Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy

by Larry Tye

The definitive biography of the most dangerous demagogue in American history, based on exclusive access to his papers and recently unsealed transcripts of his closed-door Congressional hearings

In the long history of American demagogues, from Huey Long to Donald Trump, never has one man caused so much damage in such a short time as Senator Joseph McCarthy. We still use “McCarthyism” to stand for outrageous charges of guilt by association, a weapon of polarizing slander. From 1950 to 1954, McCarthy destroyed many careers and even entire lives, whipping the nation into a frenzy of paranoia, accusation, loyalty oaths, and terror. His chaotic, meteoric rise is a gripping and terrifying object lesson for us all. Yet his equally sudden fall from fame offers hope that, given the rope, most American demagogues eventually hang themselves. Only now, through best-selling author Larry Tye’s look at the senator’s records, can the full story be told.

Genres: History, Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, American History, Biography Memoir, Audiobook

640 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2020

About the author

Larry Tye is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent book is a biography of Robert F. Kennedy, the former attorney general, U.S. senator, and presidential candidate. Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon explores RFK’s extraordinary transformation from cold warrior to fiery leftist.

Tye’s first book, The Father of Spin, is a biography of public relations pioneer Edward L.Bernays. Home Lands looks at the Jewish renewal underway from Boston to Buenos Aires. Rising from the Rails explores how the black men who worked on George Pullman’s railroad sleeping cars helped kick-start the Civil Rights movement and gave birth to today’s African-American middle class. Shock, a collaboration with Kitty Dukakis, is a journalist’s first-person account of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), psychiatry’s most controversial treatment, and a portrait of how that therapy helped one woman overcome debilitating depression. Satchel is the biography of two American icons – Satchel Paige and Jim Crow. Superman tells the nearly-real life story of the most enduring American hero of the last century.

In addition to his writing, Tye runs the Boston-based Health Coverage Fellowship, which helps the media do a better job reporting on critical issues like public health, mental health, and high-tech medicine. Launched in 2001 and supported by a series of foundations, the fellowship trains a dozen medical journalists a year from newspapers,radio stations, and TV outlets nationwide.

From 1986 to 2001, Tye was an award-winning reporter at The Boston Globe, where his primary beat was medicine. He also served as the Globe’s environmental reporter, roving national writer, investigative reporter, and sports writer. Before that, he was the environmental reporter at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, and covered government and business at The Anniston Star in Alabama.

Tye, who graduated from Brown University, was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1993-94. He taught journalism at Boston University, Northeastern, and Tufts.

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very long and rather dense book.......but WOW!!! Review to follow

Review

This response at the Army-McCarthy hearing, from Judge Joseph Welch, will always resonate with those who are interested in the career of the red-baiting, untruthful, and possibly mentally disturbed Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin. As McCarthy publicly turned on a "friend" who he felt did not support him with fervor, Welch said;

"Until this moment Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or recklessness.....You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

This marked the moment that the career of McCarthy was over and when he fell, he fell fast. I will not go into his childhood and early life which takes up a large part of this book......needless to say, he was a dangerous bully from the start and through some dirty tricks and bribes, was elected United States Senator from Wisconsin. Freshman senators usually were fairly quiet and observant during their first couple of years into their term, while they learned the rules and etiquette of the position. Not so, McCarthy. He burst on the scene as if he was a tenured and respected man and immediately earned the rancor of the members. He took on everyone in a rude and crude manner and was an anomaly to say the least. But he had big plans and needed a "cause" to bring attention upon himself. He found that cause in chasing and identifying "commies" who were, in his imagination, working in the federal government.

He began in, of all places Wheeling, WV, where he was speaking at a Republican dinner and waved around a piece of paper which he claimed contained the names of Communists (the paper was blank) and he transformed from a crank to one of the most menacing men in US history.

In his career, he ruined the lives, reputations, and careers of innocent individuals and drove several people to suicide with accusations which had no basis in fact. He finally stepped over the line when he took on the Army and was castigated by a vote of the Senate.

From this point, a committee to investigate his allegations was formed and the famous Army-McCarthy hearings (1954) were televised globally........the beginning of the end for the Senator as one falsehood after another was proven to be exaggerations and downright lies. He died, an alcoholic, in 1957.

It would take pages to review this sometimes rather dense, book and it does have some slow sections. But overall, it is an in-depth and fascinating look,at a dangerous man, who for a short time, held the government and the population hostage to his lies. Recommended.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Demagogue: A leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims in order to gain power instead of using rational arguments or moral reasoning.
******

The years following WWII saw the emergence of a war of ideas between communism and democracy in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the world’s people. It was called the Cold War.

The times created a perfect storm for an opportunistic politician who could exploit the fear that America's problems were the result of communist spies holding positions in the government and who were selling out the country. The label for such an opportunistic politician is demagogue.

Enter Joe McCarthy, who was elected to the Senate in 1946, and re-elected in 1952.

McCarthy:

* was a bully who exploited fears and created scapegoats.

* believed that the penalty for a big lie was no worse than for a little lie. However, the big lie attracted more attention and more believers.

* had a base of fervent supporters.

* was intelligent, but was not an intellectual and mistrusted those who were. (One of his closest friends once said that he doubted McCarthy had ever read a book cover to cover.)

* played the media.

******
“He understood that if you lobbed one bombshell and that proved to be a fraud, rather than waiting for the press the next day to expose it as a fraud, he had a fresh bombshell ready to go.”
******

In four short years, McCarthy ruined the lives of hundreds of people and caused an ex-senator to commit suicide and a sitting senator to do the same by killing himself in his Senate office. He did all this by making false accusations against diplomats, military leaders, teachers, professors, labor organizers, artists, journalists, politicians, and even the army.

How many real spies did he expose? Not a single one.

In addition to an anti-communist crusade he ran a parallel one against gays. He viewed gays as being a security risk because they were closeted, which given the times was mostly true, and that it made them vulnerable to blackmail by spies seeking classified information, which was not true .

It is ironic that during those four years that he was holding Washington hostage, he was drunk much of the time, even while conducting committee hearings. In addition he had a gambling problem and was plagued by bad investments that left his finances in disarray. The truth is if anyone was vulnerable to blackmail by spies, it was the junior senator from Wisconsin.

It isn’t often that a person’s name becomes an ism. McCarthy is dead, but McCarthyism is alive and well. Tye’s book is a biography, but it is also a warning about what the country faces today.

He maintains that two demagogues have scarred American life and weakened the nation’s foundation and fundamentals. Those two are Joseph McCarthy, whose highest political office was junior senator from Wisconsin, and Donald Trump, who achieved the highest office in the land.

While doing research of documents relating to McCarthy and then reading news articles about Trump, Tye said that it was easy to confuse the two. However, they were not equal, for Trump was far more dangerous since he had held a higher position of power and that McCarthy never attempted to overturn a presidential election.

Tye writes that one lesson of Joe McCarthy “is that he fell even faster than he rose – once Americans saw through him and reclaimed its better self.” He finally overstepped when he took on the army in 1954. The Senate censured him for his bullying tactics and “activity and behavior unbecoming a U.S. Senator.” He died three years later at age 47. Hepatitis was the stated reason for his death, but there is little doubt that the cause was alcohol.

[Steven Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the outset, Larry Tye in his new biography, DEMAGOGUE: THE LIFE AND LONG SHADOW OF SENATOR JOSEPH McCARTHY states that his book is about America’s love affairs with bullies, and certainly Joseph McCarthy fits that category. At a time where the concept of a “political bully” seems to be on every pundit’ lips in covering Donald Trump it is useful to explore the life and tactics employed by the epitome of that description. Confronted by Trump’s daily “bullying tactics,” many of which passed on to the president from McCarthy through Roy Cohn, political commentators have been exploring how the American people elected Trump and how least 30-40% of electorate still supports him no matter what he does or says. People wonder how we arrived at our current state of partisanship, but if one digs into American political history, the McCarthy era seems to be an excellent place to start as the likes of Roy Cohn and others seem to dominate the political landscape. If one follows the progression from Huey Long, McCarthy, George Wallace, Newt Gingrich on to Trump and examine their characteristics today’s political landscape becomes into sharper focus.

What separates Tye’s biography from those that came before, including David Oshinsky’s superb A CONSPIRACY SO IMMENSE: THE WORLD OF JOSEPH McCARTHY and Thomas C. Reeves’ THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH McCARTHY was his access to his subjects unscripted writings and correspondence, military records, financial files, and box after box of professional and personal documents that Marquette University made available for the first time after almost sixty years. As he has done in previous books like SATCHEL: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND, and BOBBY KENNEDY: THE MAKING OF A LIBERAL ICON, Tye examines all aspects of his subject and delivers an unquestionable command of primary and secondary materials. To his credit Tye makes a valiant attempt at providing a balanced approach to McCarthy’s life and politics. No matter how hard he tried Tye has set himself a difficult task when like others he uncovers all the lies and bombast, but also his subject’s personal charm. He concludes that McCarthy was “more insecure than we imagined, more undone by his boozing, more embracing of his friends and vengeful towards foes and more sinister.”

There are numerous examples in the book where Tye presents a McCarthy action and tries to give him the benefit of the doubt that previous biographers did not. For example, in addressing the facts and myths that followed McCarthy his military record stands out when one tries to be objective. “Tail Gunner Joe,” McCarthy’s chosen nickname actually volunteered for combat operations in the Pacific Theater during World War II, when he could have remained a “desk jockey” as an intelligence officer. McCarthy would serve for a year before he requested a discharge and achieved a number of medals as newly released military record reflect, but despite his bravery it did not stop him from repeatedly embellishing and lying about his service record. In addition, he engaged in political activity while in the Marines, trying to keep a political seat warm when he returned to Wisconsin which was “verboten” in the military. Another example deals with the Malmedy Massacre at the outset of the Battle of the Bulge as the German SS murdered over 350 American POWs and 100 Belgian civilians. As a new senator McCarthy needed an issue to enhance his political credentials so he defended the Germans in the Senate Sub-Committee, which he was only an observer arguing that they were only following orders and were coerced and beaten by American prosecutors, in addition to opposing “retributive justice.” McCarthy’s real motivation was the preponderance of German voters in Wisconsin and some would argue that there was a strong element of anti-Semitism on his part.

Tye correctly points out that McCarthy’s antics during the Malmedy hearings was “just a warm-up act.” As McCarthy’s behavior surrounding the massacre muddied the historical record as it provided a glimpse into his senatorial future as he would employ a scorched earth strategy on any issue, he became involved in. He fell for conspiracies and always elevated charges that he was spoon fed. He would enhance his skills in dealing with the press, providing them with phrasing that they sought, and manipulate them in order to disseminate his views to his constituents. The bombast, bullying, and lies which would later become his trademark were all present during the Malmedy investigation.

One of Tye’s best chapters, entitled “An Ism is Born,” follows the pattern that McCarthy exhibited as a circuit judge, his military career, and his Senate campaign in 1946. Tye provides exceptional detail and command of all aspects of McCarthy’s motivations and the creation of his February 1950 speech in Wheeling, W. Va. When he announced that there were 205 communists serving in the State Department. Tye follows his disingenuous approach using innuendo as his primary tactic despite the advice of Congressman Richard M. Nixon to cease and desist this approach. The Lincoln Day Dinner, the occasion for the speech was a natural extension of McCarthy’s playbook that he used up until that time and would now enhance as he discovered the “Communism” issue which would dominate the remainder of his political career.

Tye does a nice job providing examples of demagogues in American history. He highlights men like Ben Tillman, Father Coughlin, Huey Long whose footsteps McCarthy easily fit into. Tye also traces anti-communism in American history beginning with Woodrow Wilson’s administration, the Palmer Raids, all part the Red Scare following World War I. While tracing this theme Tye includes the Truman administration which instituted loyalty oaths and a crackdown on suspected communists. With the House Un-American Activities Committee chaired by Martin Dies after World War II, the climate was set for the likes of McCarthy to latch on to this issue to base a reputation. Congress would underestimate McCarthy and failed to measure the nation’s temperature. It was not only kooks who succumbed to communist conspiracies, but patriotic organizations. No matter how few facts McCarthy presented, how many lies he told, and how many old accusations he recycled, Congress did not learn the futility of taking on a man of “wit, whimsy, and mendacity” who when forced into a corner would transform himself into a pit bull or lamb, depending what the situation called for.

Tye carefully examines McCarthy’s approach to investigations. Once elected in 1946 he usurps publicity and actions from legitimate Senate committees with false accusations against “supposed communists.” It is in 1952 once Republicans gain a Senate majority and McCarthy gains the Chair of the Government Operations Committee and the Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations that he is unleashed. He could now hold his own hearings, summon witnesses, issue subpoenas, publish findings, and bully anyone who tried to thwart him. Tye describes how McCarthy would employ closed committee sessions in order to coerce witnesses with his tactics. He would bully anyone who invoked their Fifth Amendment rights marking people as guilty even if something had occurred earlier in life, or a friend might have voice communist sympathies, etc. In his committee innocence had to be proven. His smears were designed to convict anyone who came before the committee and have them implicate others, much like a 1930s Stalinist Show Trials. It is interesting that it took until 2003 to unseal the records of McCarthy’s executive sessions.

McCarthy seemed to go after just about anyone. The Voice of America designed to confront Soviet propaganda in Eastern Europe was a major target; as was the Government Printing Office; overseas libraries and information centers; the poet Langston Hughes; and McCarthy even accused the State Department of book burnings. McCarthy could not have conducted these hearings and investigations without his pit bull, Roy Cohn. Tye delves into the role of Cohn who becomes McCarthy’s alter ego. He joined McCarthy’s committee as Chief Counsel with little legal experience. He used hearings as if they were a grand jury and presumed anyone who testified would crack under the right amount of pressure. As Tye points out, “to Cohn, the ideal witness to drag from a private to a public grilling was one who’d grovel, stonewall, or otherwise ensure front-page headlines.” Cohn later would become Donald Trump’s mentor and there is a remarkable similarity in their tactical approach to any given situation.

McCarthy and Cohn’s tactics fostered a high price. In a chapter entitled “The Body Count,” Tye delineates a number of deaths related to being persecuted by McCarthy and company. The suicides of Raymond Kaplin, an engineer at the Voice of America, former Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette, Jr, and former Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt, Jr.; and Don Hollenbeck, a CBS reporter. Is it fair to lay these deaths at the feet of McCarthy, one cannot really say, but what one can say is that he created the climate that pushed many people over the edge, and the number of lives destroyed and/or were impacted is incalculable. The lives and careers of people like Reed Harris, professional diplomats known as the “China Hands” had their careers destroyed, as were many who were blacklisted in academia and the entertainment business.

Perhaps the most famous or for that matter infamous case was McCarthy’s actions against the US Army. Known as the Army-McCarthy Hearings Tye recounts how even President Eisenhower, who had tolerated McCarthy for three years had enough. Tye delves into how Eisenhower would rage against McCarthy in private but enabled him in public. Eisenhower had a number of opportunities to deal with McCarthy but from 1952-1954 he did little to speak out or take concrete action. McCarthy could not have been as successful as he was without enablers like Eisenhower; Texas millionaires like Clint Murchison, H. L. Hunt, and Roy Cullen; Scott McLeod, the administrator of the State Department’s Bureau of Inspection who fed McCarthy material; FBI head, J. Edgar Hoover who did the same; politicians like John F. Kennedy, Robert Taft, Jr. and Lyndon Johnson all went along with McCarthy; the Catholic Church; and finally the American people - all facilitated McCarthy’s reign of terror. Tye’s recounting of the Army-McCarthy hearings is riveting and highlights the inequities of McCarthy’s system and how these inequities finally brought him down.

A number of characters stand out in the narrative. Tye engages each in his analytical and personal style particularly Edward R. Murrow who stood up to McCarthy publicly on his television program. Tye explores David Shine, ranging from his admiration of McCarthy and Roy Cohn to his own privileged view of himself and his responsibilities. Jean McCarthy, the senator’s wife’s role as confidant and partner in exploiting communism is carefully evaluated. Anita Lee Moss, a victim of McCarthy and her courageous stand against his committee is told in detail. These are but a few that Tye incorporates into his narrative, they along with countless others were the victims of a paranoid and insecure man.

Tye has written the definitive account of Joseph McCarthy’s personal and public life. Tye had documents availed to him that other authors did not making his account complete and enhanced by the author’s careful exploration of the important issues and personalities of the period. Tye’s biography drips with comparisons of President Trump and hopefully the American people will digest their similarities and take the appropriate action on election day.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is already a lot of material on Sen. Joseph McCarthy, but this is the first to incorporate McCarthy’s personal papers (letters, military and medical records, minutes from closed hearings, etc. donated by wife, Jean) housed at Marquette University. The bio is heavily researched and footnoted. It begins with a chronology which the text mostly follows.

Author Larry Tye has researched 2-3 generations of family, McCarthy’s early life, his unusual schooling, how he entered politics and how his name became an “ism”.

Tye gives detail on people caught in McCarthy’s web and how they were harassed. Closed door hearings seem to serve as screenings for the cases that will get the best headlines in the public hearings. Most “witnesses” (in actuality, defendants) wound up in these hearings due to long ago tangential relationships with (often former) communists or groups but posed no danger to the US. Smidgeons of information were magnified, in some cases there was no information at all. In all cases the “witness” was humiliated and many to most cases resulted in careers and families being destroyed. The Committee did not tackle high level people, and investigated a disproportionate number of homosexuals and Jews.

The most interesting of the 9 chapters, for me were “The Body Count” and “The Fall.

“The Body Count” covers the depth of despair that McCarthy’s hearings engendered. The number of suicides, alone, tells the story. One is an engineer involved in selecting less than optimal sites for Voice of America transmission towers. Another is a reporter attacked for being critical of the work of HUAC, another a Senator in despair over choices he made that resulted in public exposure of his homosexual son. Robert LaFollette, who lost the 1946 senatorial primary to McCarthy, was a progressive from an influential Wisconsin family. He was a threat to McCarthy and may have been worn down the the barrage of unfounded accusations against him and his family.

“The Fall” covers life after his censure by the Senate, when, at age 49 his body, essentially, gives out. Throughout the book you marvel that, with his heavy drinking and related health issues, McCarthy can even sit up. He dies with no expression of sympathy for his victims (in fact, wants to find more) or recognition of what he has put the country through.

The hearings are both the strength and weakness of the book. For those profiled there is a lot of detail, such that key points can be hard to get at and it doesn’t seem that the selection of those investigated is balanced.

The best example of losing the forest for the trees is the lead up to the famous “Have you no decency?” turning point. While the question is very much deserved, the back story on the dialog that gave rise to it wasn’t clear. Was it the passion of the Army’s attorney who asked it? Did McCarthy’s interjection come close to exposing secrets that Roy Cohn had bargained to keep from the record? Since hundreds of others were severely punished for gossip and suspicion, was there something special about Fred Fisher or the flimsy charges against him?

Is there a reason that not one of the cases selected for detail has a Hollywood affiliation or that there is no mention of the “Black List”. That the Committee’s key players were homosexuals (Roy Cohn, the Committee’s Chief Consul, David Shine, the Committee’s unpaid staffer, J. Edgar Hoover and perhaps McCarthy, himself) is unexplored.

The chapter on enablers points a heavy finger at President Eisenhower who hated McCarthy but dithered. There are many examples of the press from reporters to publishers traded who headlines for leaks, tips and interviews. There are politicians who wanted to glow in his celebrity and top officials, who compromised to protect their departments. Before the age of accountability, there were many donors, some seemed to directly hire staff, pay for facilities and seem to help McCarthy pay his debts (he gambles and makes impulsive investments). One particular Texas oilman, Clint Murchison, is noted as a true believing donor and friend. Another publicly supportive friend was Cardinal Spellman.

Joseph Kennedy was a supporter, which gave his sons a difficult legacy. He got McCarthy to put Bobby on the HUAC (RFK seemed to be the only person actually doing actual research before he quit) and Tye draws the bead from the anti-communist ethos to the Bay of Pigs. Tye considers JFK an enabler since he said nothing.

Tye does a good job in showing the long effects of McCarthy and his “ism”. His anti-communism spawned foreign policy up to and during the Vietnam War due to the defensive DNA that politicians developed in the McCarthy years. The very posture (never admit, never apologize, always attack) of Donald Trump is that of his first attorney Roy Cohn (to know more about this, I highly recommend the film “Where’s my Roy Cohn”). While McCarthy still has defenders, it took two generations to wring his brand of anti-communism from the American psyche.

There is a lot here. The book is fully packed. To read it you need to want to know about McCarthy and this period.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well written comprehensive biography on Joe McCarthy. It is long--almost 500 pages, but overall, engagingly written so it is not a boring slog to get through. It reads much faster than 480 pages.

In general, this is a straightforward chronological biography, starting with McCarthy's childhood on a farm, early years as a lawyer and then judge in Wisconsin, and his time in the Marines. The rest of the book focuses on his election to senator, the start of his red-baiting focus in a Wheeling, WV speech that was almost about public housing(!), his meteoric rise, his various victims and targets, and his inevitable crash. There is also a lot of ink devoted to his two erstwhile aids Roy Cohn and David Schine, and an insightful chapter on Joe's "enablers" (everyone from his Texas money backers, Cohn and Schine, and Eisenhower (who never stood up to McCarthy) among others. I was unfamiliar with McCarthy apart from the standard high school history lesson so I really learned a lot from this tome.

Tye writes in a straightforward and engaging manner. He does what he can to show McCarthy in a well rounded light--not just as the historical villain he is generally portrayed to be. I wouldn't say he is sympathetic; he generally is not. His below the belt tactics were developed and honed early and were vicious, often destroying lives. Tye goes through several cases where people caught in McCarthy's crosshairs committed suicide. He also makes it clear that often McCarthy didn't feel a personal animus towards his opponents; he seemed to consider it all part of the political game and was confused at chilly receptions he received by his sparring partners once the lights were off.

I will say, though much of it does not show McCarthy as sympathetic, there are times where Tye made me feel sorry for McCarthy. Once the spell was broken and McCarthy was an outcast and shunned by the cowards who kowtowed to him and the sycophants who sucked up to him, Tye's description of him alone and confused were genuinely moving. There is a scene where McCarthy is kicked out of an event and he is caught crying in a coat room that legitimately made me tear up.

One feature I really liked in this tome were the introduction and epilogue chapters which puts McCarthy in the larger American context of demagogues and demagoguery, including a discussion on Trumpism. I imagine the comparisons between the two will earn this book some negative reviews, but it puts Trump's rise in the context of Huey Long, Ma and Pa Ferguson, Father Coughlin, and Joe McCarthy. In between, the themes of anti-intellectualism and anger against "elites" and rhetoric about "real Americans" in McCarty's arsenal show that some things in American politics do seem eternal.

The main criticism of the book I have is that it is heavy on the footnotes, which, if you actually read them, makes for choppy reading. I generally found the footnotes informative, so I liked reading them, but you have to jump up and down the page. Also Tye can really bury some explosive material in the footnotes--for example a paragraph of speculation that Joe McCarthy was a pedophile. That was a jaw dropper of a footnote, but is never acknowledged or followed up on in the book.

Overall, it's an interesting, thorough, and well written book. If you are looking to learn more about Joe McCarthy, this is obviously a good selection. But if you are also looking to learn more about the tactics of demagoguery, the real damage it can do, and the effects McCarthy's particular tactics formed and influenced what came after, this is also a good, but chilling choice as you can see history beginning to repeat itself in some ways.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Larry Tye's Demagogue is the first full biography of Joe McCarthy in almost two decades. Tye (Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon) claims some advantages over past biographers, including the release of Cold War government files, Russian sources and access to McCarthy's private papers, which allow him to present a more rounded portrait of Tailgunner Joe. He presents young McCarthy as a genial, hardworking young man, a good if often lazy student, an able attorney and, most surprisingly, defends his military record as honorable despite McCarthy's later exaggerations. But once McCarthy reaches Washington, no amount of "fairness" can rescue his reputation: his violent bullying (coupled with an odd tendency to commiserate with his victims afterwards, as if politics were merely a sport), alcoholism and utter indifference to fairness and due process destroys any efforts to rehabilitate him. Refuting conservatives who claim revelations about Alger Hiss, etc. vindicated McCarthy, Tye in fact shows that Venona did no such thing. Soviet espionage networks in the United States had already been deactivated or destroyed years before McCarthy came along, and only a handful of the hundreds McCarthy accused were even communists, let alone spies. The book, then, largely affirms the typical picture of McCarthy while adding some fresh details, such as folding in accounts of the homophobic "Lavender Scare," McCarthy's relationship with phony "professional witness" Harvey Matusow and the bureaucrats driven to suicide alongside the familiar stories of henchman Roy Cohn, victims Owen Lattimore and Annie Lee Moss and his archnemesis, Joseph Welch. There's also a heavy focus on those who abetted, or refused to confront McCarthy's rise: opportunistic Republicans, right-wing millionaires, Catholic reactionaries, liberals afraid to seem "soft on Communism," reporters insistent on seeming "balanced" towards an unbalanced figure, even Dwight Eisenhower, whom Tye scathingly characterizes as the "enabler-in-chief" for refusing either to directly confront or undercut the Senator. The weakest parts of the book explicitly connect McCarthy with Donald Trump, admittedly a tempting comparison, considering both men's ties to Roy Cohn; astute readers surely don't need this spelled out for them. Still, the new information and Tye's lucid, biting narrative make the book a worthwhile introduction to America's most memorable Red-baiter.

[Bob H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an abundantly-researched and -told biography of one of the most destructive figures in American politics, a magisterial account of Sen. McCarthy's life, times, political career and ongoing influence. It's all there: his post-WWII election to the Senate, his infamous "I have a list" speech, his rampage through Senate committee hearings, the Army-McCarthy battle that defeated him, but not the lingering suspicions in American life. The author provides plenty of context: though it was "the McCarthy period", the anti-Communist fervor, the witch hunts that destroyed careers and spread a civic paranoia, the antics of other outfits like the House Un-American Activities Committee, the boost to other politicians' careers from all this, notably Richard Nixon's -- all of this either pre-dated, grew with, and persisted long after his downfall and death. It persists to this day, and the book does, through McCarthy's assistant, Roy Cohn, tie him to the present day: indeed, Cohn was a young Donald Trump's attorney and mentor. For all the book's length, it's still a gripping read and a chilling story. It's still relevant as a look into American political shadows. Highest recommendation.

(Read in advance-reading copy from Amazon Vine).

[Sonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

― “It was deeply ironic that when McCarthy’s self-serving campaign against the Red Menace was at its height, Soviet penetration of the American government was at its lowest ebb for almost thirty years.”
― Larry Tye, Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy

In the nearly 250 year history of the United States, there have been some interesting events and some interesting characters, not all of them good. Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism were an interesting period in that history to say the least. The Army–McCarthy hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations (April–June 1954) occurred during my lifetime. They were televised, but I have no recollection of them (I was just three years old). It is possible my parents didn’t yet own a television.

Senator Joseph McCarthy was born in Wisconsin on his Irish Catholic parents' dairy farm. The date was November 14, 1908. He dropped out of high school at sixteen to start his own poultry farm on land he rented. When brutally cold winter weather killed his flock, he returned to school in 1929, determined to graduate with his class. Upon graduation, he enrolled in Marquette University. After earning a law degree in 1935, he returned home to open his practice and begin a career in politics.

McCarthy lost his first campaign as the Democratic nominee for district attorney. He decided to seek a circuit judgeship and challenged an incumbent who considered McCarthy to be an unelectable rookie. McCarthy campaigned hard, deliberately inflating his opponent's age and salary. His tactics worked; in 1937, McCarthy, age 29, became the youngest judge in Wisconsin history.

Five years later, McCarthy joined the Marines, hoping that his combat experience would enhance his political stature. As an intelligence officer, he spent the war debriefing pilots after they returned from bombing raids over Japan. Yet, when he returned home and began campaigning, he referred to himself as “tail-gunner Joe,” claiming he had survived many hazardous missions over Japanese-held territory. With each telling of his wild story, he inflated his claims. He went so far as to ask to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross—an award he received!

Capitalizing on his falsified war record, McCarthy was able to defeat the incumbent Senator Robert La Follette in the 1946 Republican senatorial primary. He then attacked his Democratic opponent as a man who was willing to accept communist support. His baseless charges worked; McCarthy trounced his opponent in the election, becoming the junior Senator from Wisconsin.

McCarthy quickly alienated his colleagues and began to fear that he could not be re-elected without having a major issue to lean upon. In February 1950, he told a group of Republican women West Virginia, that there was serious "communist influence" in the Truman administration, declaring, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . names that were known to the Secretary of State and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.” In truth, no such list existed. Nevertheless, his accusations grabbed the attention of the media. After three largely undistinguished years in the Senate, the little-known senator soon became a national figure. McCarthy now had his political calling card.

A special subcommittee investigated McCarthy's charges and rejected them as a hoax, but the highly publicized conviction of Alger Hiss as a spy for the Soviet Union lent credibility to the charges. When McCarthy became chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953, he launched a series of investigations into alleged subversion and espionage. These investigations would go awry in 1954 during the nationally televised Army-McCarthy hearings. McCarthy's public image would be irreparably tarnished, prompting his censure by the U.S. Senate. McCarthy’s life would spiral down from there. His alcoholism would lead to his premature death at the age of 48.

In my reading of US history, I have occasionally come across references to Senator McCarthy and McCarthyism, especially in biographies of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. I wanted to know more about the man Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism. What would lead a man to make false charges and abuse his congressional oversight privileges?

In the epilogue, author Larry Tye explores a connection between Joseph McCarthy and Donald J. Trump. McCarthy’s chief counsel during the Army-McCarthy hearings was Roy Cohn. The unscrupulous attorney would later represent and mentor Donald Trump during Trump's early business career. Tye alleges that Trumpism was patterned on McCarthyism, an accusation that rings true.

Demagogue is an interesting and informative work of history. While I don’t believe it merits a five-star rating, I learned a great deal about Senator McCarthy and McCarthyism.

[Alexw · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with every bully you have ever faced, stand up to them as President Eisenho0wer did to McCarthy and they back down with the Senate censoring McCarthy and in a final defining act of retribution, McCarthy dies horribly from alcoholism.
A great book about a dark side of America.

[Shrike58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I've been meaning to read this book since it was published, on the promise of the author having new primary source material to exploit, the reality is that spending 500 or so pages with "Tail-Gunner Joe" is always going to be a daunting prospect. Particularly when there are more pressing matters to deal with.

Still, having finally taken the plunge, I can tell you that this book is quite readable. Tye keeps matters rolling along, and the new documentary evidence does give one food for thought; even if already familiar with the contours of McCarthy's life and acts.

First off, this was a case of the times making the man before the man started making history, as while McCarthy might have been the hardest working man in Wisconsin politics in reaching the U.S. Senate, it would have availed him of nothing had "Young" Bob LaFollette not been out of touch with his electorate. McCarthy would have clearly been ejected from the Senate, obviously promoted to his level of incompetence, had he not latched onto the burgeoning "Red Scare" of the times. And McCarthy would not have been able to drag his reign of terror out as long as he did without enablers who saw him as a useful tool; a usefulness that ended roughly at the same time as the Korean War.

Two, though Tye is careful not to engage in too much long-range analysis of McCarthy's psychology, the impression I'm left with is of the proverbial addictive personality. From a young age forward, McCarthy lived on hyperbole and seeking the next thrill, and always needed the next shot of adrenaline, be it in the boxing ring, seeking higher and higher office, going on combat missions that he could have skipped out on, or finding a bigger target to take down. This is until his appetites wound up consuming him.

I'm also left wondering just how real other people were to McCarthy, as while the man probably wasn't a sadist, he did display zero empathy and could really be clueless about how he appeared to others. Looking at the climactic "have you no shame" moment in the televised 1954 "Army-McCarthy" Hearings, McCarthy's reaction to having overreached in attacking a young lawyer was confusion, unclear as to how this encounter was different from how he had previously conducted himself; though the ocean of alcohol that McCarthy was by then floating on didn't help.

Be that as it may, McCarthy's moment did pass, particularly with the Republicans losing control of the Senate, with which the man's physical deterioration accelerated. The question for those who still try to judge the man in the best possible light is how things might have turned out had Roy Cohn not been the dominant lieutenant in McCarthy's crusade. It could have been John Sirica, the future judge presiding over the matter of "Watergate," but it's likely no one could have saved McCarthy from himself in the long run; leaving the memorial of a ruined legacy, and a playbook for those who would follow in the senator's footsteps.

For those readers who feel the need to look at a modern accounting of McCarthy's career, but not quite as much as Tye is offering, there is an alternative in "Gossip Men" by Christopher Elias, who seeks to put McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and J. Edgar Hoover into the media and sociological context of the time. Since Elias uses Tye as a source, it tends to parallel a lot of Tye's findings.

[Aaron Million · Rating 3 out of 5]

The life of Joe McCarthy does not make for an easy nor an uplifting read. The number of lives and careers that the man adversely affected, and in many cases, ruined - including his own - leaves one feeling both sad and angry. Sad at the destruction that McCarthy brought on a personal level to many people, and on a political level to the country. Angry that he browbeat and intimidated people, making up lies about them if need be, and injecting real fear into folks who mostly weren't guilty of anything more than a minor youthful indiscretion, or of being homosexual (the prevailing term back then), or being related to someone who may have been a Communist or affiliated with a Communist organization at sometime in the past, or maybe guilty of absolutely nothing at all.

Larry Tye states at the beginning of the book that he strove to write a fair biography of McCarthy, that he did not want to overlook any flaws or misdeeds, nor make any excuses for McCarthy or his behavior; but that he also wanted to try to humanize McCarthy where he could, and show that he was a complex man. I think that he only partially succeeds at this, but I do not think it is due to anything that he did in error. McCarthy simply did not give him much to work with on the positive side, especially once he was elected Senator from Wisconsin in 1946. Tye does manage to convey that McCarthy was good-natured with children and enjoyed being around them. He also writes about McCarthy's service in WWII and notes that he really did see combat, and that he was often unfairly criticized later for embellishing his experience. While there were some aspects of that, by and large McCarthy was upfront about what he did. Now, did he use it to his political advantage? You bet he did. Did he violate Marine rules by campaigning for office while he was still serving? Yes. But his time serving seemed to me to be much more credible than that of Lyndon Johnson and some others who really tried to capitalize off of their military record.

Tye charts McCarthy's youth in rural Wisconsin. He grew up poor, but was creative, even running his own egg business at one point in time. McCarthy had a frenetic personality from the beginning, jumping into school and trying to finish four years in one. McCarthy always seemed to be in a hurry, trying to climb the ladder to something higher.

But the bulk of the book focuses on McCarthy's Senate career, especially following his speech in Wheeling, WV in February 1950 where he waved around a sheet of paper, proclaiming that there were Communists in the State Department. Why did McCarthy do this? Did he have evidence of there being Communists at State? No, but he was going nowhere in the Senate, and he wanted to both make a mark for himself and ensure his re-election two years hence. He chose Communism as the issue, and it instantly propelled him into the limelight. And for the last seven years of his life, he did not back off that single-minded mission of trying to root out Communists in the Army and the government, whether he had any proof or not.

While making extensive use of footnotes that added further context to McCarthy's life story, I found Tye's narrative at times to lack cohesion. For instance, on page 87 he is writing about McCarthy's opposition to potential legislation concerning whether the government should help create and finance public housing. Tye never says what the bill actually does, yet writes "Truman signed the bill in August 1948...". I had to back up to see if Tye ever explained what the bill does, but he did not. I also thought that his attempt to portray McCarthy as a complex human being somewhat fell by the wayside as the book went on. Again, I do not think that McCarthy helped any future biographers out here, given his atrocious behavior. Yet I think Tye himself got overwhelmed by McCarthy's vindictiveness and cut-throat, demagogic nature.

Also, Tye made some basic errors that I would have thought that either he or his editor should have caught. One is the footnote on page 428, when Tye is writing about Dwight Eisenhower exerting executive privilege in 1954 to keep Army officers from being further subjected to withering attacks from McCarthy in hearing sessions. Tye writes that Eisenhower's VP, Richard Nixon, may have been "encouraged... to do the same fourteen years later during the Watergate scandal...". That would put Watergate in 1968, when Nixon was not yet President, and four years before the break-in actually occurred. On page 445, still in 1954, Tye writes about Ronald Reagan being named host of General Electric Theater and meeting his "future wife" Nancy Davis. Except that Reagan and Nancy married two years earlier. Tye also at another point writes that Eisenhower was President of Columbia University from 1948-1953, and that is just incorrect as Eisenhower left Columbia in 1950 to return to the Army and head the newly-formed NATO.

But Tye has some good analysis in here too. Like on page 222: "To a demagogue, there are always just two alternatives - themselves or disaster." Sound familiar at all from the last few presidential campaigns? By the way, at the very beginning, and at the very end in a brief Epilogue, Tye writes about Donald Trump, and links him to McCarthy through Roy Cohn, who was a major player in this book as he was McCarthy's lead investigator on his Subcommittee and McCarthy either was unwilling or unable to check the vicious Cohn's cruel behavior and mean-spiritedness, which ultimately helped to bring McCarthy down.

The best chapter in the book was titled "The Enablers" and it talks about many of the people who either supported (openly or tacitly) McCarthy in his quest to root out Communists, or those who found McCarthy and/or his methods distasteful but chose to look the other way and hold their noses. Some did this out of political expediency. Some did this out of cowardice. Some simply did not care about the damage that McCarthy was inflicting on others. Tye is especially good when documenting how President Eisenhower refused to openly challenge or criticize McCarthy, instead adopting a hands-off approach and then working behind the scenes to ultimately help bring him down. I think that Eisenhower thought that was the best way to combat McCarthy, especially after his predecessor Harry Truman did try to challenge McCarthy but lost. But, a lot of lives and careers were ruined in the meantime, and I don't think that Eisenhower ever fully took stock of the carnage wrought by McCarthy. Also, Eisenhower was in the same party as McCarthy, and was much more popular than Truman ever was. Thus he was in a stronger position to take him on, yet he did not. Eisenhower isn't the only one, of course, just the biggest one. Most of McCarthy's fellow Senators also dared not touch him, with only a select few willing to openly challenge him. Eventually, the Senate did vote to condemn him, but only after the tide began to turn against McCarthy following his disastrous showing on national TV during the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings. Americans then saw how McCarthy behaved towards others, and that he had very little if any proof of wrongdoing against most everyone who he grilled before his Subcommittee.

The final few chapters are really bleak, as Tye chronicles McCarthy's downfall, both in the Senate after the censure vote, but also personally as his health rapidly deteriorated and his alcohol problem became much, much worse. McCarthy by the mid-50s was a full-blown alcoholic, drinking at all times of the day, and drinking to excess. Once the public and the Senate turned on him, he seemed to lose the zest to keep living, and to an extent at least began drinking himself to death. McCarthy died at 48, which is incredibly young, even then.

At the end of the book, Tye brings the narrative to the present-day and Donald Trump. On page 476 he writes "Both Trump and McCarthy were [Tye apparently thought that Trump was done after losing to Joe Biden in 2020] geniuses at seizing upon public fears and rifts, faking evidence to support their assertions, and claiming vindication when there was none. Each railed against corrupt elites and crafted a handy scapegoat for America's troubles - in McCarthy's case, conniving Communists, in Trump's, rapacious immigrants." America ultimately managed to move past McCarthy and his excesses. It remains to be seen if America can ever move past Trump and his turmoil. Given that we are staring at four more years, at least, of him, that prospect seems about as bleak as Joe McCarthy's final few years were.

Grade: B-

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Biography

Joseph McCarthy was a Senator from
Wisconsin who became famous claiming that there were communists in the military, arts and professions such as education that needed to be rooted out and dismissed. He held power for 8 years during a time when communism was a fear and Soviets has stolen nuclear secrets and China had experienced a communist revolution and half of Korea became communist. Truman tried to stand up to him and failed. His Republican colleagues loathed him and knew he was a con man but benefited from going along with him due to his popularity. Democrats didn’t seem to to stand a chance as a minority party in both houses and not having the presidency. President Eisenhower saw it best to not confront him and watch until McCarthy imploded himself. Edward R Murrow, the newsman, ran several shows in McCarthy and weakened him greatly. But he lost his TV News show partly due to his stance on McCarthy. McCarthy’s hearings on the army became essential television that ran like a soap opera in the daytime. Eventually he tripped himself up, especially after pursuing the military. The author compares him to our current demagogue, Donald Trump. Roy Cohn was McCarthy’s assistant and later coached Trump. What I found interesting was a difference between McCarthy and most demagogues, McCarthy was considered pretty smart and a hard worker. He did well in school and was known to work well in n his farm. He had to quit school in 8th grade but after the military attended college and law school before going into politics. In the military which he also did well and was considered a hard worker, he began to claim illness of sorts. Chronic infections and injuries that didn’t heal well He was found to have diabetes. He also began attaching himself to anti-communist conspiracy theories. This grew into his rabid anti-communism. Elected to the senate, he was only ousted when he threatened them. Great biography.

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

The entire book is intended as something of an apologia for the life of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a goal the author lays out clearly in his introduction. The author ultimately fails at his primary task of redeeming his subject’s character for several reasons: First, because the man was a nasty, mendacious bully. Second, the author attempts no deeper explanation or analysis of the man’s life that will allow the reader to conclude otherwise.

I found one of the most interesting quotes in the book to be found towards the end, McCarthy aide Robert Kennedy summing up the Senator’s contradictions: “He wanted so desperately to be liked. He was so thoughtful and yet so unthoughtful in what he did to others. He was sensitive and yet insensitive. He didn’t anticipate the results of what he was doing. He was very thoughtful of his friends, and yet he could be so cruel to others.” None of these contradictions come through in this lengthy book. Was Bobby just engaging in some wishful romanticizing of his former boss and friend? Or was McCarthy truly a complex character? This book makes no attempt to answer that question and so ultimately fails in its purported goal of presenting a balanced picture of the subject’s life and “long shadow.” (That last bit of the subtitle is never really addressed except tangentially and in a brief epilogue).

"Balance" largely consists of anecdotes relating how “Joe” would do something nice for someone after being abusive or explaining how he had a desire to do good (unsupported by anything other than later self-serving statements) that somehow balanced out his dirty tricks, lies and self-serving actions. McCarthy was the sort of person, according to the author, who might knock you down but then would then offer a hand to help you up. The helping hand, in my view, does nothing to justify the initial assault. In the end, the book quickly becomes tiresome and I found it a slog. An endless litany of “then he lied, but maybe he believed the lie, he probably didn’t believe the lie but it served some other purpose.” Over and over and over. And what other purpose did the lies serve? Glory and power for Joseph McCarthy. That’s it, there’s nothing more to the man than that, at least not that can be seen in this account.

For a book that bills itself as an attempt to explain and “balance” the Senator’s life, it spends remarkably little time on his formative years and offers nothing in the way of explanation or analysis of his pathological compulsion to lie, always, about everything. It doesn’t attempt to place his relentless ambition and quest for personal glory in the context of his upbringing. His entire pre-Senatorial life is dispensed with in the first chapter. There are plenty of anecdotes, a bit of thumbnail-sketching of his first forays into business and public life but no real depth and a bit too much rationalizing. There's also quite a bit of wishy-washiness, especially when discussing his inflated war record. Or maybe it wasn't inflated. Or maybe it was inflated but not as much as his detractors claimed.

The second chapter deals with his time in the Senate before the infamous speech in which he (falsely) declared he had a list of Communists in the State Department. This leaves over ¾ of the book to deal with the remainder of his time in office and his early death. And that ¾ is an overly-detailed and quite dry recitation of a history that has largely been documented at length. I'm not an expert in this era or McCarthy's career. I know the rough outlines but that's about it. Nothing in this book surprised or shocked me (beyond the subject's complete lack of shame when it came to lying and then doubling-down on his lies).

Overall, the book was tiresome and dull. I can only take so many pages of “Then he lied. And he lied again. And then he destroyed a career before having lunch and lying some more” before I just start skimming. There’s no analysis, no real exploration of the subject’s psyche, no attempt to really explore why he lied, why he was so compelled to tear others down, why he elected to devote an otherwise promising political career to the destruction of lives and reputations.

The FBI’s complicity in McCarthyism is a thread throughout the account of the prime red-hunting years but is not really analyzed any more than McCarthy is. His FBI enablers, from J. Edgar Hoover on down, are never fully explored, even in the chapter entitled “The Enablers.” A look at that chapter ably highlights the problems with this book and the author's misguided focus on "balance." This chapter purports to address the various characters who allowed McCarthy to destroy so many lives, either through inaction, public adulation or direct complicity. Oddly, the author spends the opening pages and a substantial portion of the chapter discussing President Eisenhower, implying that Ike was one of the most complicit, if tacit, of enablers. He discusses those who donated money to McCarthy, the elected officials who didn’t stand up to him or tacitly exploited his popularity for political gain, the religious and social organizations that endorsed his campaign to root out Communists and then… the chapter ends. No discussion of those who actively worked with McCarthy, the men who provided him with dirt on his opponents, the ones who lied under oath on his behalf and of course, his staff: Jean Kerr, who would become his wife, Roy Cohn, David Schine, Robert Kennedy. It’s as if the author considers Eisenhower’s failure to speak out more forcefully or John Kennedy’s tacit support of a co-religionist to be worse than the actions of the FBI men who fed him information to use at his closed-door hearings or his willing coterie of sycophants who routinely helped him spread lies and destroy lives.

There’s an entire chapter devoted to quick sketches of lives McCarthy destroyed but these end up being disjointed anecdotes: Mr. Smith was unfairly tarnished and committed suicide, McCarthy spread lies about Jane Doe and she was fired from her job, John Jones had to resign and no one would ever again hire him, and so on. The final two chapters recount McCarthy’s undoing: the Army-McCarthy Hearings, the famous televised final confrontation, the Senate censure (portrayed as being somewhat unfair and smelling of political opportunism) and the slide into ignominy, alcoholism and death.

From the very first, it is clear that McCarthy was possessed of overweening ambition and no scruple or moral code would stand in his way. From the very start of his adulthood he would lie to make himself look better or to get something he wanted. He would cheat at cards just to see if he could get away with it (the author tells us he would give the money back, see he's not that bad!). He lied on his college application, he smeared his opponent to win his first elected office, he embellished his wartime record even before it started (but not as much as his detractors claimed, see he’s been unfairly maligned!), and of course he lied about his famous list of Communists, he lied about the people dragged before his committee, he lied about the testimony given behind closed doors, he lied and he destroyed lives. You can’t balance that, you can’t sweeten it up, you can’t make it look any better than what it is.

While it is admirable that the author wishes to present a balanced portrait of a man whose very name is synonymous with witch-hunting, treachery and unfairness, his stated goal causes him to forgive or explain away too much. The author's whitewashing of McCarthy's character extends even to seemingly trivial matters. After lauding McCarthy's brilliance for completing high school in one year, scoring 205 on an IQ test and finishing both college and law school in 5 years instead of 7, the author then excuses McCarthy's poor grammar and spelling in his wartime diaries because, well, it was wartime.

Overall, the author simply tries too hard to make an unlikable, egotistical, lying narcissist into something he is not. In the end, I was convinced more than ever of McCarthy's fundamental lack of character and convinced that he was what he seemed to be: an over-ambitious glory hound who cared not for the lives he destroyed if he could accrue some personal benefit from the carnage he wrought. In the end, this book failed at its stated purpose and put me to sleep while doing so. Skip it.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and well researched.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Larry Tye, author of biographies ranging from Bobby Kennedy to Satchel Paige to Superman (yup), wrote "Demagogue," his biography of Joe McCarthy, after gaining access to a trove of previously unreleased documents, medical records, personal notes, and other insider reflections on perhaps America's most polarizing 20th century figure. The result, "Demagogue," is a deep dive into the life of a confounding man and the persistent American trait of finding such horrible men so compelling.

In most respects, Joe McCarthy is unique. A puncher from the hardscrabble farmland of Wisconsin, McCarthy came from virtually nowhere to become a United States Senator in his late 30s and who insisted on "peeing in the punch bowl" at the Senate. He did this by unleashing the most sinister of witch hunts, searching for Communists across the American government. A true bully, he went after the little guy using merciless, underhanded tactics and a staggering amount of hypocrisy. Utilizing aggressive staff - including both Bobby Kennedy and future Donald Trump mentor Roy Cohn - McCarthy used innuendo, dishonesty, and a widespread anti-Communist mania to destroy lives and create the movement that now bears his name . . . and is synonymous with American shame.

And he did all this before the age of fifty, while battling a range of debilitating health issues and raging alcoholism that eventually killed him.

Tye also puts McCarthy in a surprising line of American demagogues, including Huey Long of Louisiana and Father Coughlin from Michigan, who successfully played on American fears to become national figures. Those extend to our current President, who has learned some of the more obvious lessons from McCarthy's rise to national prominence. Tye doesn't spend too much time drawing the parallels between McCarthy and President Trump, but he doesn't need to - you don't need to underline the connections between Senator McCarthy, who rose to national prominence through sweeping, reckless allegations of Communism and Trump and his sweeping indictments of "the Deep State" and birtherism.

Senator McCarthy eventually got his comeuppance after accusing the U.S. Army and its leadership of harboring Communists. As of the date of this writing, it appears that President Trump is about to get an electoral comeuppance from Joe Biden. Only time will tell if that parallel holds true.

"Demagogue" is a scary tale that shows how easily one man could blast into national prominence by playing on the darkest fears of his fellow Americans. Highly recommended.

[Ed Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph McCarthy polarized a generation, and there are many who see parallels in our time. Tye's book is exceptionally well written and provides a balanced view of the late senator's life and controversies surrounding the rise and fall of McCarthyism in the 1950's. From humble beginnings to dominating the news to obscurity and death all within 48 years, McCarthy is a paradox in his humanity, faith and amicability on one hand and his cruelty, lies and deceit on the other. A worth while and entertaining read.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets 2/5 stars from me, and all the credit for the 2 it did get goes to Joe McCarthy.

He is a very exciting person but the book itself is boring, what a shame. There is great information in the book but you have to sift through all the boring stuff to get to it.

Kitty Kelley when are you opening your school of journalism??? We really needed you on this one.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Foreshadowing of Donald Trump

Consider some of the tactics of Joseph McCarthy in this well-written biography by Larry Tye:

o Scapegoat and belittle your opponent with little restraint and few solutions. (This was the winning formula for McCarthy when he won his Senate race against respected incumbent Robert La Follette, heir to a Wisconsin political dynasty. It continued to serve him well as he rose to national prominence.)


o Smear targets for their opinions rather than their behavior, and move on to the next target before it can be shown that “the mud doesn’t stick.”


o Give reporters something juicy that will make their story front page news, however invented and outrageous the allegation of the moment. (To be seen as detached and neutral, reporters became stenographers, echoing McCarthy’s rants.)


o Stoke public fear, in this case of Communism, and sow distrust of East Coast elites.


o Find energy through rallies that are all about Commies all the time. Wave a stack of papers, “I have in my hand the proof.” Brandish but don’t reveal. (Mass gatherings of supporters reached a fever pitch as McCarthy was about to be censured by his fellow Senators.)


In an eerie echo of what Donald Trump claimed about his own hard core supporters, pollster Gallup wrote in 1954, “Even if it was known [by his base] that McCarthy had killed five innocent children, they would probably still go along with him.” (In the Gallup poll, 50% of Americans had a favorable opinion of McCarthy, 29% an unfavorable opinion, and 21% had no opinion.)


Seeing McCarthy’s power, his fellow Republicans were wary of challenging him. Ike comes in for particular criticism by author Tye for not taking on McCarthy even as he pressed his subordinates and those in the Senate to be tough. “Mr. Republican” Robert Taft rationalized McCarthy as he deplored his methods.

McCarthy’s story is also connected to Donald Trump through Roy Cohn, an attorney who was then only in his 20s and who became McCarthy’s protege and chief counsel. Years later, Cohn represented Donald Trump as a defendant in a housing discrimination suit. Cohn then became a major advisor to Donald Trump, teaching him always to stonewall a lawsuit until the opponent tired and to use attack as a principal means of defense.

Best known among McCarthy’s victims were prominent celebrity names, including the Hollywood Ten (Ring Lardner and Dalton Trumbull among others) who were blacklisted. For years they and many others, if they got jobs at all, did so under pseudonyms.

Less known, but very damaging, was the effect on the State Department and American foreign policy. Experienced career professionals were forced to resign. Especially affected were China experts who were accused of “losing China” despite the fact that they were innocent of collaboration and were the best placed to help advise on a China policy in the interest of America after the Communists under Mao seized power.

McCarthy’s downfall came about in a number of ways.

McCarthy overstepped himself when he transitioned from attacking the State Department, with which few ordinary Americans could identify, and began to attack the U.S. Army. In 1954 most voters had proudly served in World War II or had close relatives who were veterans. They were proud of their service, and when McCarthy began to attack George Marshall and other Army leaders, his popularity, which had stood at 50% before the Army-McCarthy hearings, quickly dropped to 34%.

But not least of causes of McCarthy’s downfall were his alcoholism and lack of focus. “Joe’s complete disorganization was obvious to anyone who attended his hearings…and became clearer still if you pored through his professional and personal papers,” writes Tye.

After the Senate’s censure, McCarthy’s influence declined, his health problems mounted, and he died at age 48.

Will Donald Trump follow a similar arc? Years ago, Republicans were equally fearful of attacking a figure that had so much Republican support. But McCarthy was only a U.S. Senator, not the President. Discredited, he lost influence as a coattail upon which Republican candidates could ride. By attacking the U.S. Army, in an era when it enjoyed widespread citizen respect, he went a step too far. He had neither the Bloody Pulpit of the presidency nor the ability to make Cabinet and other appointments as does Trump.

McCarthy’s rise out of nowhere led to an equally sudden crash and burn. We’ll see if history repeats itself. In the meantime, author Larry Tye has written an engaging and pertinent biography of a demagogue who threatened American institutions and who was only constrained with difficulty.

[Courtney Ferriter · Rating 4 out of 5]

** 4 stars **

This was a thorough and excellently-researched biography of Senator Joseph McCarthy of the "Red Scare" and McCarthyism fame. The book details McCarthy's humble beginnings as one of seven children in an Irish-Catholic farming family in Grand Chute, WI, his service in the Marines during WWII, and his early bids for political power prior to becoming an elected U.S. Senator from Wisconsin in 1948. Fun fact: McCarthy actually started out as a New Deal Democrat before becoming a Republican (he learned that being a Democrat was less likely to get him elected in Wisconsin). One thing that is clear from McCarthy's early life and career prior to becoming a senator as biographer Larry Tye portrays him is that McCarthy was always on the lookout for the next big thing. He comes across as quite Machiavellian in nature, willing to do whatever it takes to seize and hold on to political power. He didn't have an ultimate consuming vision that he attempted to bring to fruition, just one power grab after another (which, in a way, makes American fascination with and support of him all the more terrifying).

As a junior senator in 1950, McCarthy gave a now-infamous speech during a Lincoln Day dinner in Wheeling, WV that launched his political career as a Communist witch hunter (or anti-Communist crusader, if you prefer), claiming that he held in his hand a list of 205 names of people who worked in the State Department with known ties to Communism. There was no list, the speech was all rhetorical bluster and showmanship designed to whip the audience into an emotional frenzy. But McCarthy had capitalized on an issue that had Americans very nervous given the early days of the Cold War and the highly public cases of accused Communist spies Alger Hiss in 1948 and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1951. Thus began his short reign of terror as the most well-known anti-Communist in the United States (perhaps even in the world). For about 18 months (Jan 1953-June 1954), McCarthy was chair of a Senate subcommittee that investigated individuals with alleged Communist ties. During this time, working with his right-hand man Roy Cohn and assistant G. David Schine, McCarthy called 546 witnesses, held 445 preliminary inquiries, and 157 investigations, ruining dozens of lives and many more people's career prospects with his unfounded claims, rhetorical bullying, and invocation of the phrase "Fifth Amendment Communist." He was finally brought down by the televised Army-McCarthy hearings in spring 1954 and officially censured and condemned by his colleagues in the Senate in Sept 1954. After this public downfall and loss of power, McCarthy became more and more reliant on alcohol and became withdrawn and depressed, dying in May 1957 at age 48 of severe alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens.

While some parts of this book were slower-going and I wished Tye had written in a more narrative style, I learned SO MUCH about McCarthy and found the book fairly engaging overall. There are also extensive footnotes throughout the text that give the reader even more information about McCarthy, including explanations of some sources that are at odds with one another. Tye was the first person granted access to McCarthy's personal papers, archived at his alma mater Marquette University; McCarthy's widow Jean Kerr donated these papers to Marquette under the condition that they were sealed for 50 years, which became open in 2017. Tye makes good use of these archival records, particularly in a chapter on McCarthy, Cohn, and Schine's closed-door investigations. Although the size and heft of the book is somewhat daunting, it is not quite as long as it seems. From about page 485 to the end of the book consists entirely of notes, an extensive bibliography, and the book's index.

I would recommend this book if you want to learn more about McCarthyism, the Red Scare, anti-Communist fervor in the United States, or how demagogues think and act. Tye draws parallels in the introduction and epilogue between McCarthy and Donald Trump, giving us reason to hope that, as with most demagogues, Trump (like McCarthy before him) will eventually be the maker of his own undoing.

[Katy Richerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Demagogue, Larry Tye offers a very thorough account of the life of Joseph McCarthy and the chaos he wrought on the nation. McCarthy had mastered the art of blowing up a concern way out of proportion. Tye explains that he had a knack for “turning rumors into facts, pinkos into Reds, and possible security risks into proven traitors.” He would throw anything at the wall to see what stuck and it didn’t, he would move on to the next conspiracy.

The chapter entitled The Enablers was particularly interesting. I had basic knowledge of McCarthy but it was enlightening to read about who helped him get to that level of fear mongering. Tye spent a lot of time focusing on Roy Cohn, and I felt that this was a good decision. Cohn is one of the main characters in McCarthy’s story. It is just as important to talk about Cohn as it is McCarthy when discussing McCarthyism, and Tye provided ample evidence as to why that is.

Demagogue is very much worth reading. The topic continues to be relevant to this day.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since the late-1950s, Sen. Joe McCarthy was THE embodiment of all that was evil about American politics. Indeed, I can think of no other American political era that is named for an individual. He skillfully enlarged and tapped into a national nativist movement with a reverent devotion to their interpretation of American exceptionalism, which was exclusive to mostly a non-whites and based on mythology, a history that never happened as they seek to remember it. [For example, nativist is such a misnomer. There is nothing native about people who call themselves nativists. In the United States, they are all descended from immigrants.] McCarthy tapped into the traditional Republican issues to merge it with unfounded conspiracies about a virulent communist threat to the nation. His political opportunism built on exaggeration and lies and it relied on scapegoating and lying for political points as it poisoned American public life. His first public political act was to come to the defense of German soldiers convicted of war crimes at Malmedy!

But despite the heightened drama and political theater upon which it thrived, McCarthyism never felt like it threatened to bring down the nation, despite a growing national paranoia against domestic reform and international communism. People in power in both parties felt they had to tolerate him because of his political base, but they severely limited his impact on public policy. His prey were generally individuals who paid dearly. Tragic episodes like Hollywood blacklisting being perhaps the most memorable of his legacies. Some lost their livelihoods, others were driven to suicide, a few who could afford to do so chose actual exile from the nation. But he never had the support of a majority on the Supreme Court, his party leaders shunned him to unimportant committee assignments—not that it mattered, legislation was never important to this elected legislator. Considering there is now a real probability of de facto constitutional American fascist governance in just a couple of years, it likely means the end of the American Experiment will be permanent. Joe McCarthy’s time in the limelight was overly bright, malignant, and thankfully short. So I hope you can forgive me if I now think of his biography as ironically quaint.

There is no question this book is thorough and describes the events of McCarthy’s political life and its impact on the American psyche quite well. But I could never got over the fact that the author always strained to find the best in McCarthy’s personality, inferring that maybe he was influenced by his wife. Of course, that behavior began long before they met. Even as he chronicles deed after horrible deed done my McCarthy, the author seems to conclude, if he had only chosen a more amiable path, he might have been likable. That may be a bit harsh, but there were too many instances of it; they became too obvious. Thus my final verdict.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy by Larry Tye is a comprehensive and well-written biography that reads almost like a novel, albeit a dystopian one at times.

I'll be honest, when I started the book I was anticipating almost 500 pages of interesting information but, like many long nonfiction books, presented in a rather dry manner. This is a period of American (anti)intellectual history I find quite intriguing so I was ready to just deal with it. But this book is engaging and kept me wanting to read more. No easy task when dealing with a figure that can stir so many strong, negative emotions. The writing is part of what made me round my rating up.

The other aspect that cinched the rating is that much of this information is newly released, which means no matter how much we have read about McCarthy or the period, there is new information here. Any book that can present new material from primary sources, and in an engaging manner, deserves a solid rating.

There will be a few points where the reader will feel a small bit of sympathy for McCarthy. That is a credit to Tye presenting such a vile human being in his full humanity and not just the inhumanity he showed to his fellow humans and countrymen. But that sympathy is short-lived and, for me, quickly overcome. Karma can be a, well, you know, especially when a cowardly bully loses the ability to bully. Then they become a shell of the person they were before, which was a shell of a real person. Yeah, I despise McCarthy and what he helped to do to this country, and I don't apologize for it.

We get glimpses at both McCarthy's personal life and the closed door behind the scenes wheeling and dealings on Capital Hill. While revisiting the events can stir anger and frustration, Tye keeps us focused on the larger arc of the book, namely McCarthy's life in total, which keeps us looking ahead as well as behind.

By ahead we also mean all the way to the newest bully on the block, little Donnie Trump. There is a highly publicized connection between McCarthy and Trump, one pathetic man named Roy Cohn. Between Trump's connection with Cohn and Roger Stone, we can easily see what type of snake Trump is: part McCarthy, part Nixon, and part feces.

I highly recommend this to those interested in this specific period of US history, as well as readers who enjoy well-written biographies. I think that even those on the far right who might still find some redeeming quality in McCarthy will find enough here to keep them reading, though beware, at almost 500 pages it is far longer than the Dr Suess books you're used to.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Scott Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Audiobook) When it comes to someone like Joe McCarthy, it is hard to find an unbiased account of his life. With good reason, his name is synonymous with some of the worst in politics. However, Larry Tye manages to do about as effective a job as can be managed. He covers all aspects of his life, noting his humble origins and what drove him to the path his life would take. McCarthy was driven to success, and little would stand in the way of his goals. He could be charismatic, hard-working, and diligent in his aims. Yet, he was also a braggart, had no qualms about bending the rules or laws for his own aims, and had no real sense of empathy. He was a political animal, one who was out for the headlines and glory. He would come to find it, perhaps in the worst ways possible.

Tye does try to dispel a number of rumors about McCarthy. While he did exploit his military service, his service was legitimate in the South Pacific. McCarthy was not gay, even if some of his closest associates, such as Roy Cohen, were. However, Tye does not sugar coat the failings and impact of McCarthy's actions. Even long after the fact, survivors and their descendants still harbor scars from his actions. Yet, McCarthy could not comprehend the damage his actions did. That cognitive dissonances, where he could slam one person one minute and then be warm and friendly the next, was perhaps the most remarkable aspect of his political life. Eventually, his poor health and the impact of being shamed lead to his early death.

While he did find a few people with communist ties in lower tier positions and did get many government offices to revise their security procedures, his condemnation in history is warranted. He used lies, innuendo, violated constitutional and legal rights to wreck lives, ending careers and driving other to suicide. That is actions could and should have been stopped before they got out of hand is evident in hind-sight, but McCarthy tapped into a populace concerned and wary of the new world order and exploiting the fear of communism led him to his rise. The backlash from the establishment and the revelation of his failings led to his quick descent.

Tye work is great for historical perspective, revealing the man behind the myth. Yet, a current analysis of McCarthy is even more relevant. His tactics and actions have parallels to modern political activity. That one of his protegees was Roy Cohen, who would mentor the current president, Donald Trump, is a key point of the work, and a major point of concern for the author. The audiobook was solid, but the rating would be the same regardless of the format. Worth the time to learn how a demagogue can rise and fall, and what their impacts can have for others.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trump before trump. There's a reason trump and Roy Cohn were such great buddies. He is really a carbon copy of Mccarthy, except Mccarthy grew up on a farm and had to actually work for a living. He liked really young girls like trump also, lied, didn't pay his debts, wanted fame and fortune and thought of himself as quite a cocksmith. Oh yeah, Joe did serve in the military, so he was actually not a coward. But a horrible excuse for a human being, and people thought of him as the American Hitler...also very antisemitic. A real asshole. Didn't care who he hurt or how.

[Tina Panik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This portrait of Senator Joe McCarthy is thorough, enlightening, and dramatic, as Tye manages to capture every contradiction, organize every inconsistency, and showcase every parallel to modern politics. A perfect fit for those who want to understand today by studying yesterday.

This was an ARC from Library Journal's Day of Dialogue in Boston, where Tye graciously signed my book with a broken arm, generously sharing stories of his research with all of us.

[Ron Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

“This is a book about America’s love affair with bullies.” Larry Tye

I just finished Beverly Gage’s (2022) Pulitzer Prize winning biography, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, so I read Tye’s book on McCarthy.

Gage says Hoover had an on-again, off-again relationship with McCarthy. Though he shared most of McCarthy’s views, Hoover worried about the public perception of McCarthy’s tactics and had an instinctual resentment of any competitor who might intrude on FBI territory.

Overall, McCarthy (a not-so-Grand Inquisitor) is an interesting psychological study, but a less interesting person than Hoover who, dislikable as he was, was better rounded and more mysterious. A fellow politician summed McCarthy up simply: “He only had two questions in life: What do I want, and How do I get it?”

McCarthyism was characterized by reckless accusations, guilt by association, fearmongering, outright lies, manipulation of the press, and political double-dealing, followed by ruined lives and multiple suicides. The word ‘demagogue’ is defined as “a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.” Who do these things remind you of? It’s no surprise that McCarthy’s top aide was Roy Cohn, the long-time mentor and lawyer for Donald Trump (see https://tinyurl.com/57h2h295).

McCarthy was a one-note politician who spotted an opportunity to advance himself by witch-hunting communists and went for it with everything he had. The ride lasted five years, ending in his being censured by the Senate, addicted to morphine, and hospitalized repeatedly for alcoholism before he died of liver failure at age 48.

One thing I never heard of that showed up in the bios of both Hoover and McCarthy was the Venona Program, which involved Russian intelligence intercepted by the British and shared with the CIA and FBI. This sounds interesting and, at some point, I’d like to read more about it.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography of Joe McCarthy by Larry Tye. Well researched (as far as I can tell), with access to resources not previously tapped. Well-written, in that it was accessible and readable, unlike some biographies which are so dense as to be indigestible. But also supremely depressing. He writes that the demagoguery of McCarthy will always be with us, continually recycling, sometimes diving below the surface, only to reappear periodically. He mentions Andrew Jackson, Huey Long and others as examples of the type, and of course our 21st century version, Donald Trump. He leaves us with the solace that while these demagogues rise fast, they fall even faster. But he does not suggest any way to prevent their rise in the first place. (but then, is it the job of a biography to do that?) Very well worth reading.
The parallels between McCarthy and Trump are numerous and unsettling:
• First and foremost, find an enemy, "the other" and continually abuse them
• Understand the news cycles, and deliver un-verifiable lies just in time for publication
• Make up or exaggerate stories to suit your narrative, and when caught out in a lie, move on to the next lie
• Coopt the "hatred of elites" that a percentage of America has
• Ditto the anti-intellectual wave that periodically surfaces
• Ignore all norms of political reasonable behavior
• Raise money any way you can, hide its sources
• Delay and obfuscate all legal searches of your behavior
• Defend Nazi / Russian soldiers who killed American GIs.
• Assault the Voice of America
• Destabilize morale in the civil service, especially the State Department
• Frighten the members of your own party so they won't fight you, even when they disagree with you

[Agnes DiPietrantonio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important for understanding how we managed to get where we are today

Where to begin? This sad, sick man caused so much pain and for what? I will grant that the swamp needed to be drained in those days. But was this one-man crusade really necessary? We are still paying for his sins even today. And no thanks to him and his acolyte Roy Cohn we are trying to survive as a democracy under Trump. I was surprised by the list of his enablers, some of whom I once held in high esteem. Thankfully we have survived so far and hopefully will continue to do so.

[The Face of Your Father · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wolf who cried himself. An epic exposé of a candidate that fits the criteria for top five worst American in history; proving how elevated decibels can shadow the unpreparedness of someone not fit for public officiating. Unbelievable research: the finger point of doom forever accusing those who shout NO, there is no glory within this history, only piss and shit that can’t wash off. Fantastic biography by Tye here.

[Bill Baar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a few things about McCarthy. I didn't realize Robert Kennedy worked so closely with him and was a friend. Tye would have written a better book had he let McCarthy's story speak more for itself and avoided weaving in theories about traditions of American Populist Demagoguery from Jackson, Long, Wallace, to Trump. Another second book on Populism and Demagoguery would have served Tye better especially if he better defined things and made a case for why the subjects connect. Including them in this one just creates paragraphs I sped through writing them off as moments of Tye with too much Trump on his mind.