Shooting Star

The Brief Arc of Joe Mccarthy

by Tom Wicker

Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy had his "15 minutes of fame"--or more accurately, five years--as a so-called Communist hunter in the early 1950s, before he was censured by the Senate in 1955. His name, with an "-ism" attached, has since entered the dictionary with a definition that often includes the words "witch-hunt," "demagogue," and "red-baiting." In SHOOTING STAR, the distinguished New York Times writer Tom Wicker recalls those troubled times, placing McCarthy in the larger political and historical context. Though McCarthy may be seen as a clown, a threatening figure who ruined lives, or a truth-teller--depending on one's perspective--Wicker traces the sources of the antiliberal views he espoused as far back as the New Deal, and shows how Cold War tensions peeled back the raw, divisive national sentiments that McCarthy tapped into.

Editions of Shooting Star

ISBN

9780151010820

Binding/Format

Hardcover

Publisher

Harcourt

Date

2006

Price

$1.00

Used, Very Good

Publisher Notes

Joe McCarthy first became visible to the nation on February 9, 1950, when he delivered a Lincoln Day address to local Republicans in Wheeling, West Virginia. That night he declared, "I have here in my hand a list of 205 [members of the Communist Party] still working and shaping policy in the State Department." Anticommunism was already a cause embraced by the Republican Party as a whole; McCarthy tapped into this current and turned it into a flood. Little more than five years later, after countless hearings and stormy speeches and after incalculable damage to ordinary Americans and the nation itself, McCarthy's Senate colleagues voted sixty-seven to twenty-two to censure him for his reckless accusations and fabrications. We know today that not one prosecution resulted from McCarthy's investigations into communists in the U.S. government.

Media Reviews

"Although Wicker's take on McCarthy isn't groundbreaking, he combines insightful political history with a deft character study to craft a wonderful introduction to this crucial American figure."

Synopses

Joe McCarthy first became visible to the nation on February 9, 1950, when he delivered a Lincoln Day address to local Republicans in Wheeling, West Virginia. That night he declared, "I have here in my hand a list of 205 [members of the Communist Party] still working and shaping policy in the State Department." Anticommunism was already a cause embraced by the Republican Party as a whole; McCarthy tapped into this current and turned it into a flood. Little more than five years later, after countless hearings and stormy speeches and after incalculable damage to ordinary Americans and the nation itself, McCarthy's Senate colleagues voted 67-22 to censure him for his reckless accusations and fabrications. We know today that not one prosecution resulted from McCarthy's investigations into communists in the U.S. government.--Publisher description.

First Line

One January morning in Washington in 1957, as I walked along a marble-and-tile corridor of the Old Senate Office Building, only the sound of my footfalls broke the silence.

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