A Genius for Confusion: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Politics of Deceit

This new biography of Joseph R. McCarthy shows how the Wisconsin Senator’s campaign against American Communists prized sensation above truth. McCarthy often put aside his hunt for Reds while he pursued his anti-communist critics. He fought foes not just with noisy accusations but with covert gossip. He was gullible enough that some con artists managed to lure him on wild goose chases. The man who charged others with being “dupes” was sometimes one himself. Historian Fried’s book builds on over a decade’s research in a multitude of sources, many of them newly opened—not just McCarthy’s own papers but those of forty-seven Senate colleagues, plus records of journalists, observers, and activists. It brings to light such theatrical episodes as a CIA “op” against McCarthy as well as Joe’s quixotic search for Soviet security chief Lavrenti Beria in Spain. The resulting multi-focal perspective on the political and institutional setting in which McCarthy operated with such abandon is full of drama.