book review

For the book blog, I chose to read a book about Senator Joe McCarthy and how his way of thinking impacted the government. The book was written as a biography of Joe McCarthy's life, his rise and his fall in the government. The book started out with Joe growing up on a small family farm near Grand Chute, Wisconsin.  The text includes pictures and political jokes made at the time and it also showed real testimony from committee hearings on Communist Investigations. I think the author, James Cross Giblin, achieved his propose in writing this book, which was to show how much control and power Joe McCarthy had as a Senator.  Joe went to school, graduated high school and was accepted into Marquette University in Wisconsin where he studied law.  After college he got a job with Micheal G. Eberlein, a lawyer practicing law in a neighboring town.  Joe ran for the District Attorney position and lost. After his loss he campagined  for the District Judge seat.  He won the position and was judge until World War II started when he enlisted into the Marines for two years. While he was fighting in the war he was also running for U. S. Senator but lost.  In 1946 Joe ran for U.S. Senator again and won in an upset over his opponent. After becoming Senator, Joe started to make accusations of subversion and disloyalty in government offices and of people in the State Department. Many people disliked Joe for what they believed was his dirty, underhanded way he spread lies to gain leverage in his position as Senator. But just as many people liked Joe in his fight against communism and his dedication to America.  Joe started to make some friends with Wisconsin newspapers such as the Madison Capital Times and the Milwaukee Journal.  For Joe's whole political career he obsessed over the threat of Communism and how to stop it from spreading in the United States. Joe accused a trusted government official, Owen Lattimore, of espionage and Communism  but he was actually a Soviet Agent that work for America. This claim was outrages and many disbelieve Joe and trusted Owen, who was loyal to America. When 1950 rolled around, Joe was still fighting communism and its penetration of China and North Korea. A subcommittee under Senator Tydings found Owen was a good American but Joe still had his doubts.  In 1953 when John F. Kennedy was running for Senator, Joe was an supporter of him and had a good relationship to the Kennedy family.  When Joe was re-elected to the U. S. Senate in 1953 he was head of the Committee on Government Operations and Full Investigations. Joe married his long time secretary, Jean Kerr, they adopted a child. Joe's major break didn't happen until the rumors that Soviets had infiltrated the Army's radar laboratory in Fort Monmouth where Communists were found.  After that Joe's drinking got to much and he lost many supporters. He died on May 2, 1957.