Witness by Whittaker Chambers

by Whittaker Chambers

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, The United States Of America, Biography

Unknown Binding

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

[Jonah Pavlik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the most important books one could read when understanding how deeply the fanaticism of communism can pierce. It is the autobiography of Whittaker Chambers, an American born at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Chambers was born in a time of turmoil, where the world saw one problem after another. WWI, the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, WWII, and then the Cold War. As Whittaker Chambers got older, he seemed to think (his thought being based off of the writings of several socialists and communists) that the problems of the world were a result of Capitalism and the ideologies of the West. This disaster of history could only be remedied by a system the complete opposite: Communism. Chambers eventually joined the communist party. This changed Chambers' life completely, and through most of the book it is seen how deeply communism had penetrated the United States of America, especially in Hollywood and the government. Under the watchful eyes of Stalin and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Apparatuses in America flourished and spread. However, I'm pretty sure in the thirties, Chambers realized how communism was really the system that was destroying the Twentieth Century and would continue to destroy things were it left to do its work. Communism has been described as a poisonous viper by many people who understood its true nature, and it is the best way to describe it. A slippery, tempting ideology that poisons the minds of those it corrupts and finally devours the individual and all those around it. For the Christian communism is an obvious evil that must not be given any room. However, for the godless individual communism is a very appealing prospect. Equality in career, economy, property (or should I say lack of property), and responsibility seem nice, and it is what communism had to offer. However, for the Christian the things that Marx and Lenin speak of are diabolical things that ultimately gave root to communism as it is. Another reason Chambers saw how evil communism was is that he came to trust in Jesus Christ. With his newfound perspective and faith, he attempted to flee the communist party, which even in America was a dangerous idea. Many had been killed by the communist party for trying to escape it, and Chambers miraculously escaped with his life. Chambers laid low for a while, but then did what he felt he had to do: Inform the government against the communists that had penetrated everything. Although Chambers also felt guilt for having to reveal the identities or at least false identities of those he worked with (they were his friends), he knew that it was the right thing to do and the only thing that would preserve his country. Eventually Chambers revealed the communist beliefs held by one of his friends in the communist party, Alger Hiss. They hadn't seen each other since Chambers broke from the communist party, and Alger Hiss pulled out all the stops to protect his name and utterly destroy Chambers legally. This led to the infamous Hiss Case, which is one of the most important legal cases ever in our system, as it showed the everyday America how deeply communism was rooted in America, a place that was supposed to condemn it. Ultimately Hiss was exposed along with many of his associates, and communism was revealed to be the evil it was.

I have mentioned this many times in my recommendations of this book, but it is so important. the Communist Manifesto is important to understand the striving of the communist and what it was meant to be. However, it is so strict, and humans are too corrupt to live it out. Only robots would be able to fulfill communism how it is supposed to be... which leads to another theory I have that I will not share because it wouldn't have any bearing at all on this book. So, one might ask, if the communism we see in the world is different from or only parts of the Communist Manifesto, how do we know what the true communist looks like and how they live. Witness. I will leave it at that. Although there are obviously differences, as the Twentieth Century individual is very different from the Twenty-First Century individual, but this is the closest you are going to get. When it comes to understanding the importance and value of our nation the biographies of presidents and other faithful servants of the US are very good, and this stands as a prime example of a biography of a man who was initially nothing, and then became one of the most important individuals in the early Twentieth Century regarding the fight against communism. For those of you who like Twentieth Century history and/or politics or are simply curious about communism and its effects on the world, this book is probably one of the most important books you will ever read on the subject. Although the Communist Manifesto is good to understand communism and the policies communists put in place, but I would personally argue Witness is more valuable when seeing communism at work in the person. Anyway, I would highly recommend this book to anyone, really, as the Cold War, along with the American Revolution, Civil War, and WWII, is one of the most important moments in our civilization, each of which greater defined and changed the identity of the American nation and the American people.

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this would be all about the trials with Alger Hiss. It is not. It's more of an autobiography, and much more lyrical than I thought it would be. I quite enjoyed his thoughts on Les Miserables, liked the various ramblings on living on a farm, etc. I got a bit exasperated with his woe-is-me attitude over the trials but he kept my interest to the end.

Our farm is our home. It is our altar. To it each day we bring our faith, our love for one another as a family, our working hands, our prayers. In its soil and the care of its creatures, we bury each day a part of our lives in the form of labor. The yield of our daily dying, from which each night in part restores us, springs around us in the seasons of harvest, in the produce of animals, in incalculable content.
p. 517


Today I walked across the ridge from our home place to this house where I write. I climbed the first rise and the second, from which, in clear weather, we can see, far off, the dark blue wall of the Allegheny Front. As I passed the crest of the ridge, below me on the field in the hollow, my fifteen-year-old son was windrowing hay. He sat, small and brown, on the big green tractor while the side-delivery rake click-clicked behind. When I came down the slope in the sunlight, he waved to me — a wave that meant smiling pride in what he was doing and pleasure at seeing his father unexpectedly.

I thought: “Surely, this is a moment in a man’s life, when he can stand in his fields and see such a son, to whom he has given life, and a tranquil, orderly way of living, wave his gratitude for that life and for that way of living it.”
p. 523

We like our beauty to be inherent in our way of life, not something we must make a special trip for. Thus, I have been suddenly struck, when I have put down the last hay at night before going to the house, by all the cattle gently munching at once in the warm comfort of the winter barn. Or I have wiped the puckering sweat out of my eyes suddenly to see, from the top of a hay load, the distant mountains stand out blue and massive in an hour of perfect light. Once, after a morning of mixing and chopping feed, following an exhausting week at Time, I slumped down on a full grain sack, thinking: “I can’t keep it up.” Then, in the hush of my fatigue, I saw the long shafts of sunlight piercing the cracks between the barn planks, with the meal motes dancing in them. High in the comb of the barn, all the pigeons cooed at once, and I knew: for this I can stand anything. The beauty glimpsed between bursts of the labor that justified our joy in it was the beauty that we felt.
p. 719

[Mark Caleb Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important books in my life. A deep autobiography, a lucid picture of mid-century America struggling with Communism, and a touching tale of religious conversion. Whittaker Chambers also manages to spell out the limits of politics rooted in a materialistic understanding of human beings. He is also a brilliant writer. But be warned--if you pick it up expecting easy, simple, or a systematic argument, you will be disappointed.

[Monique Bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long book, but worth the read. Gave me a better understanding of somethings of my childhood.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

INTERESTING - Goodreads doesn't really have this book at all but I listened to the audiobook from Audible and I know it's also available via Kindle, so what's up with that, Goodreads?

This is an amazing book, written in the early 1950s, close to the Alger Hiss trials, and through the late 1960s and 1970s the whole HUAC movement was pretty much discredited, but it makes me aware that Chambers' concerns about the influence of communists within the highest levels of American government were valid and are still valid (the question, "who was running the presidency during the Biden administration?" - the Democrats felt he wasn't up to running for re-election and currently the mainstream media is asking, "how were we deceived about Biden's mental acuity?").

Communism doesn't go by that name much anymore (we're much more likely to see folks describe themselves as "Marxist," e.g. the leadership of BLM, etc.) but the attempt to undermine the republic which is the USA is still in play.

So it's an amazing book because of his insight into communism and its larger goals (understanding the cleaning house, the killing off of earlier iterations (e.g., Lenin, Trotsky) but also because of his personal growth, his movement from atheism to recognizing the reality of God and His mercy; his wrestling with how he could protect people from charges of espionage after he exposed them as communists - there's a lot of psychological self-examination in this book. I will read it again.