Although almost a half-century has passed since the jury at Alger Hiss's second trial pronounced him guilty of perjury, the case remains controversial and the verdict leaves questions unanswered. The case has continued to make headlines and attract considerable media attention in the years since Perjury was first published in 1978, and this new edition of the book incorporates evidence available only in the past two decades, bringing the essential public story of the episode up to the present. The author has sought and gained access to many previously undiscovered, unavailable, or ignored sources of documentary and oral evidence, both in this country and abroad. His visits to over two dozen public archives uncovered important new material and verified numerous details about the case from the papers or recollections of Allen Dulles, John Foster Dulles, Felix Frankfurter, Richard Nixon, Harry S. Truman, and many others.
The Hiss-Chambers case caused widespread political damage and much human suffering. Although nothing written at a distance of almost five decades can undo its effects, this analysis can perhaps explain the passion that the case still arouses.