In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage
by John Haynes, Harvey Klehr
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Book Summary Information
Author: Harvey Klehr, John HaynesEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-09-01
ISBN: 1893554724
Number of pages: 316
Publisher: Encounter Books
Book Reviews of In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage
Book Review: "In Denial" is Undeniable
Summary: 5 Stars
"In Denial" is one of the seminal books written in our lifetime. While the book's main topic concerns communism and the right and wrong sides in the Cold War, the questions asked in this book can nonetheless be extended to many important questions facing our country today. For example, we potentially face a more lethal and dangerous adversary than international communism, namely Third World and Islamicist terrorism -- yet many refuse to acknowledge this fact. It is not surprising that one of the historians most "in denial" about communism and the Cold War, Eric Foner, was also a leading apologist for the 9/11 terrorists immediately after the event and the subsequent strikes against them in Afghanistan.
This leads to the larger question raised by "In Denial" that applies to any economic, political, geostrategic, or other important current topic: how do we determine truth, what do we do when certain people refuse to admit truth, and what do we do when those people who refuse to admit truth are disproportionately involved in the inculcating of values and teaching of history to current and future generations?
At one point in our existence, we believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth and that the Earth was flat. Once upon a time, Leftist elites in American society and the Western world -- predominantly newspaper editors and reporters, historians, college and university professors, broadcasters -- all believed that socialism and communism were inevitable and superior to American-style capitalism. This dream died in 1989 with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. But dreams die hard, and the Left has been busy engaging in intellectual skullduggery, distortions, and lies against any non-Leftist personalities or institutions: HUAC (controlled by Democrats during virtually all of it's 40-year run), Joe McCarthy, Ronald Reagan, and that small but courageous band of anti-communist liberals led by Hubert Humphrey and Harry Truman.
This book concerns the inability of Leftist academics and elites to admit they were wrong on The Big Picture of Soviet communist penetration of American institutions through the American Communist Party (CPUSA). Haynes and Klehr meticulously research many of the dominant Cold War issues that dominated from 1945-1990: the Alger Hiss Case, Elizabeth Bentley and Judith Coplon, Lauchlin Currie and Harry Dexter White, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade's Spanish activities, etc. The subservience of the CPUSA to Moscow domination on all matters ranging from Leon Trotsky and the Nazi-Soviet Pact is clearly documented. Contrary to some detractors, any errors in the book are minor typographical errors or non-material name or date errors that do not change the substantive arguments. Indeed, one of the individuals whose support for New Deal fellow travelers is dissected in "In Denial" has written a review here and despite some disagreements with Haynes & Klehr, still gives the book an overall favorable rating and review.
One of the interesting factoids brought out by Haynes & Klehr is that many of the people who are historically ignorant about American communism, the CPUSA, and the Cold War are not even historians by training. Many are professionals in other fields who for political and cultural reasons believe they are qualified to comment on subjects outside their normal teaching disciplines. These are the people who are most likely to refuse to believe the evidence tying the CPUSA to Moscow domination, subversion, and espionage. Professional historians like Isserman and Schrecker are less likely to deny the voluminous evidence released since the fall of the Berlin Wall; instead, they attempt to justify the actions of treason and espionage by saying the Soviet Union was a wartime ally, the United States was spying on the U.S.S.R, the documents stolen weren't that important, the CPUSA wasn't that big a deal, etc. Imagine some right-wing apologist excusing the Final Solution and Nazi Germany atrocities because Hitler supported national health insurance and you get a feel for the strained and convoluted arguments put out by supporters and apologists of the CPUSA and detractors of America during the Cold War.
It must be very difficult to believe a certain point of view for many years or decades, only to be suddenly thrust with information that shows you were wrong. How would one react if their religious faith were to be factually debunked, or if a wife found out that after decades of what she believed to be a loyal and happy marriage that her husband has led a secret life with another woman? Certainly many academicians have adjusted their political views in the face of new evidence: old-line neoconservatives like Irving Kristol, Sydney Hook, and Norman Podhoretz, and of course, Whittaker Chambers in his seminal biography "Witness" details his conversion away from the lies of the Left.
"In Denial" is written by John Early Hanes and Harvey Klehr. They are two of American's foremost historians specializing in American communism, espionage, the Venona transcripts, etc. Politically, I believe they would describe themselves as anti-communist liberals, perhaps neoconservatives (understand that most neoconservatives are former liberals who found that their former allies drifted Leftward rendering them without a home except for modern conservatism). Haynes and Klehr -- like Allen Weinstein of NYU (a liberal) in "The Haunted Wood" -- simply allow the facts to speak for themselves in a non-partisan, objective manner. They focus mostly on historians and somewhat obscure academic journals -- many of which are now accessible on the internet -- and are not as interested in politicians, newspaper editorial writers, broadcasters and reporters, etc (for these individuals' blind spots, check out Mona Charen's "Useful Idiot").
Haynes & Klehr have once again written a powerful expose on facets of American communism, espionage, and the Cold War. As important as those concepts are, the fundamental question asked and lurking below the surface of "In Denial" -- namely, how can people refuse to accept the truth in the face of powerful evidence to the contrary? -- is itself a potent question that this book will cause readers to think about on many important questions of the day.
Summary of In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage
Focusing on what they call lying about spying the authors reveal how revisionist scholars have ignored or distorted documents from Russian archives that point to espionage links between Moscow and the CPUSA.
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