Izzy: A Biography of I.F. Stone

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Summary: Cottrell's Stone: Startling Insights
Review: Professor Robert Cottrell's biography of I.F. Stone offers startling insights into the complex world of one of the 20th century's most captivating journalists. This book, obviously the result of years of dedicated research, says as much about I.F. Stone as it does about the author Cottrell. Not only does the book depict Stone as a central character in the radical left, but also it places Cottrell as one of our most significant biographers of left-wing intellectuals (also see Cottrell's other biographies about Roger Nash Baldwin, the founder of the ACLU, and Nicholas Comfort). A biography should be assiduously researched and fair-minded, coveying its subject's contributions and conflicts. Cottrell accomplishes this, but the biography goes beyond a factual depiction, in that it also conveys both its author's and its subject's passion for left-leaning ideals. This is a brave work about a brave man.

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Summary: My Book
Review: The review you have unstarred was delivered by me to offer a sampling of positive analyses about Izzy. I gave my own book 5 stars, not 0, as you have indicated.

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Summary: I.F. Stone: Confirmed Communist Spy and Traitor to America
Review: The Venona decrypts of Soviet cable prove beyond any doubt that I.F. Stone was a paid Communist spy. If you don't believe me, read the decrypts yourself (do a search here on "Venona"). He worked to spread propaganda in America for a brutal Soviet regime that killed tens of millions, and he was paid to do it. When he died, his family burned all his private papers to conceal the truth, but ultimately he was exposed by Venona in 1994.

I read this book with morbid fascination at how the liberal media touted this guy as "a Gibraltar of journalistic integrity" and "The most honest reporter in America" even as he worked to destroy our country. It's sad that even today few people are aware of the truth about this evil man who hated our American democratic, free-market values but embraced the monstrous totalitarianism of the Soviets.