Washington's Spies : The Story of America's First Spy Ring

by Alexander Rose

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Turn: Washington's Spies, now an original series on AMC Based on remarkable new research, acclaimed historian Alexander Rose brings to life the true story of the spy ring that helped America win the Revolutionary War. For the first time, Rose takes us beyond the battlefront and deep into the shadowy underworld of double agents and triple crosses, covert operations and code breaking, and unmasks the courageous, flawed men...

Customer Reviews

Good story

Historical fiction, extensively researched and well written. Much more information than what is taught in History classes. I am reading and watching Turn; Washington’s Spies on Netflix.

Rare find: Easy-reading Historical Text

If you've slogged through some of Edmund Morris' or David McCullough's work and said, "That was good...but long..." then Mr. Rose's book may be for you. I've always wondered why there's never been a well-known movie or book about the tragic, heroic Nathan Hale. The first chapter explains why! My only critique of Mr. Rose's work is that at some points he throws a dizzying amount of names and places at you, and you have to flip back to review the introduction of recurring characters in the text.

From a Collector and Author

As the title above indicates, I'm a collector of books set in Revolutionary America as well as the author of a frontier novel. I usually take my time reading a book because I like to savor it as I read. However, much to my wifes surprise, I finished the book in only a few days. I enjoyed the book so much that I wanted to keep on reading when I usually would have paused. The book reads like a novel and Mr. Rose has a unique talent for being able to transport the reader to the time of the revolution and put an entire conflict into perspective. He did a terrific job of capturing the pace of life, which can be a difficult thing to do with the written word. I have literally read over a thousand books on the revolution, and this book is in my top 5. Best of all the book can be trusted to be true to history and is not an attempt at revisionism. You won't go wrong by ordering this book.

A great read!

Rose obviously did an incredible amount of work on this book. I finished it last night. All I can say is Wow, the pages just flew by.. I have whole bookshelves loaded down with volumes on the Revolution, so it's not often I'm surprised by anything I read about it but I was this time! I recommend Washington's Spies to anyone with even a passing interest in military history, George Washingto, espionage, or just great history writing.

Brilliant

Did the above reviewer -- "M.Purvis" -- read the same book I did? Far from being listless and boring, I thought it was gripping and exciting. Rose dug up hundreds of undiscovered documents from the Revolution and formed them into a brilliant narrative about "Washington's Spies." I'd never seen any of this stuff in other history books. Like I said, the other reviewer must have read some other book.