‘Demagogue’ Remembers a Vintage American Bully

“It’s not often that a man’s name becomes an ism,” Larry Tye writes in his new biography of Joseph McCarthy, the senator from Wisconsin whose crusade against Communism ensured that his name would endure as “a synonym for reckless accusation, guilt by association, fear-mongering and political double-dealing.” Tye writes in his preface that while the book focuses on McCarthy’s life, it’s also about a particularly American strain of demagogy that has existed from the country’s earliest days to Huey Long to George Wallace to the “astonishing ascension of President Donald J. Trump.” Below, Tye discusses McCarthy’s fanaticism, his enablers, his military experience and more.

When did you first get the idea to write this book?

I first thought about it when I was writing my last book, which was a biography of Bobby Kennedy. Joe McCarthy gave Bobby his first real job, and they became fast friends. Bobby’s widow, Ethel, told me that the public might have thought McCarthy was a “monster,” but he was “just plain fun.” Those are words you don’t normally associate with Joe McCarthy, so they made me curious.

Just before the 2016 election, I had assumed that even a groundbreaking bio of McCarthy, if I could write something like that, might seem like a chapter of American history that was too painful to revisit, and one that we might have outgrown. And after the election, it was pretty clear we hadn’t.

What’s the most surprising thing you learned while writing it?

I knew there was a general link between Senator McCarthy and President Trump, but I didn’t realize how eerily echoing it was. I had exclusive access to all of McCarthy’s professional and personal papers. And in secret transcripts of closed-door hearings, I realized that if you crossed out McCarthy’s name, you would think you were listening to our 45th president.