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內容簡介: |
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 who
inhabited this wilderness of mirrors—including the spymaster at the
heart of it all.
In the summer of 1778, with the war poised to turn in his favor,
General George Washington desperately needed to know where the
British would strike next. To that end, he unleashed his secret
weapon: an unlikely ring of spies in New York charged with
discovering the enemy’s battle plans and military strategy.
Washington’s small band included a young Quaker torn between
political principle and family loyalty, a swashbuckling sailor
addicted to the perils of espionage, a hard-drinking barkeep, a
Yale-educated cavalryman and friend of the doomed Nathan Hale, and
a peaceful, sickly farmer who begged Washington to let him retire
but who always came through in the end. Personally guiding these
imperfect everyday heroes was Washington himself. In an era when
officers were gentlemen, and gentlemen didn’t spy, he possessed an
extraordinary talent for deception—and proved an adept
spymaster.
The men he mentored were dubbed the Culper Ring. The British
secret service tried to hunt them down, but they escaped by the
closest of shaves thanks to their ciphers, dead drops, and
invisible ink. Rose’s thrilling narrative tells the unknown story
of the Revolution–the murderous intelligence war, gunrunning and
kidnapping, defectors and executioners—that has never appeared in
the history books. But Washington’s Spies is also a spirited,
touching account of friendship and trust, fear and betrayal, amid
the dark and silent world of the spy.
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關於作者: |
Alexander Rose earned his doctorate from Cambridge University,
where his prizewinning research focused on political and scientific
history. He is the author of Kings in the North: The House of
Percy in British History, and his writing has appeared in the
New York Observer, the Washington Post, and many
other publications. He lives in New York City.
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