Friendship And Fratricide: An Analysis Of Whittaker Chambers And Alger Hiss
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Good
One of the most explosive political trials of the twentieth century — the Hiss-Chambers affair — tore through American public life like a thunderbolt, leaving behind a trail of ruined reputations, shattered careers, and unanswered questions that linger to this day. In Friendship and Fratricide, psychiatrist Meyer A. Zeligs presents a groundbreaking psychoanalytic study of two men bound by fate and destroyed by accusation: Whittaker Chambers, the self-confessed Communist spy turned informant, and Alger Hiss, the distinguished State Department official he accused of espionage. Drawing on years of personal interviews, correspondence, and meticulous archival research, Zeligs constructs a detailed portrait of both men's psychological histories, arguing that their strange, entangled relationship was rooted in deep personal compulsions rather than simple political ideology. What sets this work apart is its unflinching willingness to apply clinical rigour to political mythology, treating the Cold War's most notorious betrayal not as a matter of ideology but as a deeply human drama of identity, projection, and psychological need. Zeligs writes with the authority of a trained physician and the narrative instinct of a seasoned biographer, illuminating the unconscious forces that shaped one of America's most divisive controversies. For anyone who believes the full story of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers has already been told, this landmark study will compel a profound and unsettling reconsideration.
Author: Meyer A. Zeligs
Format: Hardback
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Good
One of the most explosive political trials of the twentieth century — the Hiss-Chambers affair — tore through American public life like a thunderbolt, leaving behind a trail of ruined reputations, shattered careers, and unanswered questions that linger to this day. In Friendship and Fratricide, psychiatrist Meyer A. Zeligs presents a groundbreaking psychoanalytic study of two men bound by fate and destroyed by accusation: Whittaker Chambers, the self-confessed Communist spy turned informant, and Alger Hiss, the distinguished State Department official he accused of espionage. Drawing on years of personal interviews, correspondence, and meticulous archival research, Zeligs constructs a detailed portrait of both men's psychological histories, arguing that their strange, entangled relationship was rooted in deep personal compulsions rather than simple political ideology. What sets this work apart is its unflinching willingness to apply clinical rigour to political mythology, treating the Cold War's most notorious betrayal not as a matter of ideology but as a deeply human drama of identity, projection, and psychological need. Zeligs writes with the authority of a trained physician and the narrative instinct of a seasoned biographer, illuminating the unconscious forces that shaped one of America's most divisive controversies. For anyone who believes the full story of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers has already been told, this landmark study will compel a profound and unsettling reconsideration.