A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy - Hardcover

Oshinsky, David M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0029234905 ISBN 13: 9780029234907

Publisher: Free Press, 1983

Synopsis

Acclaimed historian David Oshinsky's chronicling of the life of Senator Joe McCarthy has been called both "nuanced" and "masterful." In this new paperback edition Oshinsky presents us with a work heralded as the finest account available of Joe McCarthy's colorful career. With a storyteller's eye for the dramatic and presentation of fact, and insightful interpretation of human complexity, Oshinsky uncovers the layers of myth to show the true McCarthy. His book reveals the senator from his humble beginnings as a hardworking Irish farmer's son in Wisconsin to his glory days as the architect of America's Cold War crusade against domestic subversion; a man whose advice if heeded, some believe, might have halted the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia and beyond.
A Conspiracy So Immense reveals the internal and external forces that launched McCarthy on this political career, carried him to national prominence, and finally triggered his decline and fall. More than the life of an intensly- even pathologically- ambitious man however, this book is a fascinating portrait of America in the grip of Cold War fear, anger, suspician, and betrayal.
Complete with a new Foreword, A Conspiracy So Immense will continue to keep in the spotlight this historical figure-a man who worked so hard to prosecute "criminals" whose ideals work against that of his- for America.

About this title

About the Author:

David Oshinsky is George Littlefield Professor of American History at the University of Texas. His previous books include Worse than Slavery: Parchman farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow, which won the Robert Kennedy prize for its contribution to human rights, and Polio: An American Story (Oxford University Press).

Review:

"A staggeringly successful and rare new book of history... It is hard to tell in the space of this column why A Conspiracy So Immense impressed me so much. Of course, it has something to do with the excellent writing, which may set a standard for crisp, witty historical prose... It has something to do with the extraordinary thoroughness of Oshinsky's research. His footnotes are historical gold mines. [Above all] Oshinsky shows that in that evil time, even the purest of motives were soiled. He shows us what man is. That is what makes great history, which is what A Conspiracy So Immense is."--Ben Stein, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

"[Oshinsky is] a great storyteller; he has done some terrific research, and best of all, he knows how to handle the drama of the era without getting too preachy."--The New York Times Book Review

"Oshinsky's elegant and comprehensive biographycan now lay its own claim to being the finest account available of Joe McCarthy's career."--Review in American History

"The objectivity and scholarship of A Conspiracy so Immense should make it a standard treatmenta vivid account of the Senator's progress from demagogue to grand inquisitor."--The New Leader

"Professor David Oshinsky's A Conspiracy So Immense is the finest book on the period I have read."-Patrick J. Buchanan

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1983
• ISBN 10: 0029234905
• ISBN 13: 9780029234907
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 597