“Alger Hiss: Why He Chose Treason” rehashes the historical episode we aficionados call “The Case.” In 1948, Alger Hiss, an up-by-his-bootstraps veteran of the U.S. State Department, was accused by journalist Whittaker Chambers of passing classified information to the Soviet Union. Chambers, an ex-communist who had been a courier for Red Army intelligence, knew whereof he spoke. Hiss was being vouched for by fellow diplomats and others in the Washington establishment, but he turned out to be one of several concealed communists who assisted Moscow and were revealed through Chambers.

Archives from the former Soviet bloc nations have shown over the years that at least three other people corroborate Hiss‘ role as a Soviet asset, a role he fulfilled before, during...