A decade ago, Regnery issued the 50th anniversary of Whittaker Chambersâ?? Witness, honoring its corporate motto that reads, â??it is our purpose to publish good books where we find them.â? Witness is not simply a good book, but one of the most profound studies of human nature published in at least the past hundred years. It rips apart the media and cultural narrative about the early Cold War in the United States. At a very basic and human level, the book also lays out Chambersâ?? own tortuous navigation of the spirit.
Chambers is one of the most complex and unremembered of important American historical figures. Like many other writers between the world wars, such as John Dos Passos, he embraced Communist leftism as the only possible savior of humanity. Most of these men and women flirted with the international Communist movement as fellow travelers.
Not ever content to flit at the periphery of events, Chambers slid into an even deeper ensnarement. He ended up managing part of a Moscow based spy network that used journalists, artists, and technocrats to extend its poisoned tentacles into the worldâ??s most important capitals.
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