Changes

===Johns Hopkins University===

===Johns Hopkins University===

As a result of his [[father]]'s [[death]], Alger [[inheritance|inherited]] $10,000,<ref>"...provided a $10000 bequest to each of the Hiss children..." G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 9</ref> the equivalent of more than $200,000 today.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</ref> After graduation from [[Baltimore]] [[City]] [[College]] and a year at Powder Point Academy (a private [[prep school]] in Duxbury, [[Massachusetts]])<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), p. 32</ref> and the [[Maryland]] Institute of [[Art]],<ref>"1921-1922: Attended Powder Point Academy, Duxbury, Mass., and Maryland Institute of Art." Historical Note: Chronology of Alger Hiss. [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Zeligs, Meyer Aaron. Papers, 1923-1978: Finding Aid] (Harvard Law School Library)</ref> Hiss attended Baltimore's [[Johns Hopkins University]], where he was voted "best hand-shaker" in his class.<ref>[http://archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=18616&startpage=page0000103 ''The New Yorker'', May 13, 1950]; Evan Thomas, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/103447 An American Melodrama]," ''Newsweek'', November 25, 1996</ref> As an [[undergraduate]], Hiss was drawn to the work of (among others) the [[Fabian socialism|Fabian]]<ref>Archibald Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=twQBAAAAYAAJ George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works]'' (Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd, 1911) ISBN 1417961775, p. 102. Shaw became a loyal apologist for [[Stalinism]], penning a 1933 [http://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/bernard_shaw.htm Letter to the Editor] of the ''Manchester Guardian'', denouncing Malcolm Muggeridge's reporting on [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]] as a "lie" and a "slander"; the following year he published a 16,000-word ''[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300561h.html#p01 apologia]'' for Stalin's mass murders. In 1949, he even wrote a [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/shaw/works/lysenko.htm defense] of Stalin's pseudo-scientific [[Lysenkoism]].</ref> George Bernard Shaw, the [[Socialist]]<ref>"To John M. Gillette," September 15, 1912, in Maxwell Anderson (Laurence G. Avery, Ed.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=iINNqp6FxU0C Dramatist in America: Letters of Maxwell Anderson, 1912-1958]'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849405, p. 3</ref> Maxwell Anderson, the "card-carrying socialist"<ref>Gore Vidal, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2805 The Romance of Sinclair Lewis]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 39, No. 16 (October 8, 1992)</ref> Sinclair Lewis, and the [[Communist]]<ref>Theodore Dreiser, "Request to Become a Communist," ''The Daily Worker'', July 30, 1945, reprinted in Albert Fried, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=mLJbT3NMbN4C Communism in America: A History in Documents]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231102356, p. 348-350</ref> Theodore Dreiser.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 52</ref> His favorite [[instructor|instructors]] included Broadus Mitchell,<ref>Joan Cook, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/30/obituaries/broadus-mitchell-95-professor-historian-and-hamilton-authority.html Broadus Mitchell, 95, Professor, Historian and Hamilton Authority]," ''The New York Times'', April 30, 1988</ref> whom Hiss would later describe as a "gifted" [[economics]] [[professor]] with "mildly socialistic" views.<ref>Alger Hiss, Draft of a Chapter Written By Alger Hiss on the Foundations For His Liberalism (Alger Hiss papers, Small Manuscript Collection, Special Collections, Harvard Law School)</ref> But Mitchell, according to the personal site of Hiss' [[son]], Tony,<ref>After Hiss' son, a visiting scholar at New York University, originally set up the site on an NYU server, the university requested that he move it elsewhere "to designate it more clearly as a personal site rather than an academic one." Columbia University historian David Greenberg says Hiss' Web site is "the best defense mustered of Hiss by the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss," but "I don't think anyone is going to treat this site as the repository of truth, except for those who have already made up their minds that Hiss was innocent." James Barron, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C00E2D8173EF935A2575BC0A9679C8B63 Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> was a well-known Socialist.<ref> Jeff Kisseloff, "[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html Distorted Reflections]," The Alger Hiss Story</ref> He served as [[candidate]] for [[Governor]] of Maryland for the Socialist Party<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761370,00.html Head on a Platter]," ''Time'', May 22, 1939; [http://www.hofstra.edu/Libraries/WestCampus/SpecialCollections/sc_afc_broadus_mitchell.cfm Broadus Mitchell (1892-1988): Author, Professor, Economist], Hoftra University Special Collections</ref> (U.S. supporter of the [[Comintern]]),<ref>Document No. 7: "Minority Report Adopted by Overwhelming Party Vote on Referendum on Submission to the Emergency National Convention Held at Chicago, September, 1919," reprinted in Joint Legislative Committee of the State of New York Investigating Seditious Activities, ''Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics'', Part I, Vol. I (Albany: J.B. Lyon Company, 1920), p. 626</ref> and distinguished socialism from [[communism]] as differing only in "[[strategy]] and [[procedure]]," not "essential [[theory]]."<ref>Broadus Mitchell, ''A Preface to Economics'' (Henry Holt & Co., 1932-34), pp. 556-557</ref> Another favorite was José Robles,<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," ''Modern Age'', Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 310 (PDF p. 4)</ref> a committed [[Stalinist]]<ref>Jason Powell, "[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/reviewview.cfm?id=2 Review: ''The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles'']," eHistory (Ohio State University), January 2006</ref> who would go on to serve in the [[Spanish Civil War]] as a [[Colonel]] in the [[Red Army]] and interpreter for [[General]] Jānis Bērziņš,<ref>[http://www.latfilma.lv/d/106/ The Head of Intelligence Service: Janis Berzins], Films in Latvia</ref> head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6I126r99NQ4C The Spanish Civil War]'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) ISBN 0671758764, pp. 705-706</ref> Robles was never seen again<ref>George Packer, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/31/051031crbo_books The Spanish Prisoner]," ''The New Yorker'', October 31, 2005</ref> after Bērziņš was recalled to [[Moscow]]<ref>Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zQ8BO3cenfoC Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism]'' (tr. George Shriver) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989) ISBN 0231063504, p. 428</ref> and shot in [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KzIfHQAACAAJ The Great Terror: A Reassessment]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> in 1938.<ref>David J. Nordlander, "Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s," ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791-812</ref> Robles had apparently been [[execution|executed]] by a Communist "special section,"<ref>"The earliest sign of the existence of the special unit seems to be... in Barcelona early in 1937.... On June 16, thanks to Soviet pressure on the Spanish Republican Government, the leaders of the POUM, [Andreu] Nin included, were arrested and charged with high treason. Nin disappeared within days and was never seen again. Even the leaders of the Communist Party in Spain today admit that Nin was murdered on Stalin's orders.... George Orwell, who was in Barcelona soon after the arrests... fled Spain in fear of arrest himself...." Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988</ref> according to former [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Alice Béja,"[http://reconstruction.eserver.org/081/beja.shtml Radically American: John Dos Passos, Culture and Politics]," ''Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture'' Vol. 8, No. 1 (2008)</ref> John Dos Passos,<ref>Paul P. Reuben, [http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/dospassos.html Chapter 7: John Dos Passos (1896-1970)], PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide (University of California Stanislaus)</ref> because he "knew too much about the relations between the [[Spain|Spanish]] war ministry and the [[Kremlin]]."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=buhlAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles]'' (Madrid: Ediciones Palabra, 2006) ISBN 1582432813, p. 272</ref> Hiss, who apparently knew Robles well enough to spend time at his [[home]],<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, pp. 37-38</ref> would later say he too considered going to [[Spain]] to fight for the [[Soviet]]-backed "[[Loyalist]]" cause.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976), ISBN 0030137764, p. 104</ref>

As a result of his [[father]]'s [[death]], Alger [[inheritance|inherited]] $10,000,<ref>"...provided a $10000 bequest to each of the Hiss children..." G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 9</ref> the equivalent of more than $200,000 today.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</ref> After graduation from [[Baltimore]] [[City]] [[College]] and a year at Powder Point Academy (a private [[prep school]] in Duxbury, [[Massachusetts]])<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), p. 32</ref> and the [[Maryland]] Institute of [[Art]],<ref>"1921-1922: Attended Powder Point Academy, Duxbury, Mass., and Maryland Institute of Art." Historical Note: Chronology of Alger Hiss. [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Zeligs, Meyer Aaron. Papers, 1923-1978: Finding Aid] (Harvard Law School Library)</ref> Hiss attended Baltimore's [[Johns Hopkins University]], where he was voted "best hand-shaker" in his class.<ref>[http://archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=18616&startpage=page0000103 ''The New Yorker'', May 13, 1950]; Evan Thomas, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/103447 An American Melodrama]," ''Newsweek'', November 25, 1996</ref> As an [[undergraduate]], Hiss was drawn to the work of (among others) the [[Fabian socialism|Fabian]]<ref>Archibald Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=twQBAAAAYAAJ George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works]'' (Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd, 1911) ISBN 1417961775, p. 102. Shaw became a loyal apologist for [[Stalinism]], penning a 1933 [http://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/bernard_shaw.htm Letter to the Editor] of the ''Manchester Guardian'', denouncing Malcolm Muggeridge's reporting on [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]] as a "lie" and a "slander"; the following year he published a 16,000-word ''[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300561h.html#p01 apologia]'' for Stalin's mass murders. In 1949, he even wrote a [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/shaw/works/lysenko.htm defense] of Stalin's pseudo-scientific [[Lysenkoism]].</ref> George Bernard Shaw, the [[Socialist]]<ref>"To John M. Gillette," September 15, 1912, in Maxwell Anderson (Laurence G. Avery, Ed.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=iINNqp6FxU0C Dramatist in America: Letters of Maxwell Anderson, 1912-1958]'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849405, p. 3</ref> Maxwell Anderson, the "card-carrying socialist"<ref>Gore Vidal, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2805 The Romance of Sinclair Lewis]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 39, No. 16 (October 8, 1992)</ref> Sinclair Lewis, and the [[Communist]]<ref>Theodore Dreiser, "Request to Become a Communist," ''The Daily Worker'', July 30, 1945, reprinted in Albert Fried, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=mLJbT3NMbN4C Communism in America: A History in Documents]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231102356, p. 348-350</ref> Theodore Dreiser.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 52</ref> His favorite [[instructor|instructors]] included Broadus Mitchell,<ref>Joan Cook, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/30/obituaries/broadus-mitchell-95-professor-historian-and-hamilton-authority.html Broadus Mitchell, 95, Professor, Historian and Hamilton Authority]," ''The New York Times'', April 30, 1988</ref> whom Hiss would later describe as a "gifted" [[economics]] [[professor]] with "mildly socialistic" views.<ref>Alger Hiss, Draft of a Chapter Written By Alger Hiss on the Foundations For His Liberalism (Alger Hiss papers, Small Manuscript Collection, Special Collections, Harvard Law School)</ref> But Mitchell, according to the personal site of Hiss' [[son]], Tony,<ref>After Hiss' son, a visiting scholar at New York University, originally set up the site on an NYU server, the university requested that he move it elsewhere "to designate it more clearly as a personal site rather than an academic one." Columbia University historian David Greenberg says Hiss' Web site is "the best defense mustered of Hiss by the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss," but "I don't think anyone is going to treat this site as the repository of truth, except for those who have already made up their minds that Hiss was innocent." James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> was a well-known Socialist.<ref> Jeff Kisseloff, "[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html Distorted Reflections]," The Alger Hiss Story</ref> He served as [[candidate]] for [[Governor]] of Maryland for the Socialist Party<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761370,00.html Head on a Platter]," ''Time'', May 22, 1939; [http://www.hofstra.edu/Libraries/WestCampus/SpecialCollections/sc_afc_broadus_mitchell.cfm Broadus Mitchell (1892-1988): Author, Professor, Economist], Hoftra University Special Collections</ref> (U.S. supporter of the [[Comintern]]),<ref>Document No. 7: "Minority Report Adopted by Overwhelming Party Vote on Referendum on Submission to the Emergency National Convention Held at Chicago, September, 1919," reprinted in Joint Legislative Committee of the State of New York Investigating Seditious Activities, ''Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics'', Part I, Vol. I (Albany: J.B. Lyon Company, 1920), p. 626</ref> and distinguished socialism from [[communism]] as differing only in "[[strategy]] and [[procedure]]," not "essential [[theory]]."<ref>Broadus Mitchell, ''A Preface to Economics'' (Henry Holt & Co., 1932-34), pp. 556-557</ref> Another favorite was José Robles,<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," ''Modern Age'', Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 310 (PDF p. 4)</ref> a committed [[Stalinist]]<ref>Jason Powell, "[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/reviewview.cfm?id=2 Review: ''The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles'']," eHistory (Ohio State University), January 2006</ref> who would go on to serve in the [[Spanish Civil War]] as a [[Colonel]] in the [[Red Army]] and interpreter for [[General]] Jānis Bērziņš,<ref>[http://www.latfilma.lv/d/106/ The Head of Intelligence Service: Janis Berzins], Films in Latvia</ref> head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6I126r99NQ4C The Spanish Civil War]'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) ISBN 0671758764, pp. 705-706</ref> Robles was never seen again<ref>George Packer, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/31/051031crbo_books The Spanish Prisoner]," ''The New Yorker'', October 31, 2005</ref> after Bērziņš was recalled to [[Moscow]]<ref>Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zQ8BO3cenfoC Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism]'' (tr. George Shriver) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989) ISBN 0231063504, p. 428</ref> and shot in [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KzIfHQAACAAJ The Great Terror: A Reassessment]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> in 1938.<ref>David J. Nordlander, "Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s," ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791-812</ref> Robles had apparently been [[execution|executed]] by a Communist "special section,"<ref>"The earliest sign of the existence of the special unit seems to be... in Barcelona early in 1937.... On June 16, thanks to Soviet pressure on the Spanish Republican Government, the leaders of the POUM, [Andreu] Nin included, were arrested and charged with high treason. Nin disappeared within days and was never seen again. Even the leaders of the Communist Party in Spain today admit that Nin was murdered on Stalin's orders.... George Orwell, who was in Barcelona soon after the arrests... fled Spain in fear of arrest himself...." Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988</ref> according to former [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Alice Béja,"[http://reconstruction.eserver.org/081/beja.shtml Radically American: John Dos Passos, Culture and Politics]," ''Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture'' Vol. 8, No. 1 (2008)</ref> John Dos Passos,<ref>Paul P. Reuben, [http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/dospassos.html Chapter 7: John Dos Passos (1896-1970)], PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide (University of California Stanislaus)</ref> because he "knew too much about the relations between the [[Spain|Spanish]] war ministry and the [[Kremlin]]."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=buhlAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles]'' (Madrid: Ediciones Palabra, 2006) ISBN 1582432813, p. 272</ref> Hiss, who apparently knew Robles well enough to spend time at his [[home]],<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, pp. 37-38</ref> would later say he too considered going to [[Spain]] to fight for the [[Soviet]]-backed "[[Loyalist]]" cause.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976), ISBN 0030137764, p. 104</ref>

===Harvard Law School===

===Harvard Law School===

===Hiss in the Mass Media===

===Hiss in the Mass Media===

So broad is this academic consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press. By 1991, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reported "a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C00E2D8173EF935A2575BC0A9679C8B63 Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> The following year, the paper reported that "no serious cold war historian now questions ... that Hiss lied."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print 'A Matter of Opinion': The Fate of The Nation]," ''The New York Times'', May 29, 2005</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment, was guilty," wrote liberal<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0902444/ Nicholas von Hoffman], The Internet Movie Database</ref> columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that Hiss' supporters are "dwindling" as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> ''Newsweek'' reports that "Hiss insisted he was innocent, but the evidence of his guilt is stronger."<ref>Evan Thomas, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/103447 An American Melodrama]," ''Newsweek'', November 25, 1996</ref> ''U.S. News and World Report'' says, "Most scholars considered the case against Hiss firmly established by Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', published in 1978."<ref>Michael Barone, "Hiss and History," ''U.S. News and World Report'', November 25, 1996</ref> The left-leaning<ref>"...The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin..." Nicholas Dawidoff, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?pagewanted=print The Civil Heretic]," ''The New York Times Magazine'', March 29, 2009</ref> ''New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now... is simply overwhelming.... Hiss was one of a number of... converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union...."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> The left-of-center<ref>"The Washington Monthly is a moderately left-of-center, independent magazine...." [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Washington+Monthly-p243 Browse Washington Monthly by Date], The Free Library</ref> ''Washington Monthly'' calls the evidence against Hiss "quite devastating," dubbing the Venona decrypts "damning" and "rock-hard evidence" of Hiss' guilt.<ref>David Ignatius, "[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/books/1999/9907.ignatius.spy.html A Father and a Spy: A son's memoir and Soviet cable decrypts provide different perspectives on Alger Hiss]," ''The Washington Monthly'', Vol. 31 Issue 7, July/August 1999</ref> The ''Guardian'', Britain's leading left-wing newspaper<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_14_57/ai_n15631102/ The Guardian, Britain's leading left-wing newspaper, has—naturally!—a policy of 'diversity' in hiring newsroom staff]," ''National Review'', August 8, 2005. ''Guardian'' readers are often [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3159813.stm stereotyped] as [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4348620.stm politically correct] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011119/debtext/11119-08.htm#11119-08_spnew3 charactures].</ref> reports that "the general view" is  "that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Michael Ellison, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/15/michaelellison US judge prises lid off secret spy case papers]," ''The Guardian'', May 15, 1999</ref> Jacob Heilbrunn (a columnist at the "pugnatiously [[liberal]]"<ref>Howard Kurtz, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html A Blog That Made It Big: The Huffington Post, Trending Up and Left]," ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2007, p. C01</ref> Huffington Post), writing at Truthdig.com ("A [[Progressive]] Journal of News and Opinion"), admits, "the evidence that Hiss was innocent of serving as a Soviet spy is sparse. It requires contortions to suggest that he was not and to explain away the evidence suggesting that he was."<ref>Jacob Heilbrunn, "[http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20090320_jacob_heilbrunn_on_alger_hiss/ Jacob Heilbrunn on Alger Hiss]," Truthdig.com, March 20, 2009</ref> The left-liberal<ref>"Salon professed to represent a combination of left-liberal politics and iconoclastic cultural attitudes, characteristic of the middle-class radical milieu that developed in the 1960s, most strongly centered in the San Francisco Bay Area." (Patrick Martin, [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/salo-j29.shtml Salon and the decay of American liberal journalism], World Socialist Web Site [International Committee of the Fourth International], June 29, 2001)</ref> Salon.com says "Hiss' defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers."<ref>Dan Kennedy, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html What if they gave a funeral for a cold-war icon — and no one came?]" Salon.com, November 19, 1996</ref> Slate.com (where more than 98 percent of staff and contributors supported [[Barack Obama]])<ref>David Plotz, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203052/ Obama Carries the Great State of Slate]," Slate.com, October 28, 2008</ref> admits that "even many on the left&mdash;including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and adds, "Heads up: ''Alger Hiss was guilty'',"<ref>Timothy Noah, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203909/ The Uncabinet]," Slate.com, November 5, 2008</ref> concluding, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>

So broad is this academic consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press. By 1991, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reported "a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> The following year, the paper reported that "no serious cold war historian now questions ... that Hiss lied."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print 'A Matter of Opinion': The Fate of The Nation]," ''The New York Times'', May 29, 2005</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment, was guilty," wrote liberal<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0902444/ Nicholas von Hoffman], The Internet Movie Database</ref> columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that Hiss' supporters are "dwindling" as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> ''Newsweek'' reports that "Hiss insisted he was innocent, but the evidence of his guilt is stronger."<ref>Evan Thomas, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/103447 An American Melodrama]," ''Newsweek'', November 25, 1996</ref> ''U.S. News and World Report'' says, "Most scholars considered the case against Hiss firmly established by Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', published in 1978."<ref>Michael Barone, "Hiss and History," ''U.S. News and World Report'', November 25, 1996</ref> The left-leaning<ref>"...The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin..." Nicholas Dawidoff, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?pagewanted=print The Civil Heretic]," ''The New York Times Magazine'', March 29, 2009</ref> ''New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now... is simply overwhelming.... Hiss was one of a number of... converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union...."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> The left-of-center<ref>"The Washington Monthly is a moderately left-of-center, independent magazine...." [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Washington+Monthly-p243 Browse Washington Monthly by Date], The Free Library</ref> ''Washington Monthly'' calls the evidence against Hiss "quite devastating," dubbing the Venona decrypts "damning" and "rock-hard evidence" of Hiss' guilt.<ref>David Ignatius, "[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/books/1999/9907.ignatius.spy.html A Father and a Spy: A son's memoir and Soviet cable decrypts provide different perspectives on Alger Hiss]," ''The Washington Monthly'', Vol. 31 Issue 7, July/August 1999</ref> The ''Guardian'', Britain's leading left-wing newspaper<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_14_57/ai_n15631102/ The Guardian, Britain's leading left-wing newspaper, has—naturally!—a policy of 'diversity' in hiring newsroom staff]," ''National Review'', August 8, 2005. ''Guardian'' readers are often [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3159813.stm stereotyped] as [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4348620.stm politically correct] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011119/debtext/11119-08.htm#11119-08_spnew3 charactures].</ref> reports that "the general view" is  "that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Michael Ellison, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/15/michaelellison US judge prises lid off secret spy case papers]," ''The Guardian'', May 15, 1999</ref> Jacob Heilbrunn (a columnist at the "pugnatiously [[liberal]]"<ref>Howard Kurtz, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html A Blog That Made It Big: The Huffington Post, Trending Up and Left]," ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2007, p. C01</ref> Huffington Post), writing at Truthdig.com ("A [[Progressive]] Journal of News and Opinion"), admits, "the evidence that Hiss was innocent of serving as a Soviet spy is sparse. It requires contortions to suggest that he was not and to explain away the evidence suggesting that he was."<ref>Jacob Heilbrunn, "[http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20090320_jacob_heilbrunn_on_alger_hiss/ Jacob Heilbrunn on Alger Hiss]," Truthdig.com, March 20, 2009</ref> The left-liberal<ref>"Salon professed to represent a combination of left-liberal politics and iconoclastic cultural attitudes, characteristic of the middle-class radical milieu that developed in the 1960s, most strongly centered in the San Francisco Bay Area." (Patrick Martin, [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/salo-j29.shtml Salon and the decay of American liberal journalism], World Socialist Web Site [International Committee of the Fourth International], June 29, 2001)</ref> Salon.com says "Hiss' defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers."<ref>Dan Kennedy, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html What if they gave a funeral for a cold-war icon — and no one came?]" Salon.com, November 19, 1996</ref> Slate.com (where more than 98 percent of staff and contributors supported [[Barack Obama]])<ref>David Plotz, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203052/ Obama Carries the Great State of Slate]," Slate.com, October 28, 2008</ref> admits that "even many on the left&mdash;including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and adds, "Heads up: ''Alger Hiss was guilty'',"<ref>Timothy Noah, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203909/ The Uncabinet]," Slate.com, November 5, 2008</ref> concluding, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>

==References==

==References==