Susan Jacoby, the bestselling author of The Age of American Unreason, examines the trial and imprisonment of Alger Hiss and the reactions of commentators on both ends of the political spectrum in the years since.

From the author of the bestselling The Age of American Unreason comes this impassioned, closely reasoned critique of the myth that a radically new old age---unmarred by physical and mental infirmity, financial problems, or loneliness-...