description: Over 50 years after giving the testimony that sent Alger Hiss to prison, Chambers remains among the most controversial of 20th-century Americans, hated by many, revered by others. Whittaker Chambers is the 1st biography of this complex, enigmatic figure. Drawing on dozens of interviews &amp; on materials from 40 archives in the USA &amp; abroad--including still-classified KGB dossiers--Tanenhaus traces the remarkable journey that led him from a sleepy Long Island village to center stage in America's greatest political trial &amp; then, in his last years, to a unique role as a godfather of post-war conservatism. Whittaker Chambers is rich in new information about every phase of its subject's varied life: his days as NY's "hottest literary Bolshevik"; his years as a Communist agent, then defector hunted by the KGB; his conversion to Quakerism; his secret sexual turmoil; his turbulent decade at Time, where he rose from the obscurity of the book-review page to transform Time into an oracle of apocalyptic anti-Communism. But all this was merely a prelude to the memorable events that began in 8/48, when he was summoned by a congressional committee to testify about his past as a Communist agent. Reluctantly, he divulged his key part in a spy ring that had penetrated sensitive areas of the government, including the State Dep't, where one of his accomplices, Alger Hiss, had risen to a senior position. His allegations, &amp; Hiss' prompt, emphatic denial, held the nation spellbound &amp; initiated a drama that changed the face of America. Drawing on an array of new sources, including transcripts of secret HUAC testimony, Whittaker Chambers goes beyond previous accounts of the Hiss case, recreating its improbable twists &amp; turns, &amp; disentangling the motives that propelled a vivid cast of characters in unpredictable directions.
language: English
title: Whittaker Chambers
titlecomplete: Whittaker Chambers
characters: Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, Richard Nixon
genres: 20th Century, History, Espionage, American History, Biography Memoir, Politics, Journalism, Soviet Union, Biography, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 492
awards: awardedAt: 883641600000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: Biography or Autobiography, awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Biography, awardedAt: 852105600000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Nonfiction
publisher: Random House (NY)