Whittaker Chambers Conference

The institute held a conference marking the 50th anniversary of the publication of Whittaker Chambers' memoir, “Witness". In "Witness,” Chambers revealed how he became a communist and a spy, then renounced his affiliation and broke with his friend Alger Hiss. He testified against Hiss before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in 1948. This conference features three lectures by writers on Chambers and the Cold War period. Biographer Sam Tanenhaus discusses the influence of William F. Buckley, Jr., Whittaker Chambers and other conservatives of the mid-twentieth century on neo-conservatives Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearl, and William Kristol. Terry Teachout, who edited “The Ghosts on the Roof: Selected Journalism of Whittaker Chambers,” examines the continuing importance of “Witness,” the problems of post-modernism, and Sept. 11th. Dan Mahoney, author of “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent from Ideology,” addresses the role of democracy and religion in the struggle against communism close