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Stuff You Missed in History Class

Alger Hiss

Stuff You Missed in History Class

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.223.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2024

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alger Hiss worked in high-level roles in the U.S. government during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. And then he was accused of using his access to spy for the Soviets.

Research:

  • “Alger Hiss.” FBI. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/alger-hiss
  • “A Byte Out of History, the Alger Hiss Story.” FBI. Jan. 25, 2013. https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/a-byte-out-of-history-the-alger-hiss-story
  • Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Alger Hiss". Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Jul. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alger-Hiss
  • Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Whittaker Chambers". Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Jul. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Whittaker-Chambers
  • Chambers, Whittaker. “The Ghosts on the Roof.” Time. 5, 1948. https://time.com/archive/6784924/the-ghosts-on-the-roof/
  • Mark, Eduard. “In ReAlger Hiss: A Final Verdict from the Archives of the KGB.” Journal of Cold War Studies, vol. 11, no. 3, 2009, pp. 26–67. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26923052
  • Fox, John F. Jr. “In the Enemy’s House: Venona and the Maturation of American Counterintelligence.” FBI.gov. Oct. 27, 2005. https://www.fbi.gov/history/history-publications-reports/in-the-enemys-house-venona-and-the-maturation-of-american-counterintelligence
  • Hadley, David. “The Long Controversy Over Alger Hiss.” Teaching American History. Jan. 21, 2020. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/blog/the-long-controversy-over-alger-hiss/
  • “KGB interviews GRU agent and net controller name ALES 30 March 1945.” https://media.defense.gov/2021/Aug/01/2002818545/-1/-1/0/30MAR_KGB_INTERVIEWS_GRU_AGENT.PDF
  • Rowe, Daniel, and Sarah Fagg, ed. “Alger Hiss and American Anti-communism.” New Histories. Vol. 3, Issue 5. https://newhistories.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/volumes/2011-12/volume-3/issue-5-crime-punishment/alger-hiss-and-american-anti-communism
  • Sander, Gordon F. “Microfilm hidden in a pumpkin launched Richard Nixon’s career 75 years ago.” New York Times.  Dec. 2, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/12/02/pumpkin-papers-richard-nixon/
  • “Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies: Alger Hiss.” NOVA. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html
  • “The Yalta Conference.” U.S. State Department, Office of the Historian. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/yalta-conf#:~:text=At%20Yalta%2C%20Roosevelt%20and%20Churchill,of%20influence%20in%20Manchuria%20following

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:05.6

Hello and welcome to the podcast, I'm Tracy V Wilson. This is another one where I don't know how it got on my list.

0:18.0

You've had a lot of those lately. I know, I don't, I guess I'm clearing out what was that why did I do that I mean this is a weird

0:25.8

one for me because I feel like Alger hiss got talked about in my home growing up a lot

0:32.3

yeah and I don't know if I just about in my home growing up a lot.

0:32.8

Yeah?

0:33.8

And I don't know if I just had one parent or the other

0:36.1

who was fascinated by the whole thing.

0:38.4

Yeah.

0:39.4

Or if it was some sort of like bogeyman of treason or like what it was.

0:46.6

But then it came up recently,

0:49.8

maybe this is how it got on my list

0:51.2

because I do remember it came up recently in like a

0:53.6

social group setting and I made a joke about calling someone an Alger hiss and

0:57.1

everybody looked at me like oh Holly's talking about history things again and

1:01.0

I'm like I mean not history history and I realize

1:04.9

people even our age don't know this story well I had instant name recognition.

1:12.8

Yeah.

1:13.4

And then my mind kind of fished around going,

1:16.2

who was this person though?

1:18.8

Right.

1:19.8

He's one of those people that I would be like,

...

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