Includes bibliographical references (p. 764-826) and index.

Unruly spirits -- To the last ditch -- Night, noon, and morning -- Where is your blood? -- A time for surprises -- The awakening comes -- Rise up and stamp this thing out of existence -- Copperheads among us -- Mass murder again -- An act of war -- Crude enough for McCarran to understand -- Hell popping -- Who will rule Nevada? -- The edge of hell -- On all evidence -- A one-man Un-American Activities Committee -- Turbulent populations -- Chamber of horrors -- The enemy within -- Burnt offerings -- Names, names -- Day of the McCarrans -- Keep out -- The dead -- Caught in the McCarran act -- Beset with enemies.

McCarran was one of the most shrewd and powerful--and vindictive--lawmakers ever to sit in Congress. Joe McCarthy gave his name to the cause of zealous anti-Communism, but it was McCarran, a lifelong Democrat, who actually wrote the laws, held the hearings, and bullied the State and Justice Departments into doing his bidding. McCarran reached the Senate in 1932--and broke ranks with Roosevelt during the New Deal's first week. But it was Truman who would become his real nemesis. McCarran turned his Senate Judiciary Committee into a virtual government within the government. He worked with J. Edgar Hoover to undermine the Truman Administration before McCarthy even got to Washington. He created the most far-reaching anti-sedition law ever enacted in America, which filled Ellis Island with alleged subversives and set up concentration camps to hold suspected traitors. From Capitol Hill to the United Nations, from union halls to Hollywood, McCarran's wrath broke careers and lives and ultimately cost his party control of the Senate. Ybarra's narrative shows that McCarran was half right: There really were Communists in Washington--but it was the hunt for them that did the real damage--From publisher description.