist underground in Baltimore, supporting a cell of spies and subversives. Eventually he came to the Cross and escaped the despair of the Communist enterprise. His testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities exposed the depth of the Communist penetration of American institutions, and led eventually to the perjury conviction of Alger Hiss, then a respected diplomat, once ...more

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Feb 16, 2018 ALLEN rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: People with an interest in US History or well-written autobiographies

Shelves: reviewed

Whittaker Chambers was an American original. Surely this author, journalist and reformed Soviet spy is the only person to have received both the Order of the Red Star from Moscow (1931) and, in 1984, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan. Few observers have been exposed to the Twentieth Century in all its raw vicissitudes the way Chambers was: the shift from rural to urban living, the sharp left turn among privileged American undergraduates from complacency to Bolshevism, the miri ...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Brian Albrecht rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, faith

Is a book that is over 50 years old worth reviewing? Yes. Because it is timeless and if this review provokes one person to read it, I will have done something good.

Whittaker Chambers was called to be a witness, both for something and against something. Early in his life, he was called to be a witness against the modern world and for communism.Here is a man who was desperate to fix the problems of the modern age. For a while in Chambers’ life, Marxism/Leninism/Communism was his answer and he devo ...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Vivian rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biographies

I have to rate this five stars because of its power to change minds and thus change lives. I began "reading" it by asking my library to obtain the audio edition through inter-library loan. I got half-way through before having to return it. I then picked up my library's re-bound copy and found myself scribbling notes and page numbers on both sides of two bookmarks. I am glad the audio got me through the background and the book got the ideas through me.

Chambers is an apt and intelligent writer. He I have to rate this five stars because of its power to change minds and thus change lives. I began "reading" it by asking my library to obtain the audio edition through inter-library loan. I got half-way through before having to return it. I then picked up my library's re-bound copy and found myself scribbling notes and page numbers on both sides of two bookmarks. I am glad the audio got me through the background and the book got the ideas through me.

Chambers is an apt and intelligent writer. He was good friends with James Agee (who I put among the most genius of American writers)and other key thinkers of his time, which helped place him at Time Magazine during its years with Henry Luce at the helm.

Chambers was a Communist by conscience during the turbulent 1920's and 1930's and then conscientiously abandoned Communism in the mid 1930's with his wife and children. He later became a key witness under subpeona for the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the late 1940's. He had met ten years earlier with a fairly high-ranking government official and disclosed to him all the information he had at the time relating to espionage. He expected to be arrested but nothing ever came of it. Years later he learned the information had been disclosed privately to FDR who chose not to take any action.

Chambers' work in court and with typewriter was to witness FOR Christianity rather than against Communism. At one point he relates a conversation he had with another defector. This man said something to the effect that one is either a Revolutionary or a Counter-revolutionary. He meant by "revolutionary" one who is on the side of Communism and by "counter-revolutionary" one who is not. In other words, if you are not actively engaged in the counter-revolution you are actually in the camp of the revolutionary.

I had to think of this in terms of the war that is now taking place-- the war of Cosmic Humanist, Secular Humanist, and Judeo-Christian ideology in the minds and lives of the inhabitants of this planet. The revolutionary is the Secular Humanist and the counter-revolutionary is the Judeo-Christian. Cosmic Humanism, no doubt, has always been somewhat of a sub-current (as I understand it).

Chambers is most well-known as the person who informed on Alger Hiss, citing and providing evidence that Hiss was engaged in espionage (for which he could not now be tried due to the statute of limitations). Hiss, on his part, was a key player at Yalta and at the inception of the United Nations and very deeply imbedded in many departments of government. He had all the "friends", legal counsel, money, reputation, intelligencia, media, and public opinion on his side. Chambers had no money, initially no legal counsel, very little media and public, etc. on his side. And yet the legal battle stretched over several years, with even Pres. Truman calling Chambers a "red herring".

When Chambers broke with Communism he attempted to persuade Hiss to break as well. His former friendship with Hiss and his family made him reluctant to publicly cite Hiss's and other's espionage involvement.

Wikipedia articles on Chambers and on Hiss contain discrepancies and also expose disturbing flaws in Chambers' days with Communism and assert that Hiss claims to the end of his long life to have been innocent of all charges.

...more

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May 31, 2011 Jason rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction, autobiography, favorites

This is a heavy book. (Having read the Kindle version, I don't mean physically, though the physical book would be that as well.) Whittaker Chambers is a serious man who lived by choice through serious events. He powerfully wrote about them in 1951 shortly after his part in them concluded. In this autobiography, Chambers recounted his unhappy childhood, his search for meaning in the "crisis of history" that led him to communism, his underground work for the Communist Party, the confrontation betw ...more

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May 05, 2012 D.M. Dutcher rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classic, nonfiction

Amazing biography of a man who lead a pretty bleak childhood and fell in with the Communist Party in the 1930s. Eventually he couldn't stand it any more, and not only fled it, he was willing to testify against it.

I don't think any work of fiction could do the same subject justice. Just the record of purges, people just up and disappearing, ending up dead, or being spirited away to the USSR are sobering, but the quiet psychological moments are even worse. Paranoia, pettiness, private pain, blind ...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Ben rated it did not like it

ooh boy - what I hunk of junk this thing is.

790 pages of Chambers's pathetic mewling makes it easy to understand, even for those of us who weren't there, why so many people assumed he was dishonest. My copy includes rave reviews from Ronald Reagan, Robert Novak, George Will...that's about right.

Chambers is a true believer in every sense and at every point. He is obsessed with belief, with giving himself completely to a cause or a truth. he was driven to communism not by any reasoned interpreta ...more

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Jun 14, 2020 Aberdeen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, biographies, 5-stars, classics, non-fiction, religion

There were other, less hazardous ways of disengaging myself from the Communist party. I could, possibly, have had myself transferred, on one pretext or another, from the underground to the open Communist Party—such transfers are not uncommon. Once back in the open party, after a suitable period of shuffling, I could have gradually lapsed from it. But such a course would have meant some agreement, some kind of hobbling terms, between the Communist party and me. I wanted no terms. I deliberately d ...more

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Nov 25, 2014 Michael rated it it was amazing

Sometimes, very rarely, a book can profoundly change your perspectives. Witness is one of those books; it is biography, political history, spy thriller and philosophy. Chambers is a compelling writer and it is difficult to put the book down. Without such great writing, the book's impact would certainly have been blunted. The book gets to the heart of the matter by what Chambers calls the "tragedy of history." As an avid historian and political thinker, I had never before truly grasped the confli ...more

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Feb 25, 2014 Ben rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, politics, american-history, biography

Come for a riveting blow by blow retelling of essential American history and stay for the profound political, philosophical, and spiritual insights. In our day and age Chambers' insight is essential. Trying to separate faith and politics as we so often do is foolhardy and ultimately impossible because what we have faith in determines or should determine our politics. Chambers' simple but elegant analysis of the problem of modernity is that modern man chooses faith in almighty man rather than fai ...more

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May 31, 2012 Daniel Freedman rated it really liked it

"Witness" should be a mandatory read for anyone interested in politics. It is a bit dated, but it reveals how the Communists worked infiltrating the power structure of the United States. Some of the revelations are really shocking. I think all governments are corrupt but the Communists took it all to a dispassionate art form.
I worked on a Kibbutz in Israel, which had Communist beginnings. There is a need in humans to belong to a group and the comfort of having others share your experiences is s ...more

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Aug 03, 2008 Ann rated it it was amazing

This political biography of one of the most controversial Soviet spies in American history is so EXCELLENT. The intrigues and subversive plots and plans that he chronicles from the time he was involved in the Communist underground are some of the best "spy" material ... While Chambers held to hard core Communist ideals at the beginning of his life, he found that it eventually led to disillusionment and despair. His search for the truth led him to Christianity and the desire to sound the alarm to ...more

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Jun 08, 2016 Peter Bradley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Please give my review a helpful vote at http://www.amazon.com/review/R3EDW9AE...

The Alger Hiss case has always been a part of my background knowledge, but nothing more than that. I graduated from High School in 1977. I remember my history teacher sharing an anti-HUAC chant that he participated in during the 1950s. I knew that Whittaker Chambers was a seedy, homosexual, drunken psycho and that Nixon was involved in some kind of publicity seeking chicanery. I also knew that the question of whether ...more

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Jan 03, 2016 Frank Stein rated it really liked it · review of another edition

There was much that was unfashionable about this memoir when it was published in 1952, and much that will forever damn it to tastemakers. It praises the House Un-American Activities Committee for its work unearthing Communists, and celebrates its member Richard Nixon as the "kindest of men." It also engages in extended soliloquies on the wonders of Christianity, the nature of God, and the futility of atheism. The New Deal is attacked as a stalking horse for Communism.

Whatever one thinks of these There was much that was unfashionable about this memoir when it was published in 1952, and much that will forever damn it to tastemakers. It praises the House Un-American Activities Committee for its work unearthing Communists, and celebrates its member Richard Nixon as the "kindest of men." It also engages in extended soliloquies on the wonders of Christianity, the nature of God, and the futility of atheism. The New Deal is attacked as a stalking horse for Communism.

Whatever one thinks of these sentiments, the reader of this book is early on forced to confront two facts: first, that the author, Whittaker Chambers, was correct, factually and morally, to expose a massive underground Communist conspiracy that once permeated the government. Second, that Chambers is a supremely gifted writer. In a less partisan world, this would be enough to make make this book essential reading in the literary and historical canon.

The book centers around the famous legal battle between Chambers and former State Department panjandrum Alger Hiss, which began in August 1948 when Chambers claimed he worked with and befriended Hiss as part of the Communist underground in 1930s Washington. Chambers also named a slew of others who worked with or for him, from Nathan Witt, secretary of the National Labor Relations Board; to Lee Pressman, government lawyer and general counsel for the CIO; to Henry Collins, of numerous Senate committees; to Victor Perlo, of the National Recovery Administration and Brookings Institute; to Harry Dexter White, creator of the IMF; along with many others. Most of those charged by Chambers took the fifth amendment, but Hiss, then head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, had already testified that he was never a member of the Communist Party, and fought back. He sued Chambers for libel. Hiss was too central in too many recent Democratic achievements to throw to the Republican wolves, and he attracted broad support. Hiss had helped create the UN, and was a central drafter of the agreements at Yalta and Potsdam with Stalin and Churchill. When Chambers finally produced a series of secret State Department documents from Hiss and others to show that not only had Hiss been a Communist but that he had spied for the Soviet Union, Hiss was convicted of perjury.

Much of the enlightened world never forgave Chambers, but in the fullness of time, with recent Soviet archives releases, we've learned that he was right. Hiss and others were almost certainly spies for the Stalinist government. One would be hard-pressed to read this book, however, and believe that Chambers was telling anything but the truth, since he shows how hard-won that truth was.

Despite the supposed allure of Soviet espionage, the best parts of the book are the stories of Chambers's tragic childhood: of his peripatetic womanizing father, of his depressed brother who eventually killed himself, and of his mad grandmother whose violent outbursts tormented his house. The Communist Party to Chambers seemed to offer the only release from the tragic tenor of his life and of his times. When a party central committee member named Max Bedacht tried to recruit Chambers from "The Daily Masses" newspaper to the underground, Chambers took to it as a further relief from the internecine squabbles ("the Lovestone-Foster" battle) and interminable propaganda of the regular party. He eventually headed up a large policy and espionage ring in Washington, where he had members steal documents and then had them photographed, developed and microfilmed in safe houses around the area. He broke with the Party as the full terror of Stalin and the violent methods of even the American Communists became clear in 1938. Ten years later, at the beginnings of the Hiss circus, he had made himself a respected and well-paid editor at Time Magazine, although he already attracted animus for his fierce anti-Communism.

There is much that is troublesome about this book. The spy sections devolve into a series of short character sketches, often included just to provide "witness" to the extent of Communist subversion. Almost one hundred pages are taken up by only faintly edited transcripts of the House Committee testimonies of Chambers and Hiss, detailing such things as their overlapping gas leases and auto titles. In the final part of the book, Chambers seems to lose his bearings entirely as he describes his life fall apart under the media scrutiny. The book devolves into a series of rambling ruminations on life, freedom, God, and Communism. On the whole, the book would have been much improved with 400 fewer pages. Still, I tore through all of it. In the end, I remain most impressed by Chambers's ability to celebrate, against his own nature, his truest act of courage, which happened to be informing on an old and obviously dear friend. ...more

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Mar 29, 2016 Kay Mercuro rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016

The most intriguing book I have read. Mr. Chambers lays out the good and the bad both of himself and the Communist infiltration of our government in many places but especially of high places next to the president. Once Mr. Chambers' eyes were opened to the evil of Communism he had to remove himself from all possibilities of being assassinated by the underground network. When he finally tried to get Alger Hiss to leave the Communist Party too because he was his friend, this failed. Later he went The most intriguing book I have read. Mr. Chambers lays out the good and the bad both of himself and the Communist infiltration of our government in many places but especially of high places next to the president. Once Mr. Chambers' eyes were opened to the evil of Communism he had to remove himself from all possibilities of being assassinated by the underground network. When he finally tried to get Alger Hiss to leave the Communist Party too because he was his friend, this failed. Later he went to high government individual (Adolph Berle) and reported the infiltration to him to no avail. It seems the highly placed government officials circled their wagons and covered up.
Page 617: A European guest at a meeting with Henry Luce (Time Magazine) and Mr. Chambers said "The Communist conspiracy is unlike any ever known before. In the past, conspiracy has always meant secrecy, concealment. The peculiarity of Communism is that everybody really knows who these people are and what the conspiracy is and how it works. But everybody connives at it because nobody wants to believe his own eyes. It is something new under the sun. It is conspiracy in the open."

Mr Chambers was to lay down his life to expose the espionage committed by Alger Hiss. His family was slandered, Hiss lawyers grilled him unmercifully at trials, intimated that Mr. Chambers was mentally ill and had been hospitalized for being insane, and on and on. Most human beings couldn't withstand the attacks made against him. In the end the truth prevailed and Alger Hiss was convicted and sent to prison.

Some of the tactics Hiss and the Hiss lawyers used during the trial remind me of the actions of a certain politician being interrogated recently about the use of her illegal server at home to conduct government business. Interestingly enough both Hiss and this person were with the State Department.

The book is long but worth the time to read and digest what has transpired in our government from the early 1900's. It seems that many foreigners immigrated to the U.S. during that time and came with the intention of causing a revolution toward Communism.

...more

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Mar 24, 2014 Nooilforpacifists rated it it was amazing

Shelves: american-history, american-biography

This is an astonishing book, for several reasons.

First, the writing. Chambers was a tremendous writer, and though he struggled putting himself and his family under the microscope, those portions of the book are his most powerful attack on Communism. Especially the short chapter after the birth of his first child, a child party doctrine said should be aborted.

Second, even after the release of the Venona Papers,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...

it remains an article of faith among U.S. libe ...more

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Oct 13, 2015 Warren rated it it was amazing

Every American should read this book and every student should find it on his/her list of required readings. Whittaker Chambers is a excellent writer and this, so far, is the best autobiography I've ever read.
This is the true account of the Alger Hiss trials as they were a huge part of the Whittaker Chambers story and the author provides an outstanding picture of his emotions and philosophies throughout his ordeals as first a communist, then a convert to Christianity and ultimately the key witne ...more

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Jan 22, 2017 Michael G rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography, history, politics

A witness not only to Soviet spies in mid-20th century American government, but to why Communism is evil and how it, and its cousin, Socialism, work to destroy humanity. The searing honesty creates a suspense that Increases with each page. This is also a true story of redemption and amazing personal courage. Today, 65 years later, Chambers' message resonates ominously, yet hopefully as America faces similar threats from the current incarnation of Communism and Socialism - the progressive left. I ...more

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Oct 11, 2011 John Harder rated it really liked it

Throughout the Roosevelt administration the state department was infiltrated with Democrats, er, I mean communists. Whitaker Chambers, a reformed communist, was aware of the espionage and started naming names. But, unfortunately, he was not suave, just smart and sincere. This resulted in a seemingly losing battle against one of his best friends and unrepentant undercover communist, Alger Hiss. With persistence, bravery and a newly found faith in God, Mr. Chambers proved his case and became a gre ...more

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Sep 19, 2013 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone interested in the era

Recommended to David by: WSJ 5 Best

Have had 5 stars in mind during most of my reading time, but in the latter stages have come to think 4.5 stars is right, as I'm having a hard time buying his reasons for not exposing the ESPIONAGE sooner. He says he hates and wants to destroy CommunISM but wants to spare his CommunIST friends and acquaintances. Hmm . . . THEY wanted to destroy the freedom of the U.S. AND Chambers -- don't believe he was thinking clearly.

STILL, this is a remarkable and wonderfully written book . . . many very tho ...more

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May 12, 2016 Stacy rated it it was amazing

A inside look at the Communist movement in this country prior to WWII

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Sep 04, 2017 David Quijano rated it liked it

I started reading Witness by Whittaker Chambers at the suggestion of my uncle. The Red Scare and the Cold War have always interested me, but I haven’t read any books on the subject since college. Witness is still recommended reading by many conservative institutions, and I thought it would be worth giving it a try considering how influential it is.

Witness is the autobiography of Whittaker Chambers. In short, Chambers came across as an introverted, melodramatic, idealist, who was radicalized circ I started reading Witness by Whittaker Chambers at the suggestion of my uncle. The Red Scare and the Cold War have always interested me, but I haven’t read any books on the subject since college. Witness is still recommended reading by many conservative institutions, and I thought it would be worth giving it a try considering how influential it is.

Witness is the autobiography of Whittaker Chambers. In short, Chambers came across as an introverted, melodramatic, idealist, who was radicalized circa 1925 after he read various communist writings. He served the American Communist Party for seven years (which was really a proxy of the USSR) as a writer and editor of communist propaganda. Later, he joined the secret communist party, which he deduced (though wasn’t explicitly told) was an arm of the GRU (the Soviet military intelligence agency). In 1939, after Stalin’s Great Purge and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Whittaker came to the conclusion that the Soviet Union was really just left-wing fascism, and he defected. In the years between his defection and his testimony he became a successful writer and editor at Time Magazine. This was possible because at the time, no one took his defection seriously. Chambers was able to live a pretty regular life until 1948 when he was eventually brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify about his former associates. Between all his testimony and the two Hiss trials, he outed several people in the FDR/Truman admins as being communists (the Alger Hiss outing getting the most attention), which resulted in quite a bit of media and political pushback (made worse because 1948 was an election year).

I consider this an incredibly important book because of the implications of a vast communist conspiracy, but the book itself is a bit of a mess. I genuinely think Chambers could have edited this down to half of its length. Much of it is repetitive, very difficult to follow, and filled with overly flowery prose for the sake of the prose itself. I found myself thinking, “cool line, bro, but it doesn’t really apply here.” To a degree, I understand why he wrote this book the way he did. He wanted to write his definitive account on his experiences as a communist. This doesn’t make a particularly good read, though. First of all, as a good spy, he never took notes, or wrote anything down. He even said he purposefully tried to not learn things like street names. I found these espionage strategies interesting, but when you’re trying to recount a history with no notes and little recollection, it can be a little difficult to get through at times.

Chambers is also kind of unlikable. For one, he only vaguely explains why he ever became a communist. Multiple times he referred to problems in society and cited WWI as a manifestation as an example of the flaws in society. That WWI would lead one to communism, seems like a non sequitur, but he never explains it in a way that made me understand why he became a communist. Maybe this was written in a time when people inherently understood why a person would want to be a communist, but I don’t get it.

Chambers also comes across as a really annoying fence straddler. After he denounced communism, he became a Quaker and passivity became a fundamental part of what he stood for. So when it came time to testify, he wanted to warn the government that communists had infiltrated the federal government, but he didn’t want anyone to get in trouble (he just wanted them to be fired). In his mind, he stopped being a communist on his own and was able to seek redemption. He thought others should have a shot at their own redemption as well. In some ways this is admirable, but it also drove me crazy. Instead of giving all the evidence right away, he only gave what he thought was enough to make the committee believe his story. He comes across as childly naive and in my mind, this strategy is a big part of the reason many people didn’t believe his testimony. There were multiple times in the book where I couldn’t help but think that if I knew him, I would have slapped him. This was all made worse by a pretty serious and annoying (and probably warranted) persecution complex.

The most compelling part of the book was his testimony in front of the House of Un-American Activities Committee and at trial of Alger Hiss. In my opinion, he should have written the whole book from the perspective of the Hiss trials, and flashed back to various important things from his past when necessary. To anyone looking to read the book, but maybe not particularly interested in reading 800 pages, I would skip to the Hiss trial.

I could go on and on about the political implications of this book and the parallels to today where we have one party accusing the other of being under Russian influence. I would rather not political, though. In terms of whether or not Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy, I would guess he was. Chambers knew Hiss, even though Hiss at first denied this fact. This was corroborated by other witnesses during the second trial (the first trial ended in a hung jury).

As I was reading this book, I couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would deny (and some still do) that Hiss was a spy. It comes down to politics and I won’t get too specific (and the book only rarely discusses partisan politics), but basically, Republicans thought that the Democratic Party had essentially been infiltrated by the USSR and Democrats thought Republicans were just desperate to get back in the White House after losing four straight presidential elections (1948 would be the fifth straight loss).

One political point I will make: I am sure Putin tried to hack this election. He wants to return Russia to its glory days. There was a time where the various Russian spy apparatus was hugely influential within the American government. Chambers himself says spying was a secondary goal. The main goal was to get into positions of power and set policy. I don’t think Russia has half the influence it once did within the American bureaucracy, but it shouldn’t surprise us that he would want to.

The story behind Witness is better than the book. The story could be an HBO mini-series. There was lots of info about early communist activities that I was previously unaware of, including the fact that the Great Purge included assassinations of Trotskyists inside the US. I give this book three stars. It is just too long and I imagine that there are much better books on the subject now (this book was originally published in 1952). The only people I would recommend this book to are people who are obsessed with the subject and desire the first hand account of Whittaker Chambers. ...more

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Oct 17, 2009 Bap added it · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography, politics

Suprisingly good book. The memoir of a former communist who breaks with the party and exposes Alger Hiss in trials that fuel the rise of Richard Nixon. Who knew that he was such a good writer. This book is said to have changed Ronald Reagon's life and was once thought of as a bible for conservatives.

Chambers is plagued by guilt and resentment. He hated his father and blamed his miserable family life in Lynbrook Long Island for his brother's dissipation and suicide. He claims that after world war Suprisingly good book. The memoir of a former communist who breaks with the party and exposes Alger Hiss in trials that fuel the rise of Richard Nixon. Who knew that he was such a good writer. This book is said to have changed Ronald Reagon's life and was once thought of as a bible for conservatives.

Chambers is plagued by guilt and resentment. He hated his father and blamed his miserable family life in Lynbrook Long Island for his brother's dissipation and suicide. He claims that after world war one communism offered hope and had enormous appeal because the bourgoise democracies appeared to be morally bankrupt and ineffectual. Chambers became a communist and entered the underground in the mid 1920's and broke with the party after the purges by Stalin convinced him that it was an evil system. He went to the government to name names and expose communism in he late 30's but he was ignored. Ten years later, he was called before the House committee on Unamerican Activities. The country was ready for his story that many young intellectuals had entered the party and risen to infiltrate the government. His prime example was Alger Hiss who had been a golden boy. Harvard law school, clerk for a supreme court justice, various positions in the Roosevelt administration, part of the US delegation at Yalta, instrumental in the formation of the United Nations and the time of the accusations of Chambers, was president of the Carnegie foundation for peace.

Much of what Chambers said about the evils of communism was prescient. And it appears almost certain that Hiss was a communist and a spy. However, Chambers ushered in a hysteria which destroyed many lives. Chambers was indeed the witness but also the executioner. He also vastly exaggerated the red threat. He was, of course, the darling of the right wing.

But the book is more than a political diatribe. Chalmers depiction of his early life is captivating, he captures the paranoia of the party in the 30's but also his love for his wife and his small farm in Westminster Md. where he famously hid incriminating microfilm in a pumpkin. It is also fun to read about him walking about with communist spies past the Uptown theatre just a mile from my house.

This is a man who settles scores.

...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Stephanie rated it really liked it

What can I even say about this book? Long. Heavy in some ways. Disturbing perhaps. And yet it is full of courage, hope, forgiveness, healing, God's ability to conquer and His unfaltering loyalty to us once we turn to Him. What a phenomenal example of one who is willing to make a complete change once he finds he is wrong, even in the face of his own ruin and destruction. Yet another WITNESS that truth will prevail.

Upon typing my notes up this morning, I just had to add a few things I had overlook ...more

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About Whittaker Chambers

Whittaker Chambers

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Whittaker Chambers born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker, was an American writer and editor. A Communist party member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent. He is best known for his testimony about the perjury and espionage of Alger Hiss.

In 1952, Chambers's book Witness was published to widespread acclaim. The book was a combination of a ...more

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Quotes from Witness

“Yet there is one experience which most sincere ex-Communists share, whether or not they go only part way to the end of the question it poses. The daughter of a former German diplomat in Moscow was trying to explain to me why her father, who, as an enlightened modern man, had been extremely pro-Communist, had become an implacable anti-Communist. It was hard for her because, as an enlightened modern girl, she shared the Communist vision without being a Communist. But she loved her father and the irrationality of his defection embarrassed her. 'He was immensely pro-Soviet,' she said,' and then -- you will laugh at me -- but you must not laugh at my father -- and then -- one night -- in Moscow -- he heard screams. That's all. Simply one night he heard screams.'

A child of Reason and the 20th century, she knew that there is a logic of the mind. She did not know that the soul has a logic that may be more compelling than the mind's. She did not know at all that she had swept away the logic of the mind, the logic of history, the logic of politics, the myth of the 20th century, with five annihilating words: one night he heard screams.” — 15 likes

“It [Communism] is not new. It is, in fact, man's second oldest faith. Its promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: "Ye shall be as gods." It is the great alternative faith of mankind. Like all great faiths, its force derives from a simple vision. Other ages have had great visions. They have always been different versions of the same vision: the vision of God and man's relationship to God. The Communist vision is the vision of Man without God.
It is the vision of man's mind displacing God as the creative intelligence of the world. It is the vision of man's liberated mind, by the sole force of its rational intelligence, redirecting man's destiny and reorganizing man's life and the world. It is the vision of man, once more the central figure of the Creation, not because God made man in his image, but because man's mind makes him the most intelligent of the animals. Copernicus and his successors displaced man as the central fact of the universe by proving that the earth was not the central star of the universe. Communism restores man to his sovereignty by the simple method of denying God.” — 13 likes

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