SOURCE: Raynolds, Robert. “Of Human Achievement.” American Scholar 21, no. 4 (autumn 1951): 492, 494.

In the following review, Raynolds discusses Witness as a piece of crime fiction, a work of political philosophy, and a testament to moral corruption.

Witness is an impressive report on a representative crime of our day. The crime is treason. This particular instance, now known as the Chambers-Hiss Case, had a theatrical exposure; but the same sordid crime has been committed over and over again in the past thirty years in almost any country one could name. Whittaker Chambers, who spent thirteen years as an active Communist, seven years in the open Party and six more as an underground espionage agent in New York and Washington, reveals a moral rot in our political life, particularly among young, clever and effective appointees in public office. That many such men and women have engaged in treasonable activity in the name...