All Governments Lie: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone | 
 enlarge | Author: Myra Macpherson
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 331465
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 592
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1.5
ISBN: 1416556796
Dewey Decimal Number: 70
EAN: 9781416556794
ASIN: 1416556796
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
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Product Description
Boasting equal parts scholarship and style, "All Governments Lie" is a highly readable, groundbreaking, and timely look at I. F. Stone -- one of America's most independent and revered journalists, whose work carries the same immediacy it did almost a half century ago, highlighting the ever-present need for dissenting voices.In the world of Washington political journalism, notorious for trading independence for access, I. F. "Izzy" Stone was so unique as to be a genuine wonder. Always skeptical -- "All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out," he memorably quipped -- Stone was ahead of the pack on the most pivotal twentieth-century trends: the rise of Hitler and Fascism, disastrous Cold War foreign policies, covert actions of the FBI and CIA, the greatness of the Civil Rights movement, the horror of Vietnam, the strengths and weaknesses of the antiwar movement, the disgrace of Iran-contra, and the class greed of Reaganomics. His constant barrage against J. Edgar Hoover earned him close monitoring by the FBI from the Great Depression through the Vietnam War, and even an investigation for espionage during the fifties. After making his mark on feisty New York dailies and in The Nation -- scoring such scoops as the discovery of American cartels doing business with Nazi Germany -- Stone became unemployable during the dark days of McCarthyism. Out of desperation he started his four-page I. F. Stone's Weekly, which ran from 1953 to 1971. The first journalist to label the Gulf of Tonkin affair a sham excuse to escalate the Vietnam War, Stone garnered worldwide fans, was read in the corridors of power, and became wealthy. Later, the "world's oldest living freshman" learned Greek to write his bestseller The Trial of Socrates. Here, for the first time, acclaimed journalist and author Myra MacPherson brings the legendary Stone into sharp focus. Rooted in fifteen years of research, this monumental biography includes information from newly declassified international documents and Stone's unpublished five-thousand-page FBI file, as well as personal interviews with Stone and his wife, Esther; with famed modern thinkers; and with the best of today's journalists. It illuminates the vast sweep of turbulent twentieth-century history as well as Stone's complex and colorful life. The result is more than a masterful portrait of a remarkable character; it's a far-reaching assessment of journalism and its role in our culture.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 New Title: All Governments Lie (except the beloved Soviet proletarian!) December 19, 2007
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
To his throngs of fans, he was a "rebel" who stood up to the powerful and exposed the lies they told those beneath them. Always digging to find the truth in a story, and expose the corrupt use and abuses of power.
However, to a more objective observer, Stone's lust for the "truth" only extended to the United States and her allies. For the early part of his career he was remarkably silent on the Soviets and other progressive "bulwarks against fascism". After his romance with the Soviets ended, he continued to afford their third world proxies, from Castro to Ho Chi Minh, the same uncritical support.
While McPherson is partially correct in her assessment that Stone was not "officially" (wink wink, nudge nudge) working for the NKVD/KGB, she is dead wrong that Stone was not mentioned in the VENONA cables as "BLIN" and that he was not an "agent of influence" for the Soviets. The definitive book on the subject (which McPherson uses as a source) by Haynes and Klehr is quite explicit on the fact that the Blin was Stone's code name, and that he was open to recruitment by the NKVD, although nothing came of it because he feared the FBI would find out. Stone did cooperate with the KGB, Kalugin makes this 100% clear. Stone's willingness to uncritically regurgitate Soviet propaganda is why would the Soviets never had to buy the cow. McPherson uses the ploy of minimizing the evidence and overstating the accusation.
From Stone's lies about Syngman Rhee starting the Korean War, to his lies about the US's use of biological weapons against the North Korean and Chinese forces, to his continued defense of Alger Hiss (birds of a feather I suppose) and to his long and slavish devotion to Soviet socialism and later just Soviet style socialism, he has demonstrated himself less a journalist and more the type of propagandist he accused everyone else of. While I am sure that all of Stone's conclusion were "gleaned from key pieces of official documents" his shockingly poor judgment on some of the most critical questions of the 20th century, and the tortured logic he used to defend these positions, certainly does not qualify him for the showers of praise and respect he now receives.
McPherson obviously has a blind spot for Stone and this trite, hero worshipping, agitprop of a biography is a reflection of that. Any reading of this book should be tempered with that fact.
The Benefit of the Doubty October 25, 2007
2 out of 9 found this review helpful
To suggest, as Myra McPherson does, that I.F. Stone was willing, too often, to give the Soviet Union the benefit of the doubt, is to elide entirely, that Stone was an agent of influence for the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union bought enormous numbers of his mom and pop newsletter, thus subsidizing him handsomely. He was able, as a result of this, to maintain a comfortable life style while paying for his children's college tuition. His job was to always attack America and to never to criticize the Soviet Union, even praising it when necessary. It seems incredible now that Stone was able to get away with it during his lifetime. McPherson, a writer of the left who served as Ben Bradlee's pit bull at the Washington Post, where she did her damage at the Style section, never has an unkind word for her fellow lefties. To miss this basic and most important aspect of Stone's career is inexcusable.
Good book, bad subtitle January 2, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a good book, although I agree that it's too long. My one quibble is with the subtitle, specifically: "Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone." Izzy Stone is one of the few celebrities I admire, but he was no rebel. The noun "rebel" means "To refuse allegiance to and oppose by force an established government or ruling authority." Stone certainly did not support the idea of opposing the United States government by force. The very foundation of I. F. Stone's Weekly, and his rare genius, lay in exposing government misdeeds and power abuses by revealing the government's own words! Hardly a rebellious act. As to refusing allegiance, although Stone was no blind patriot, he refused allegiance to the illegitimate authority of the likes of Joseph McCarthy, HUAC loyalty oaths, and the infamous J. Edgar Hoover. Stone was a reformer, in the best sense of that word. He was no rebel.
On the other hand, if the English language has so deteriorated that I.F. Stone was a rebel, then we need millions more like him!
 a wonderful book, an inspirational life December 18, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
In the interest of full disclosure, I have a bit of personal history with Izzy, Esther, and their son Chris, as well as a smaller bit with the author. From 1959 to 1962 I was a classmate and acquaintance of Chris in law school. Chris told me about his dad and convinced me to subscribe to I.F. Stone's Weekly, which I continued to do until its demise. Sometime in 1966 or 1967 while living in Washinton, DC, I threw a party and on a whim invited Izzy and Esther, and to my great surprise, they accepted and showed up. Then, to cap it off, two months ago, when I was about halfway through the book, I was at a cocktail party and was introduced to someone named...Myra MacPherson. Of course I was entranced with the bizarre coincidence of meeting someone whose book I was currently reading. I mention all this in case you might want to discount my enthusiasm for the book because of possible bias.
This book is valuable for so many reasons: first, it tells the story of a life well lived, of a man who had the courage to follow his passion and tell the truth as he saw it, letting the chips fall where they would without being intimidated by any possible reactions. It is an inspirational story. Second, it provides a perspective on American history from the thirties and into the seventies, with Izzy's prescience about our role in Vietnam presaging similar concerns about our current role in Iraq. Third, it traces the history of leftist politics with all the various and twisting strands during that period. Fourth, it documents the depredations of the FBI in its view of certain varieties of free speech as subversive, along with those of the House Un-American Activities Committee. And fifth, it reveals pusillanimity of most other journalists, who were passively accepting and passing along goverment lies during that period. All told, quite an accomplishment.
If I have a quibble, it would be the 600+ page length, especially all the space devoted to each FBI report. I kept thinking, "Enough already--I get it!" Also, I felt concerned that the formidable length might deter potential readers, and that would be a shame because this book is a gem, a slightly oversize gem perhaps, but a gem nonetheless.
Inspiring story of a true journalist watchdog October 23, 2006
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
I had been looking forward eagerly to All Governments Lie, Myra MacPherson's thorough study of I.F. Stone's work and times. I had a deep personal interest in the project and confess to being absolutely delighted with the results.
I mention a deep personal interest and the reasons for this are many. For starters: I am a contemporary and there aren't too many of us left. It is true that he was 10 years my senior but still we shared depression and war and cold war years. I can't say that we knew each other, although we did meet on a few widely scattered occasions, but I did attend his school, The University of Pennsylvania. There in his home town of Philadelphia, I moved in circles that included relatives and friends with whom he had grown up. That enables me to say that I had a good second hand acquaintance with him.
I introduce myself in this manner to justify the comments I am about to make about the book. I confine myself to just one area of the book's treatment of the life of the man the author calls "the rebel journalist". I felt warm satisfaction in the way she swept into the garbage pail the ludicrous charge that Stone was guilty of espionage for the Soviet Union. She is convincing on the subject and reminds us of what should put an end to this baseless gossip. The F.B.I. never found one shred of evidence, and it was not for lack of trying.
J. Edgar Hoover was a stubborn, determined man when he had a hated target in his sights. He despised Stone to the point where he had made up his mind to get rid of him. To him the Stone threat was in the same class as those of Martin Luther King and Albert Einstein and we recall the viciousness and relentlessness of his attempts to ruin them. On the matter of the espionage smear, I can state with warm satisfaction now, because of this book: "Case closed!"
On a related theme, Ms MacPherson demonstrates a level of insight and understanding not always displayed by writers discussing her book. She comprehends, as they do not, that one had to have lived through the epoch to realize how it was possible to have taken pro-Soviet stands in the 1930s and '40s. With the hind sight of this century one can sneer at one who was so blind as to be taken in by Joseph Stalin. But for one who lived through the period, and Ms. MacPherson did not, I am in a position to make some points on this.
Those of us who lived during those years with our eyes and ears open, were aware of the threat that soon developed into the nightmare of World War II. We saw in Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia and Hitler's various menacing moves what the world would be faced with if measures weren't taken. Yet it was only the Soviet representative at the League of Nations during the mid to late 30s, Maxim Litvinov, who stood up and made the much needed accusations and called for collective security. The Italian and German n delegations walked out and the representatives of the great democracies remained cowed and silent. Let me add to this the shameful memory of the Spanish Civil War and the so called Non-intervention Committee. Only The Soviet Union and Mexico came to the aid of the legitimately elected government of Republican Spain.
Many highly respected people wrote admiringly of the Soviet Union, from the muckraking journalist, Lincoln Steffens, to Beatrice and Sidney Webb to Ambassador Joseph E. Davies to the saintly Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral.
If you weren't there then, it's easy to look back now and ask: "How could he not have known?" Well, Myra MacPherson wasn't there then, but she has the insight to reveal the situation that existed and to explain the way decent people lined up.
This book is a must reading for younger generations who know so little about these times.
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