"In this newly updated paperback edition of A Conspiracy So Immense, David Oshinsky presents us with a work heralded as the finest account available of Joe McCarthy's colorful career." "With a storyteller's eye for the dramatic, a scrupulous regard for fact, and insightful interpretation of human complexity, Oshinsky uncovers the layers of myth to show us the true McCarthy. We see the Senator from his humble beginnings as a hardworking Irish farmer's son in Wisconsin, to his career as a charismatic - and ultimately scorned - architect of the anti-Communist fervor. A Conspiracy So Immense reveals the internal and external forces that launched McCarthy on this political road, carried him to national prominence, and finally, triggered his decline and fall. More than the life of an intensely, even pathologically, ambitious man, this book is a fascinating portrait of American in the grip of Cold War fear, anger, suspicion, and betrayal." "Complete with a new preface analyzing the ever-changing public view of McCarthy, A Conspiracy So Immense reminds us that few politicians in our history have had the emotional impact of a Joe McCarthy - to terrify, fascinate, and, ultimately, to divide the nation."--BOOK JACKET.