Witness

by Whittaker Chambers, John MacDonald (Read by)

An autobiographical memoir, written just after Chambers confessed to his earlier affiliation with the Communist Party and testified against his former friend and comrade, Alger Hiss, in perhaps the most celebrated espionage trial of the century. 11 cassettes.

Genres: Biography

Audio Cassette

First published December 28, 1993

About the author

Whittaker Chambers born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker, was an American writer and editor. A Communist party member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent. He is best known for his testimony about the perjury and espionage of Alger Hiss.

In 1952, Chambers's book Witness was published to widespread acclaim. The book was a combination of autobiography, an account of his role in the Hiss case and a warning about the dangers of Communism and liberalism. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. called it one of the greatest of all American autobiographies, and Ronald Reagan credited the book as the inspiration behind his conversion from a New Deal Democrat to a conservative Republican. Witness was a bestseller for more than a year and helped pay off Chambers' legal debts.

Chambers's book Witness is on the reading lists of the Heritage Foundation, The Weekly Standard, and the Russell Kirk Center. He is regularly cited by conservative writers such as Heritage's president Edwin Feulner.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Chambers the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his contribution to "the century's epic struggle between freedom and totalitarianism." In 1988, Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel granted national landmark status to the Pipe Creek Farm. In 2001, members of the George W. Bush Administration held a private ceremony to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Chambers's birth. Speakers included William F. Buckley Jr.

In 2007, John Chambers revealed that a library containing his father's papers should open in 2008 on the Chambers farm in Maryland. He indicated that the facility will be available to all scholars and that a separate library, rather than one within an established university, is needed to guarantee open access.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittake...

Reviews

[Peter Kiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chambers is a magnificent human being and writer. He manages to conceal his massive intellectual fortitude and breadth of reading and though with his great humility, but in effect, he reads like a more intelligent and reserved Shirer. It goes without saying that his life is incredible. The main sad thing is that I find his theology incredibly wonky and hardly even Christian, which is such a shame because there is so much good in this book. I wish he didn't stay a Quaker.

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this is one of those books where you lament the idea that you might not have read it. Not just because the writing is great and the story so engaging. It is that it is such an opening into the mind and life of this man. You can feel his turmoil and the hard decisions he was to make. A man who had turned to Communism as a seeming respite to the evil of the world who saw, but was also later not deaf to the screams in the night that were the repercussions of this ideology.

How he agonized over having to turn against his friends and the efforts he went to shield them as far as possible. That his turning against Communism was about only the ideology and not his former friends in the movement. How dear a friend he saw of Alger Hiss and that his love for him never turned to hate despite later given ample reasons to engage this disposition.

Just such an amazing biography on every level from his childhood on.

Since transcripts of the Alger Hiss trials are included you also can come to understand how Hiss had fooled so many people and why he had such public support at the highest levels. That even as the most damaging evidence finally came out, he retained such support even years later.

The title Witness is totally accurate at the multiple definitions of the term.

[Brian Eshleman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off with particular promise, reminiscent of a seminal spiritual memoir like Surprised By Joy. I suppose I should expect that is one's early life consists of regular epiphanies and one's later life consists of more incremental progress, so it has been with this text – which has slowed down to tedium in some places.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best!