Rise & Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy.

Giblin, James Cross. Rise & Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy.
Houghton Mifflin/Clarion/Graphia/Kingfisher 2009 294p 22.00
978-0-618-61058-7 ms/hs
With the backdrop of the social history of the 1950s, Giblin identifies how McCarthy was able to rise to power and then shows how the structure of the government helped bring him back down. Historic black and white illustrations highlight the text in the appropriate places. This is an excellent resource for middle and high school libraries because “those who don’t learn from the history are condemned to repeat it.”
Using the backdrop of the social history of the 1950’s, Giblin well written book identifies how Senator McCarthy was able to rise to power and become a bully to politicians, educators, entertainers, and other citizens. Giblin then shows how the checks and balances built into the U.S. government system helped bring him down. Giblin explores McCarthy’s background and his character is dealt with in an even handed manner even though the reader will see that McCarthy was power hungry and mean spirited and that he ruined many lives of honorable people. In a final chapter, entitled “After McCarthy’s Death...”, the author writes about what happened to some of the main characters in McCarthy’s life. The two best parts of the book are the bibliography and source notes section at the end of the book. In this section he talks in depth about the books he read to prepare to write this title and then goes chapter by chapter and notes where he got the information for the chapter. Historic black and white illustrations highlight the text in the appropriate places. This title is a very interesting read and is also a first rate resource for research. It would be an excellent selection for middle and high school libraries because “those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” . Recommended for Tristate Books of Note. Weinraub, Tina