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A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
Acclaimed historian David Oshinsky's chronicling of the life of Senator Joe McCarthy has been called both "nuanced" and "masterful." In this new paperback edition Oshinsky presents us with a work heralded as the finest account available of Joe McCarthy's colorful career. With a storyteller's eye for the dramatic and presentation of fact, and insightful interpretation of human complexity, Oshinsky uncovers the layers of myth to show the true McCarthy. His book reveals the senator from his humble beginnings as a hardworking Irish farmer's son in Wisconsin to his glory days as the architect of America's Cold War crusade against domestic subversion; a man whose advice if heeded, some believe, might have halted the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia and beyond.
A Conspiracy So Immense reveals the internal and external forces that launched McCarthy on this political career, carried him to national prominence, and finally triggered his decline and fall. More than the life of an intensly- even pathologically- ambitious man however, this book is a fascinating portrait of America in the grip of Cold War fear, anger, suspician, and betrayal.
Complete with a new Foreword, A Conspiracy So Immense will continue to keep in the spotlight this historical figure-a man who worked so hard to prosecute "criminals" whose ideals work against that of his- for America.
A Conspiracy So Immense reveals the internal and external forces that launched McCarthy on this political career, carried him to national prominence, and finally triggered his decline and fall. More than the life of an intensly- even pathologically- ambitious man however, this book is a fascinating portrait of America in the grip of Cold War fear, anger, suspician, and betrayal.
Complete with a new Foreword, A Conspiracy So Immense will continue to keep in the spotlight this historical figure-a man who worked so hard to prosecute "criminals" whose ideals work against that of his- for America.
624 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
About the author
David M. Oshinsky
32 books138 followersDavid M. Oshinsky is the director of the Division of Medical Humanities at NYU School of Medicine and a professor in the Department of History at New York University.
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March 4, 2023
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Joseph R. McCarthy (1908-1957) is infamous for his role as the most prominent face of America's anti-communist "Red Scare" movement in the early 1950s. His actions were so conspicuous and controversial that the term "McCarthyism" was coined early in his rise to notoriety.
Oshinsky's biography of McCarthy is almost exactly what sophisticated readers expect from a serious political biography: a sober, reflective, dispassionate and interesting exploration of the facts and circumstances surrounding a subject's life. In this case, Oshinsky has nicely captured the "world of Joe McCarthy" including the factors which both enabled and sustained his political ascent and those which led to his collapse (both physical and professional).
While this biography does touch on McCarthy's personal life (particularly during his childhood) the 507-page narrative is almost entirely concerned with his political career. The inner forces which propelled McCarthy through his friction-filled life are only partially revealed. Readers seeking a balance of focus on his personal and professional lives may be disappointed to find that 90% of the biography is devoted to just the last few years of McCarthy's life.
But...oh, what a few years those were! The story of McCarthy's rise from humble roots to becoming the center of an unprecedented political firestorm (which he ignited, of course) is nothing short of spectacular. Oshinsky lays out the historical record context-and-all with methodical precision - and with appropriate focus on McCarthy's menagerie of enablers, supporters and victims.
"A Conspiracy So Immense" often reads more like an interesting history text than gripping biography. And while Oshinsky's writing style is generally engaging, it is not brimming with lyrical flourishes or colorfully-described scenes. Instead, it is focused on delivering crisply-articulated facts in order to explain the fast-paced, fire-breathing world McCarthy created for himself.
Readers who have lived through McCarthy's time will recognize most of the events described in this book...but with the added context and perspective Oshinsky provides. Younger readers will find that vaguely familiar history is robustly fleshed-out and analyzed. But few readers of any age will fail to notice the ominous parallels between McCarthy's age and our own, with the most pernicious elements of his repertoire being resurrected and redeployed in today's political climate.
Overall, David Oshinsky's "A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy" proves itself a timeless treatment of the life of a curiously complicated and controversial political figure. Readers seeking a biography for entertainment will find this provides an educational, but not always exhilarating, journey. But anyone hoping to better understand Joe McCarthy and his impact on the US political climate will find this biography almost perfect.
Overall rating: 4 stars
Joseph R. McCarthy (1908-1957) is infamous for his role as the most prominent face of America's anti-communist "Red Scare" movement in the early 1950s. His actions were so conspicuous and controversial that the term "McCarthyism" was coined early in his rise to notoriety.
Oshinsky's biography of McCarthy is almost exactly what sophisticated readers expect from a serious political biography: a sober, reflective, dispassionate and interesting exploration of the facts and circumstances surrounding a subject's life. In this case, Oshinsky has nicely captured the "world of Joe McCarthy" including the factors which both enabled and sustained his political ascent and those which led to his collapse (both physical and professional).
While this biography does touch on McCarthy's personal life (particularly during his childhood) the 507-page narrative is almost entirely concerned with his political career. The inner forces which propelled McCarthy through his friction-filled life are only partially revealed. Readers seeking a balance of focus on his personal and professional lives may be disappointed to find that 90% of the biography is devoted to just the last few years of McCarthy's life.
But...oh, what a few years those were! The story of McCarthy's rise from humble roots to becoming the center of an unprecedented political firestorm (which he ignited, of course) is nothing short of spectacular. Oshinsky lays out the historical record context-and-all with methodical precision - and with appropriate focus on McCarthy's menagerie of enablers, supporters and victims.
"A Conspiracy So Immense" often reads more like an interesting history text than gripping biography. And while Oshinsky's writing style is generally engaging, it is not brimming with lyrical flourishes or colorfully-described scenes. Instead, it is focused on delivering crisply-articulated facts in order to explain the fast-paced, fire-breathing world McCarthy created for himself.
Readers who have lived through McCarthy's time will recognize most of the events described in this book...but with the added context and perspective Oshinsky provides. Younger readers will find that vaguely familiar history is robustly fleshed-out and analyzed. But few readers of any age will fail to notice the ominous parallels between McCarthy's age and our own, with the most pernicious elements of his repertoire being resurrected and redeployed in today's political climate.
Overall, David Oshinsky's "A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy" proves itself a timeless treatment of the life of a curiously complicated and controversial political figure. Readers seeking a biography for entertainment will find this provides an educational, but not always exhilarating, journey. But anyone hoping to better understand Joe McCarthy and his impact on the US political climate will find this biography almost perfect.
Overall rating: 4 stars
April 1, 2019
After all these years, David M. Oshinksy's A Conspiracy So Immense remains the best look at Joe McCarthy and the post-WWII Red Scare. Oshinsky spends the early segments of the book demolishing myths about McCarthy's backstory (no, he didn't have a miserable childhood; yes, his anti-Communism was sincere and not just a cynical ploy for attention) to establish his bona fides as a responsible historian...which makes his ultimate demolition of McCarthy more credible and satisfying. Truthfully, Oshinsky shows that McCarthy was a symptom rather than the disease itself, while emphasizing that McCarthy's exploitative recklessness was his downfall. He is willing to concede when McCarthy made a reasonable charge or criticism (his fatal campaign against the Army, ironically enough, might have been the rare case where he raised a valid security concern) but shows that these moments were so folded into grand-standing, demagogic nonsense that any impact was lost. It's the right mixture of analysis, insight and readability; there are more in-depth books on the era but few as objective and well-written as this one.
December 18, 2016
The overwhelming feeling I am left with after completing this book is one of sadness. Not due to anything that Oshinsky does or does not do. Instead, it is due to the subject of this book, the excesses that at least in part defined the man, the many people who were hurt by him, and the inexcusable apathy or cowardice of people in positions of power who could have stopped him but chose not to do so.
Oshinsky strives to maintain impartiality as he writes of Joseph McCarthy's childhood. Even growing up in rural Wisconsin, he was ambitious and unscrupulous when his needs suited him to be. His service in WWII was calculated for political effect and benefit only - McCarthy showed no desire to actually help his country. He saw it as a means to launch himself into the Senate in 1946. He fabricated his combat experiences, and as soon as he thought he had been in the Pacific long enough, he wanted no further part in the Marines.
Most of the book concerns McCarthy's time in the Senate, and his repeated excesses and fights with, well, just about everyone. At the height of the Communist scare following WWII, he made this his single issue at the expense of everything else. His overbearing tactics made many people cringe and turn away, yet very few people openly challenged him. Both President Truman, and later President Eisenhower, believed that the best way to deal with McCarthy was to ignore him. This was unfortunate, as McCarthy hurt many innocent people, dragging them through the mud and trying to embarrass them. Truman eventually began attacking back, but by then the Korean War was going badly and he was losing stature due to his firing of Douglas MacArthur. When Eisenhower took office, he employed the same procedure that he did on most issues: stay above the fray and operate either indirectly behind the scenes, or not at all. He tried the latter at first, but after waiting way too long, employed the former and ultimately was able to help bring about McCarthy's downfall. Many people were driven out of government, despite stellar service records and no real evidence of disloyalty. Others were rendered timid and afraid to defend themselves. And in one case, a young man committed suicide shortly after testifying at a McCarthy subcommittee hearing.
Oshinsky does a very good job explaining the culture of the Senate during McCarthy's time there, who his supporters were (and why), and who opposed him (not many). Indeed much of the book is about his relationships with other Senators. That the Senate ultimately voted to censure him was less the result of vigorous prosecution (although Ralph Flanders was determined to put a big check on McCarthy) than it was the result of McCarthy's own recklessness and disregard for others. McCarthy, more than anyone else, brought about his own downfall. He was destructive and impulsive individual from an early age - unable to control himself verbally (attacking anyone who dared to disagree with him) and physically (his heavy drinking ultimately resulted in his death at age 49).
While Oshinsky is strong on McCarthy's time in the Senate, and on the various committee investigations that McCarthy ran roughshod over, he lingered only briefly over the political scene in Wisconsin in 1946. Further context behind how McCarthy was able to get elected, the issues that Wisconsin voters cared the most about, and more about the recent political history of Wisconsin would have been helpful. Oshinsky does not ignore these things, he just does not go into them in the level of detail that he does later on during the Army-McCarthy hearings or on McCarthy's relationship with his chief counsel Roy Cohn.
Overall, this is a solid biography of a tortured soul who became so blinded by his cause that he was willing to sacrifice any common sense of decorum and humaneness in his ultimately futile attempt to root out Communist subversion in the U.S. Government. Anyone with an interest in the 1950s, McCarthyism, the Cold War, or the presidencies of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower will find this book interesting. And sad.
Grade: A-
Oshinsky strives to maintain impartiality as he writes of Joseph McCarthy's childhood. Even growing up in rural Wisconsin, he was ambitious and unscrupulous when his needs suited him to be. His service in WWII was calculated for political effect and benefit only - McCarthy showed no desire to actually help his country. He saw it as a means to launch himself into the Senate in 1946. He fabricated his combat experiences, and as soon as he thought he had been in the Pacific long enough, he wanted no further part in the Marines.
Most of the book concerns McCarthy's time in the Senate, and his repeated excesses and fights with, well, just about everyone. At the height of the Communist scare following WWII, he made this his single issue at the expense of everything else. His overbearing tactics made many people cringe and turn away, yet very few people openly challenged him. Both President Truman, and later President Eisenhower, believed that the best way to deal with McCarthy was to ignore him. This was unfortunate, as McCarthy hurt many innocent people, dragging them through the mud and trying to embarrass them. Truman eventually began attacking back, but by then the Korean War was going badly and he was losing stature due to his firing of Douglas MacArthur. When Eisenhower took office, he employed the same procedure that he did on most issues: stay above the fray and operate either indirectly behind the scenes, or not at all. He tried the latter at first, but after waiting way too long, employed the former and ultimately was able to help bring about McCarthy's downfall. Many people were driven out of government, despite stellar service records and no real evidence of disloyalty. Others were rendered timid and afraid to defend themselves. And in one case, a young man committed suicide shortly after testifying at a McCarthy subcommittee hearing.
Oshinsky does a very good job explaining the culture of the Senate during McCarthy's time there, who his supporters were (and why), and who opposed him (not many). Indeed much of the book is about his relationships with other Senators. That the Senate ultimately voted to censure him was less the result of vigorous prosecution (although Ralph Flanders was determined to put a big check on McCarthy) than it was the result of McCarthy's own recklessness and disregard for others. McCarthy, more than anyone else, brought about his own downfall. He was destructive and impulsive individual from an early age - unable to control himself verbally (attacking anyone who dared to disagree with him) and physically (his heavy drinking ultimately resulted in his death at age 49).
While Oshinsky is strong on McCarthy's time in the Senate, and on the various committee investigations that McCarthy ran roughshod over, he lingered only briefly over the political scene in Wisconsin in 1946. Further context behind how McCarthy was able to get elected, the issues that Wisconsin voters cared the most about, and more about the recent political history of Wisconsin would have been helpful. Oshinsky does not ignore these things, he just does not go into them in the level of detail that he does later on during the Army-McCarthy hearings or on McCarthy's relationship with his chief counsel Roy Cohn.
Overall, this is a solid biography of a tortured soul who became so blinded by his cause that he was willing to sacrifice any common sense of decorum and humaneness in his ultimately futile attempt to root out Communist subversion in the U.S. Government. Anyone with an interest in the 1950s, McCarthyism, the Cold War, or the presidencies of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower will find this book interesting. And sad.
Grade: A-
April 2, 2011
I have always been fascinated by the meteoric rise and fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and the early days of the Cold War in general. Oshinsky sets out to present a fair and balanced portrait of the much-maligned progenitor of the communist witch hunt, seeking out interviews with childhood friends, neighbours and co-workers of the Wisconsin politician in an effort to better understand his formative years. The result is a well-written, if dry, account of an intensely ambitious and patriotic man, like so many politicians able to be fair and vindictive, loyal and conniving, cautious and careless with little awareness of the contradictions in his words and actions.
McCarthy was not an unfeeling monster, but he was responsible for ruining the lives and reputations of those he impugned with his reckless accusations. Scorning those who adhered to a strict party loyalty to advance their careers, he was a born demagogue, whose ambition and power-hunger were apparent to all except the man he saw daily in the mirror. A drinker and ladies-man when single and a relapsed drinker and faithful husband when he married late in life; an early proponent of treating woman equally under the law as a Wisconsin judge, a finger-pointing anti-communist who condemned based upon association and hearsay as a ranking senator. McCarthy was able to tap into the outrage and bewilderment over China's fall to the communists—to a certain segment of the population, only treachery made this catastrophe explicable—and sensed an opportunity to advance both what he perceived to be the security interests of the United States and his own unfocussed political career. Once the Truman administration had been succeeded by that of the Republican Eisenhower, McCarthy became enmeshed in the need to escalate his condemnatory efforts in order to remain in the national spotlight whilst simultaneously losing the easy target of a Democratic White House—and in opting to attack the Army itself, made what proved to be a tactical blunder from which he would not recover.
Information recently obtained from the KGB archives show that McCarthy was not wrong in suspecting that communists and fellow-travellers had infiltrated the federal government bureaucracies: but the specific individuals that he accused were, with a few exceptions, entirely innocent; and the actual moles and traitors managed to escape his investigations. It is almost certain that he genuinely believed in the peril of communism to the West and the need to take a hard line at home; it is also almost certain that he never fully understood the damage he caused in his efforts to combat it. His overzealous and heavy-handed tactics proved to be terribly divisive and counterproductive, hastened his rapid fall and demise, and attached his name permanently to the procedure of trial by innuendo.
Oshinsky lays the entire story out, attempting to be even-handed even if he cannot conceal his distaste for his subject at certain times. He also clearly distinguishes those actions - like the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee - in which McCarthy took no part; indeed, he chronicles several attempts by the senator to undo the personal and professional damage caused by his fellow anti-communists. An interesting and informative biography—IMO a better treatment of this polarizing Fifties political powerhouse than the earlier effort by a uniformly hostile Richard Rovere.
McCarthy was not an unfeeling monster, but he was responsible for ruining the lives and reputations of those he impugned with his reckless accusations. Scorning those who adhered to a strict party loyalty to advance their careers, he was a born demagogue, whose ambition and power-hunger were apparent to all except the man he saw daily in the mirror. A drinker and ladies-man when single and a relapsed drinker and faithful husband when he married late in life; an early proponent of treating woman equally under the law as a Wisconsin judge, a finger-pointing anti-communist who condemned based upon association and hearsay as a ranking senator. McCarthy was able to tap into the outrage and bewilderment over China's fall to the communists—to a certain segment of the population, only treachery made this catastrophe explicable—and sensed an opportunity to advance both what he perceived to be the security interests of the United States and his own unfocussed political career. Once the Truman administration had been succeeded by that of the Republican Eisenhower, McCarthy became enmeshed in the need to escalate his condemnatory efforts in order to remain in the national spotlight whilst simultaneously losing the easy target of a Democratic White House—and in opting to attack the Army itself, made what proved to be a tactical blunder from which he would not recover.
Information recently obtained from the KGB archives show that McCarthy was not wrong in suspecting that communists and fellow-travellers had infiltrated the federal government bureaucracies: but the specific individuals that he accused were, with a few exceptions, entirely innocent; and the actual moles and traitors managed to escape his investigations. It is almost certain that he genuinely believed in the peril of communism to the West and the need to take a hard line at home; it is also almost certain that he never fully understood the damage he caused in his efforts to combat it. His overzealous and heavy-handed tactics proved to be terribly divisive and counterproductive, hastened his rapid fall and demise, and attached his name permanently to the procedure of trial by innuendo.
Oshinsky lays the entire story out, attempting to be even-handed even if he cannot conceal his distaste for his subject at certain times. He also clearly distinguishes those actions - like the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee - in which McCarthy took no part; indeed, he chronicles several attempts by the senator to undo the personal and professional damage caused by his fellow anti-communists. An interesting and informative biography—IMO a better treatment of this polarizing Fifties political powerhouse than the earlier effort by a uniformly hostile Richard Rovere.
May 29, 2012
This was an excellent biography of a very nasty man. I read this after reading several other books in which McCarthy made an appearance because I wanted to understand what made this guy tick. I am not sure that this book did that, but out of the few biographies written specifically about JM, it seemed to have the potential for being the most fair. Parenthetically I would not consider a book written on this subject by William Buckley to be a fair rendition on JM and his times.
What I came away with - and I preface this by saying it is probably too simplistic - was that JM was a self-serving bully who tried to destroy everying that came between him and his so-called mission. I do think that he was, in a sense, a deluded true believer. But he was also amoral and devoid of any sense of empathy for others, decency or shame. This bully rose to power because of the red paranoia of the time fomented by the Republican Party for the most part and the wimpiness of those around him who allowed his bullying and abuses. There are really few heroes in this biography. Edward R. Murrow, Margaret Chase Smith, Drew Pearson, and Joseph Welch (chief counsel for Army in Army-McCarthy hearings) are among those. Among the cowards are Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The latter acted or non-acted (more precisely) in their own political self interest when they had sufficient clout to do some damage to the relentless McCarthy rampage. Of course there are others who were heroes and villains, and they exemplify the cowardice of people to stand up to a bully when their self interest is at stake. When Smith tried to reign him in early on, her Congressional colleagues pulled up their testicles and slunk away.
This book was well written and meticulously documented. If anything it was a bit too detailed and some of the details dragged down the narrative. But in all an excellent history of the man and his times.
What I came away with - and I preface this by saying it is probably too simplistic - was that JM was a self-serving bully who tried to destroy everying that came between him and his so-called mission. I do think that he was, in a sense, a deluded true believer. But he was also amoral and devoid of any sense of empathy for others, decency or shame. This bully rose to power because of the red paranoia of the time fomented by the Republican Party for the most part and the wimpiness of those around him who allowed his bullying and abuses. There are really few heroes in this biography. Edward R. Murrow, Margaret Chase Smith, Drew Pearson, and Joseph Welch (chief counsel for Army in Army-McCarthy hearings) are among those. Among the cowards are Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The latter acted or non-acted (more precisely) in their own political self interest when they had sufficient clout to do some damage to the relentless McCarthy rampage. Of course there are others who were heroes and villains, and they exemplify the cowardice of people to stand up to a bully when their self interest is at stake. When Smith tried to reign him in early on, her Congressional colleagues pulled up their testicles and slunk away.
This book was well written and meticulously documented. If anything it was a bit too detailed and some of the details dragged down the narrative. But in all an excellent history of the man and his times.
August 17, 2016
To the modern ear, "McCarthyism" is synonymous with "anti-Communist witch hunt." In truth, when the euphemism was current it meant more than that. Harry Truman defined it as “the corruption of truth, abandonment of the due process of law. It is the use of the big lie and the unfounded accusation against any citizen in the name of Americanism of security. It is the rise to power of the demagogue who lives on untruth; it is the spreading of fear and the destruction of faith in every level of our society” (348-9). If Truman’s definition is accepted, “McCarthyism” becomes familiar in 2016. While the witch hunts and shaming are no longer aimed at Communists, Senator Joe McCarthy’s tactics seem to be coming back into style, as if they’re a clothing style that has just been rediscovered.
A Conspiracy So Immense, Professor David M. Oshinsky’s tome on McCarthy and his “-ism,” delivers a detailed account of the American mood in the first half of the 1950s. With chapters on the history of American communism and journalism (which may have worked equally well as appendices), Oshinsky succeeds brilliantly at keeping the many balls in the air that brought the notorious Senator to power and eventually to censure and death. He paints a picture of a man who seemed to plan on taking power but not knowing what to do with it, almost like Heath Ledger’s analogy of a dog chasing a car in Dark Knight. If it seems long and at times disjointed (and it is almost 200 pages longer than most other academic biographies of McCarthy), it is because the extra details, explanations, and anecdotes not only make the story richer, but add a deep context that holds the attention of someone well versed on the subject while also keeping the leisure reader--a staple in the Oxford University Press market--involved no more strenuously than the most meager intellectual jog through the park.
McCarthy’s career was complicated. Chroniclers of the famed demagogue have had trouble weeding out the legends from the facts, while many revisionist apologists have attempted to contribute to something of a reclamation project of the late Senator, based on new claims that McCarthy was right about some of his victims. If new evidence has been presented on McCarthy and the subjects of his victims, that evidence did not make its way into Oshinsky’s 2007 reissue of the 1980s watermark high treatment of McCarthy. What might be more significant is that without addressing whether or not McCarthy was “right” about alleged Communists, Oshinsky seems to be arguing that whether these people were Communists or not was immaterial. What the author, and the Senators who finally stand up to McCarthy, seem to be saying is that is that while Communist subversion may be a problem, that problem can not be solved by oppression of free speech and free thought. The author is also careful to highlight, without overstating, the significance of identity politics, pointing to McCarthy’s not-so-subtle association of Communist sympathy with Judaism and “sexual perversion.”
Oshinsky manages the people of his story well, for the most part. Much like in McCarthy’s hearings, almost nobody comes out of A Conspiracy So Immense looking particularly good. President Truman appears partisan and bulldogish; President Eisenhower weak and more concerned with the image of the presidency than the state of the nation. The Democrats are presented as aware of McCarthy’s excesses early on, but fail to act in any substantial way, whereas the Republicans, equally concerned with McCarthy’s behavior, see it as a wave they can (and did) ride to the majority. Once in power, they found they couldn’t control the monster they’d made, and so most of them continued to stand by him in public, even as they grumbled in private. Even Senator Ralph Flanders of Vermont, the author of the resolution that ultimately censured McCarthy in 1954, is quoted as not wanting to help the Democrats by going after a fellow Republican. For his part, Lyndon Johnson sees McCarthy as “the Republican’s problem,” and remains silent until the last possible moment, when the die of McCarthy’s censure was already cast. All in all, McCarthy’s contemporaries struggled with a combination of disbelief, denial, party loyalty, political opportunism, and self preservation. This kind of behavior may have been hard to believe in 1983, when the book’s first edition was published, or even in 2005, when the new edition was released. It is no longer so difficult.
If A Conspiracy So Immense has shortcomings, they are few. The many characters involved in the multilayered tale drop in and out, and often disappear entirely without explanation. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, so central early on for being the first Republican to publicly denounce McCarthy in 1950, disappears from the narrative in 1952, simply declared as “probably need[ing] a rest.” Likewise, G. David Schine, the friend of McCarthy staffer Roy Cohn and apparent catalyst of McCarthy’s downfall, vanishes with the Army-McCarthy hearings. Oshinsky also makes an assertion about McCarthy’s mindset during the buildup to censure. He writes that McCarthy “had begun to think in terms of a third party movement with Joe McCarthy as the presidential nominee. He wanted his enemies to see this groundswell, and he needed to see it himself” (485-6). This assertion, while certainly good for the story, appears unsubstantiated and never again addressed. On the contrary, in the book’s conclusion Oshinsky states that McCarthy “had no desire to lead a movement, to run for higher office, or to formulate a program that went beyond the simple exposure of Communists” (507). These two seemingly contradictory statements, which are presented not as possibilities but equal truths, leaves the reader wondering which McCarthy they’d been dealing with the whole time: the scheming opportunist or the dedicated red-hunter.
The cliches that history repeats itself and that we can learn from our past to the benefit of the future are always appealing. Though, as British historian A.J.P. Taylor has suggested, trying to make judgments on the present and future based on the past is dangerous business. That said, if there is a moment where the past at least rhymes, the rise of a bombastic outsider in American politics whose arsenal consists not of actual votes or authority but bluster, smear, and vague generality devoid of evidence, it is today. In this regard, Oshinsky’s well-regarded biography, an accepted standard on McCarthyism for over thirty years, is worth dusting off, if only to show readers how far we’ve come, and how easily we can slip.
A Conspiracy So Immense, Professor David M. Oshinsky’s tome on McCarthy and his “-ism,” delivers a detailed account of the American mood in the first half of the 1950s. With chapters on the history of American communism and journalism (which may have worked equally well as appendices), Oshinsky succeeds brilliantly at keeping the many balls in the air that brought the notorious Senator to power and eventually to censure and death. He paints a picture of a man who seemed to plan on taking power but not knowing what to do with it, almost like Heath Ledger’s analogy of a dog chasing a car in Dark Knight. If it seems long and at times disjointed (and it is almost 200 pages longer than most other academic biographies of McCarthy), it is because the extra details, explanations, and anecdotes not only make the story richer, but add a deep context that holds the attention of someone well versed on the subject while also keeping the leisure reader--a staple in the Oxford University Press market--involved no more strenuously than the most meager intellectual jog through the park.
McCarthy’s career was complicated. Chroniclers of the famed demagogue have had trouble weeding out the legends from the facts, while many revisionist apologists have attempted to contribute to something of a reclamation project of the late Senator, based on new claims that McCarthy was right about some of his victims. If new evidence has been presented on McCarthy and the subjects of his victims, that evidence did not make its way into Oshinsky’s 2007 reissue of the 1980s watermark high treatment of McCarthy. What might be more significant is that without addressing whether or not McCarthy was “right” about alleged Communists, Oshinsky seems to be arguing that whether these people were Communists or not was immaterial. What the author, and the Senators who finally stand up to McCarthy, seem to be saying is that is that while Communist subversion may be a problem, that problem can not be solved by oppression of free speech and free thought. The author is also careful to highlight, without overstating, the significance of identity politics, pointing to McCarthy’s not-so-subtle association of Communist sympathy with Judaism and “sexual perversion.”
Oshinsky manages the people of his story well, for the most part. Much like in McCarthy’s hearings, almost nobody comes out of A Conspiracy So Immense looking particularly good. President Truman appears partisan and bulldogish; President Eisenhower weak and more concerned with the image of the presidency than the state of the nation. The Democrats are presented as aware of McCarthy’s excesses early on, but fail to act in any substantial way, whereas the Republicans, equally concerned with McCarthy’s behavior, see it as a wave they can (and did) ride to the majority. Once in power, they found they couldn’t control the monster they’d made, and so most of them continued to stand by him in public, even as they grumbled in private. Even Senator Ralph Flanders of Vermont, the author of the resolution that ultimately censured McCarthy in 1954, is quoted as not wanting to help the Democrats by going after a fellow Republican. For his part, Lyndon Johnson sees McCarthy as “the Republican’s problem,” and remains silent until the last possible moment, when the die of McCarthy’s censure was already cast. All in all, McCarthy’s contemporaries struggled with a combination of disbelief, denial, party loyalty, political opportunism, and self preservation. This kind of behavior may have been hard to believe in 1983, when the book’s first edition was published, or even in 2005, when the new edition was released. It is no longer so difficult.
If A Conspiracy So Immense has shortcomings, they are few. The many characters involved in the multilayered tale drop in and out, and often disappear entirely without explanation. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, so central early on for being the first Republican to publicly denounce McCarthy in 1950, disappears from the narrative in 1952, simply declared as “probably need[ing] a rest.” Likewise, G. David Schine, the friend of McCarthy staffer Roy Cohn and apparent catalyst of McCarthy’s downfall, vanishes with the Army-McCarthy hearings. Oshinsky also makes an assertion about McCarthy’s mindset during the buildup to censure. He writes that McCarthy “had begun to think in terms of a third party movement with Joe McCarthy as the presidential nominee. He wanted his enemies to see this groundswell, and he needed to see it himself” (485-6). This assertion, while certainly good for the story, appears unsubstantiated and never again addressed. On the contrary, in the book’s conclusion Oshinsky states that McCarthy “had no desire to lead a movement, to run for higher office, or to formulate a program that went beyond the simple exposure of Communists” (507). These two seemingly contradictory statements, which are presented not as possibilities but equal truths, leaves the reader wondering which McCarthy they’d been dealing with the whole time: the scheming opportunist or the dedicated red-hunter.
The cliches that history repeats itself and that we can learn from our past to the benefit of the future are always appealing. Though, as British historian A.J.P. Taylor has suggested, trying to make judgments on the present and future based on the past is dangerous business. That said, if there is a moment where the past at least rhymes, the rise of a bombastic outsider in American politics whose arsenal consists not of actual votes or authority but bluster, smear, and vague generality devoid of evidence, it is today. In this regard, Oshinsky’s well-regarded biography, an accepted standard on McCarthyism for over thirty years, is worth dusting off, if only to show readers how far we’ve come, and how easily we can slip.
March 14, 2022
Robert Caro’s series on LBJ has certain done a number on me: most contemporary political history now looks barely-researched and fatally lacking in pizzazz. Not David Oshinsky’s magnificently-titled biography of Tail-Gunner Joe.
A Conspiracy So Immense is a wry, perceptive and quite astonishingly authoritative study of McCarthy’s peak years, with the author junking the received wisdom and going instead for the truth, both in the detail and his overarching narrative. McCarthy was a true believer not a con man, argues Oshinsky; a skillful communicator not a thicko; a bullying braggart who never did quite find a spy – but who perhaps deserves a modicum of credit for identifying genuine failings in his nation’s security.
Could it ever truly have been worth it, though? Along the way, McCarthy trashed reputations and ruined lives – at least one of his victims killed himself. And how did he get away with it all for so long? That’s in Oshinsky’s purview too: he’s only slightly interested in his subject’s childhood – regarding it mostly as a chance to stick the boot into rival biographers – but devotes entire, zippy chapters to Eisenhower, the Senate establishment and the fourth estate, revealing how their complaisance, fear or sympathy for McCarthy’s crusade aided his rise to prominence.
This is an outrageously entertaining book, peppered with choice excerpts from congressional transcripts, colourful details, and the author’s deadpan witticisms, and breaking off whenever it matters to dig out a crucial document and finally set the record straight.
A Conspiracy So Immense is a wry, perceptive and quite astonishingly authoritative study of McCarthy’s peak years, with the author junking the received wisdom and going instead for the truth, both in the detail and his overarching narrative. McCarthy was a true believer not a con man, argues Oshinsky; a skillful communicator not a thicko; a bullying braggart who never did quite find a spy – but who perhaps deserves a modicum of credit for identifying genuine failings in his nation’s security.
Could it ever truly have been worth it, though? Along the way, McCarthy trashed reputations and ruined lives – at least one of his victims killed himself. And how did he get away with it all for so long? That’s in Oshinsky’s purview too: he’s only slightly interested in his subject’s childhood – regarding it mostly as a chance to stick the boot into rival biographers – but devotes entire, zippy chapters to Eisenhower, the Senate establishment and the fourth estate, revealing how their complaisance, fear or sympathy for McCarthy’s crusade aided his rise to prominence.
This is an outrageously entertaining book, peppered with choice excerpts from congressional transcripts, colourful details, and the author’s deadpan witticisms, and breaking off whenever it matters to dig out a crucial document and finally set the record straight.
December 17, 2019
500+ pages but very little analysis. Has many of the negative characteristics of biographies- lots of facts but with little connection. A couple chapters provide some context to wider history but feel out of place and irrelevant to Oshinsky's narrative. The facts in the story ask a lot of questions that Oshinsky does not answer. Very very detailed at times but somehow still leaves some important aspects of any American's life out.
February 13, 2020
Well written. The parallels between the way McCarthy conducted himself and the way Trump does are striking, and of course there is the Roy Cohn link (McCarthy's Chief Counsel and Trump's lawyer for many years). There are also parallels with how the Republicans acted in both instances. There is a sadness to McCarthy's character, a relentless desire to be liked, to be the center of attention, that masks tremendous insecurities. The book does a good job of giving you all aspects and indeed by the end for all the damage he did to people's lives I felt a twinge of empathy for the man. It was like he had a disease that he didn't know he had but fought on, almost as a tragic figure might do in a Shakespearean play.
December 12, 2012
What a fricken disaster of a person McCarthy was. However bad he was though, he ( I hope) taught us a lesson - the lesson that we must stand against evil immediately. Standing by while bad things happen in hopes of just getting by is unacceptable, particularly in our political arena. We must stand for good.
The book was extremely thick and into politics, so be prepared for that when reading this book. I had to fight through the book, because in addition to my revulsion to McCarthy the political detail (versus more of a personal biography if that makes sense) was incredibly thick.
The book was extremely thick and into politics, so be prepared for that when reading this book. I had to fight through the book, because in addition to my revulsion to McCarthy the political detail (versus more of a personal biography if that makes sense) was incredibly thick.
March 21, 2021
A little long-winded for me, could have been shorter. Author often quoted conversations or testimony that didn't seem to make a point or relate to the current topic. Author also assumes that you know a lot about mccarthy (I read this book because I knew nothing about him) frequently referring to topics not covered yet on the book.
September 10, 2022
This book is immensely interesting and is a completely straightforward look at the facts and pivotal moments concerning McCarthy's political career while maintaining a dramatic tone to the events where needed. I found myself engaged constantly as I read about how far McCarthy got and how wide his sphere of influence became.This dramatic tone only goes so far however in making an easy read. As the book goes on and on it becomes difficult to keep track of the people surrounding McCarthy, and the subject himself becomes exhausting to listen to over he 500 page span. Recommended as a source of information, but not as entertainment persay.
March 26, 2024
I read this in 2013 and thought it a good even-handed account of Wisconsin Sen Joseph McCarthy. It was a little slow at times.
He wasn't just chasing mirages, there was a lot of Communist activity in the USA that needed cleaned up, from Alger Hiss on down. The USSR had just been our war-time ally a decade prior. While a lot of people began to see the barbarity of the USSR and moved away, there were still quite a few true believers.
McCarthy overdid it to the point of intruding on personal liberty, and that became the problem that led to his downfall.
If Patrick J Buchanan is down with this book, you know it will bring out some squeals.
He wasn't just chasing mirages, there was a lot of Communist activity in the USA that needed cleaned up, from Alger Hiss on down. The USSR had just been our war-time ally a decade prior. While a lot of people began to see the barbarity of the USSR and moved away, there were still quite a few true believers.
McCarthy overdid it to the point of intruding on personal liberty, and that became the problem that led to his downfall.
If Patrick J Buchanan is down with this book, you know it will bring out some squeals.
September 10, 2019
Only read 1st 100 pages. Yes, it has good anecdotes and is helpful with some narrative elements, but I just don't want to be told the author's viewpoint every sentence. The smarmy Joe then called this person. He said this, but he was probably lying … just throughout. I am moving on to other Eisenhower / Truman era accounts hopefully just telling the events and letting the story speak for itself.
August 3, 2023
500+ pages but very little analysis. Has many of the negative characteristics of biographies- lots of facts but with little connection. A couple chapters provide some context to wider history but feel out of place and irrelevant to Oshinsky's narrative. The facts in the story ask a lot of questions that Oshinsky does not answer. Very very detailed at times but somehow still leaves some important aspects of any American's life out.
May 11, 2020
Caro-like investigation of Joe McCarthy's repulsive political career. The kind of book I eat up, but recognize it's not everyone's cup of tea.
September 23, 2020
Detailed & Comprehensive. But sometimes overly detailed about the numerous hearings.
December 26, 2023
Whew. That was a trek. Fascinating, relevant today, and there was so much I didn't know when I thought I already had the general idea.
February 28, 2013
Extraordinarily researched and a marvelous historical biography for one of the most compelling figures in American history. This fills in a lot of gaps and answers a lot of questions that my history teacher and books had left out.
Read
October 28, 2020Very detailed recount of the McCarthy era. I would have liked some more detail on the Hollywood blacklisting. I didn't realize the public animosity toward FDR and Truman. McCarthy had a lot of personality traits in common with current politicians.
May 25, 2014
Very well written account of a complicated man that few will ever understand. He destroyed himself through ego and the abuse of alcohol.
January 3, 2016
Good read for those who have an interest in McCarthy. More sympathetic to McCarthy than most accounts.
March 4, 2016
Reads like a novel, yet it is very well researched. McCarthy comes off as a very scary figure, but also very human. As the author makes clear, the atmosphere of the time was even scarier!
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