Overview

Whittaker Chambers is rightly remembered for his pivotal role in the electrifying Alger Hiss spy case. But as Richard Reinsch reminds us in the latest volume in ISI Books’ acclaimed Library of Modern Thinkers, Chambers was more than just a government informant; he was a profoundly important thinker who grappled with the nature of modern man’s predicaments. Whittaker Chambers: The Spirit of a Counterrevolutionary shows that Chambers’s thought posed—and still poses—a challenge to American conservatism and its typical focus on markets and small government. In his journalism, essays, personal correspondence with the likes of William F. Buckley Jr., and landmark autobiographical tome Witness, Chambers engaged more broadly, analyzing the fundamental question of who man is and the classical and spiritual foundations of civilization. Defying conventional thinking, Reinsch argues that the former Communist spy may have been more right than wrong when he predicted that the West would lose the Cold War. While the Soviets’ Communist system did of course collapse, the spiritual and philosophical sickness that Chambers identified, Reinsch suggests, has not been cured.

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9781610171694

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Reviews

"""Reinsch's brief study touches on the biographical but his real interest is in Chambers as a thinker. Drawing not just on Witness but on his subject's journalism for Time and Life and extensive personal correspondence, including with Buckley, Reinsch reveals a Chambers who thought deeply about modernity, freedom, and the destiny of the West, which he saw as dark indeed."" --National Review ""Eloquent and engaging . . . Whittaker Chambers: The Spirit of a Counterrevolutionary is intended by Mr. Reinsch as 'an act of recovery, one that would weave together the strands of an enduring Chambers for future reflection.' In this he has succeeded admirably."" --Washington Times ""It's taken over 60 years, but someone has finally written a great book about Whittaker Chambers."" --The Daily Caller ""Reinsch's book does more than just recount the history of Chambers. . . . Reinsch argues the spiritual emptiness within the western world that worried Chambers persists."" --Politics Daily ""Reinsch has crafted an important and essential book for anybody fatigued with the daily grind of hyper-partisan politics. By reintroducing conservatives to a deep thinker like Chambers, he reminds us of the limits of politics as well as the frustrating shallowness it can embody."" --Acton Institute PowerBlog"

Reinsch's brief study touches on the biographical but his real interest is in Chambers as a thinker. Drawing not just on Witness but on his subject's journalism for Time and Life and extensive personal correspondence, including with Buckley, Reinsch reveals a Chambers who thought deeply about modernity, freedom, and the destiny of the West, which he saw as dark indeed. --National Review Eloquent and engaging . . . Whittaker Chambers: The Spirit of a Counterrevolutionary is intended by Mr. Reinsch as 'an act of recovery, one that would weave together the strands of an enduring Chambers for future reflection.' In this he has succeeded admirably. --Washington Times It's taken over 60 years, but someone has finally written a great book about Whittaker Chambers. --The Daily Caller Reinsch's book does more than just recount the history of Chambers. . . . Reinsch argues the spiritual emptiness within the western world that worried Chambers persists. --Politics Daily Reinsch has crafted an important and essential book for anybody fatigued with the daily grind of hyper-partisan politics. By reintroducing conservatives to a deep thinker like Chambers, he reminds us of the limits of politics as well as the frustrating shallowness it can embody. --Acton Institute PowerBlog

Author Information

RICHARD M. REINSCH II is the editor of Law & Liberty and the host of LibertyLawTalk. He writes frequently for a wide variety of publications, including Modern Age, the Claremont Review of Books, the University Bookman, National Review Online, and City Journal Online. He is coauthor with Peter Augustine Lawler of A Constitution in Full: Recovering the Unwritten Foundation of American Liberty. A lawyer who earned his JD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he lives near Indianapolis.

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