This book describes the life of Owen Lattimore, his travels and his work in China during in the mid-to-late-forties. The central part of the book deals with how McCarthy and others blamed Lattimore for the so-called "Loss of China" to the Communists. It includes a detailed accounts of Congressional Investigations and Hearings, illegal investigations by Hoover and the FBI, and Lattimore's trial for allegedly lying to Congress about his "Communist Activities." This includes an excellent account of his lawyer's efforts. Finally, it describes how he was sacked by Johns Hopkins as a result of the trial. A truely fascinating account of how the government of the USA attempted to blame a scholar for the defeat of an inept and corrupt regime by Mao.
The book captures the hysteria of the time and it also is a complement to Tuchman's "Stillwell and the American Experience in China"

I got to page three on three occasions and it's now collecting dust. Owen Lattimore may have been a explorer and a beacon for sensible China research during the US witch hunt days, but this isn't gripping travel writing. Maybe it's the fact that he uses old fashioned transliteration of Chinese names, I don't know, but I just couldn't get into it.

I'll definitely try again, another time. First hand accounts from explorers heading off into the wild blue yonder are normally hard to put down. If ony Lattimore could write like Great Game guru Peter Hopkirk. What a shame.

This is an account of a journey across the Gobi Desert by camel in the early part of the 20th century at a time when central government control was fragmentary at best--a time of warlords, bandits, and the rapid decline of a great number of traditional practices in China. The author, a fluent Chinese speaker, sometime journalist, and wool trader for a company in Tianjin, hired camels to join one of the last of the trading caravans travelling between Xinjiang an what is now Inner Mongolia. From observations of the manners and customs of the caravans, through details of language, to descriptions of the various hazards of the journey, Lattimore (an American who was later persecuted in the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the 60s for his knowledge of China) is both perceptive and witty, and his book is infused with a sympathy for the people and their soon-to-vanish way of life.

This charming, amusing, and intelligent book is one of the best travel books on China ever written, several leagues above most modern accounts, and is likely to remain in print for a long time to come.

Owen Lattimore's own testimony confirms that he used a Soviet Diplomatic pouch. A leading Soviet General who escaped to the
West confirmed also that Owen Lattimore was a Soviet Spy.

Only idiots and communists believe the lies.
Senator Joseph McCarthy was right about Owen Lattimore !

This is one of the most important books ever written about the horrible social and psychological consequences of being a slander victim. "Tail Gunner" Senator Joe McCarthy radicalized his Communist paranoia hysteria to such an extreme in the 1950's that he attempted to destroy the lives of some very innocent people.