The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy (review)

In this dense but engrossing biography, Giblin traces the career of Joseph McCarthy, junior U.S. senator from Wisconsin, who quickly focused his senatorial career in the early 1950s on exposing "subversive" government employees with ties to the Communist Party. Giblin portrays McCarthy as a man of aggressive ambition, even opportunism, who latched on to anti-Communism as a platform on which he could rise in the public eye and consolidate an enormous amount of personal power over statesmen at the highest levels. But Giblin also keeps a steady eye on the mood in a post-war America that felt betrayed by its Wolrd War II ally, Stalinist Russia, and genuinely feared espionage that could transfer vital political and military information into the hands of her enemies. Within this context, McCarthy's excessive accusations and vitriolic investigations, many of which were televised to a sensation-hungry audience, mirrored contemporary anxiety, and when Red hysteria ran its course, his political ride hit the brakes. Giblin is a smooth, captivating storyteller, and he makes history that must seem ancient to teen readers relevant by demonstrating that many of McCarthy's confrontational techniques have found their way into current civic discourse. Plenty of black-and-white photographs (many of which were carefully staged by McCarthy) pepper the text, and end matter includes a bibliography, index, and notes which specifically explain the various slants authors have taken on McCarthy over the decades—a feature that will be particularly helpful to students who use this as a starting point for research. This will be a first choice for enthusiasts of twentieth-century history, or for any young adult who aspires to someday work on The Hill.