| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

G. Edward White. Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004. Pp. xx, 297. $30.00.
When the journalist Philip Nobile interviewed Alger Hiss, the accused Soviet spy, in the 1970s, he concluded that Hiss's dedication to his long crusade to clear his name must be proof of his innocence. For, Nobile asked, "what kind of monster" would lie to friends and family for so long simply "to save face"? (p. 168). Indeed, for many years, Hiss's supporters used a similar logic. Why would he devote so much energy to a campaign for vindication if he knew that he was guilty?	1
The discovery of more evidence of Hiss's guilt since the late 1990s has made this question even more compelling. The purpose of G. Edward White's book is to provide an answer by delving into the psychology of the man who misled Nobile and many other supporters for decades.	2
In 1948, Hiss became the living embodiment of right-wing fears of communist infiltration of the government when journalist Whittaker Chambers accused him of spying for Joseph Stalin. Hiss was out of the government at the time, but he had been a State Department officer in the mid-1930s when Chambers supervised his espionage. Hiss denied the charges, and Richard Nixon, then a young congressman, orchestrated a dramatic confrontation between the two men at a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing. When Hiss sued Chambers for slander, the journalist brought forth documentary evidence to support his charges. The statute of limitations on peacetime espionage had expired, so Hiss was tried and ultimately convicted of perjury. He spent three and a half years in prison, where he helped other prisoners learn to read. Upon his release, he set out to prove his innocence.	. . .

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