Witness
Bill McGurn ·
Aug 16, 2011 at 1:13pm
Just received a message that Whittaker Chambers' farm is now on Facebook. I hadn't known it had been declared a national historic monument by the Gipper. Some great lines about Chambers from Ronald Reagan there. At the moment the regular site seems to have more info than the Facebook page, but lots of interesting stuff. I nominate Peter Robinson and Clark Judge to hold a Great Pumpkin fundraiser each year to keep the place going.
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Jun '11
Re: Witness
I nominate Peter Robinson to curate.
Aug '10
Re: Witness
It would be a good place to let our people study the Venona files and see the scope of the efforts that Chambers pulled back the curtain on. Reagan knew this was an early armory and would be a fitting venue of their bloody perfidy. Putin could give a speech !
My copy was given to me by a Czech who defected in 1989, instead of becoming an athlete (decathalon) headed for the Olympics. His father was an apparatchik who never spoke to him again. My wife and I were lucky enough to return to Prague with him and participate in a reunion with his brothers for four days of touring and revelry.
He told me as he pressed the book on me how much it meant to him, how it perfectly delineated the two worlds.
It is one of my most prized possessions.
Edited on Aug 16, 2011 at 5:06pmApr '11
Re: Witness
As a Westminster native, this may only interest me: Chambers - integral to the start of the Buckley-led conservative movement - bought this farm just a few miles from the Shriver Homestead - birthplace of Kennedy in-law and by proxy liberal royalty Sargent Shriver.
May '10
Re: Witness
I found the descriptions of his life on the farm in Witness incredibly moving--evidence in themselves of the spiritual depth and moral seriousness of the man. I will make a point of taking my children there to see it.
Oct '10
Re: Witness
I read the biography of Chambers by Sam Tanenhaus recently and enjoyed it immensely. Highly recommended. I've written a couple of posts in my head drawing from it, but they haven't made it into pixel form. Tanenhaus is clearly in awe of Chamber's writing skills, and I look forward to reading Witness.
If more leftists were as principled as Chambers, soon there wouldn't be many leftists left. So to speak.
The farm is on my list when I get up that way.
Jun '10
Re: Witness
I always recommend Witness to people who have an open mind. I also include Radical Son and now I have added America Alone. These are life changing books about the things that truly matter most. These books have changed the minds of several people I know. When my wife read Radical Son she cried through several parts of it. She has been staunchly conservative and anti-Leftist since finishing that book.
But, if I had to choose of these three it's easy that Witness is the best and the most important.