He starts, naturally, with the most famous political convert in modern American history: Whittaker Chambers, whose 1952 book, "Witness, " documented his turn from Communism.

WSJ: Bari Weiss: David Mamet's Coming Out Party

Ever since he read Whittaker Chambers in his teens he has devoted his life to a single cause: getting the government off the backs of the people.

ECONOMIST: The caveman cometh

The late 1940s had seen a highly effective campaign against communism, with Harry Truman bringing the full weight of the government down on the party, trade unions expelling party members and Whittaker Chambers exposing communist agents in the government.

ECONOMIST: McCarthyism

They are about the men and women active in the communist and labour movements in America during the late 1920s and 1930s, and on into the McCarthy aftermath Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers, Edmund Wilson, John L. Lewis (a union boss), the Reuther brothers, who brought General Motors to its knees, and others, many now forgotten.

ECONOMIST: Small but perfectly formed | The