Brad Meltzer. (2019). The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington. Flatiron Books.

Brad Meltzer. 2019. The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington. Flatiron Books.

Brad Meltzer, The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington. Flatiron Books, 2019.

Brad Meltzer. The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington. Flatiron Books, 2019.

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1. • value: Revolutionary War
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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Meltzer, Brad
   • bioText: BRAD MELTZER is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lightning Rod, The Escape Artist, and over ten other bestselling thrillers, as well as the Ordinary People Change the World series. He is also the host of the History Channel TV shows Brad Meltzer's Decoded and Brad Meltzer's Lost History, which he used to help find the missing 9/11 flag that the firefighters raised at Ground Zero.
   • name: Brad Meltzer
2. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Mensch, Josh
   • bioText: JOSH MENSCH is a New York Times bestselling author and documentary television producer with a focus on American history. He is co-author with Brad Meltzer of The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington and The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President. For television he has written, directed, and produced nonfiction series for PBS, the History Channel, and other networks. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his family.
   • name: Josh Mensch

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2019-01-08T00:00:00-05:00

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title

The First Conspiracy

fullDescription

Taking place during the most critical period of our nation's birth, The First Conspiracy tells a remarkable and previously untold piece of American history that not only reveals George Washington's character, but also illuminates the origins of America's counterintelligence movement that led to the modern day CIA.
In 1776, an elite group of soldiers were handpicked to serve as George Washington's bodyguards. Washington trusted them; relied on them. But unbeknownst to Washington, some of them were part of a treasonous plan. In the months leading up to the Revolutionary War, these traitorous soldiers, along with the Governor of New York, William Tryon, and Mayor David Mathews, launched a deadly plot against the most important member of the military: George Washington himself.
This is the story of the secret plot and how it was revealed. It is a story of leaders, liars, counterfeiters, and jailhouse confessors. It also shows just how hard the battle was for George Washington and how close America was to losing the Revolutionary War.
In this historical page-turner, New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer teams up with American history writer and documentary television producer, Josh Mensch to unravel the shocking true story behind what has previously been a footnote in the pages of history. Drawing on extensive research, Meltzer and Mensch capture in riveting detail how George Washington not only defeated the most powerful military force in the world, but also uncovered the secret plot against him in the tumultuous days leading up to July 4, 1776.
Praise for The First Conspiracy:
"This is American history at its finest, a gripping story of spies, killers, counterfeiters, traitors and a mysterious prostitute who may or may not have even existed. Anyone with an interest in American history will love this book." —Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God
"A wonderful book about leadership and it shows why George Washington and his moral lessons are just as vital today. What a book. You'll love it." —former president George H.W. Bush

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: NPR
   • content: "[Meltzer and Mensch] bring a propulsive energy to the narrative--it can be difficult to create tension and suspense in a nonfiction book where the reader already knows how the story ends, but the authors do a great job keeping the reader turning the pages.... Nothing about the book is phoned in; the amount of research behind it is genuinely remarkable. The First Conspiracy is an excellent book, enthralling and beyond fascinating, and it's sure to delight both fans of thrillers and American history."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Newsday
   • content: "Meltzer and Mensch have taken an obscure chapter of U.S. history and retold it as a thriller...they aim to make the past come alive for a modern audience, but readers who enter this literary wayback machine are in for a bumpy ride."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Booklist
   • content: "Readers who like their histories full of twists, turns, and cliff-hangers will enjoy this romp through the Revolution."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus Reviews
   • content: "In brisk, tense chapters, Meltzer [and] Mensch relate a tale of spies and treason, conspiracy and counterintelligence at the start of the colonists' war against Britain.... A lively political thriller."
5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     October 15, 2018
     An atmosphere of distrust and subterfuge pervaded the Colonies on the eve of war.In brisk, tense chapters, Meltzer (The Escape Artist, 2018, etc.) and documentary TV producer Mensch relate a tale of spies and treason, conspiracy and counterintelligence at the start of the colonists' war against Britain. Using present tense, the authors create a sense of immediacy and peril: Patriots are being hastily formed into a ragtag, rowdy army; the British, with its incomparable navy, are mounting a well-orchestrated campaign, sending hundreds of ships to assail Manhattan; and the clock, as clocks do in such thrillers, is ticking. Central to the convoluted plot is the fate of George Washington, portrayed by the authors as a paragon of leadership and perfection: "perfect poise, perfect manners, perfect horsemanship, perfect appearance." He faces a population of "divided loyalties and shifting allegiances...ripe for treachery, spying, and double-crossing." Farmers and townsfolk are lured into fighting for the king and conveying secret information. New York Gov. William Tryon and the city's mayor, David Mathews, are conspirators, Tryon masterminding treachery from aboard a British ship docked in New York's harbor. Shocked by rumors, Washington decides to assemble an elite band of soldiers enjoined to protect him. Their nickname was the Life Guards. In addition, he convenes "a dedicated team who can uncover the enemies' secret activities," learn their plans, and thwart them. The secret Committee of Intestine Enemies, the authors assert, will become, two centuries later, the CIA: "the domain of dedicated agencies with well-trained experts and sophisticated technologies." As rudimentary as it was, however, Washington's clandestine committee ferreted out important information: Among turncoats were members of Washington's Life Guards and, astonishingly, his housekeeper. The authors acknowledge that some elements of the plot remain mysterious: Washington's housekeeper, for example, left his employ suddenly, but no records point to her involvement. Nevertheless, the conspiracy is foiled, and in July 1776, Washington's public reading of the Declaration of Independence finally energizes his soldiers.A lively political thriller.

     COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     History Channel personality Meltzer and television producer Mensch collaborate on an account of a little-known assassination plot against George Washington, then leader of the Continental Army. This conspiracy occurred when Washington headquartered the army in New York during the spring and summer of 1776. The fast-paced narrative explores the rivalry between Washington and New York's colonial governor, William Tryon. Tryon, with British assistance, financed irregular operations against American patriots. Meltzer and Mensch reveal how Washington deciphered the plot against him by relying on the first documented instance of American counterespionage. What makes the story more intriguing is the portrayal of the divisions between loyalists and patriots in New York, as loyalty to the Crown is often underrepresented in Revolution histories. VERDICT Highly recommended for popular history fans, this work adds to the knowledge presented in David McCullough's 1776 and makes a great companion volume to John A. Nagy's Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution.--Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio

     Copyright 1 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     November 1, 2018
     Best-selling novelist and television-host Meltzer (The Escape Artist, 2018) and documentarian Mensch bring the fast pace and sensibility of a thriller to the Hickey Plot, a failed 1776 scheme to kidnap and possibly murder George Washington. They vividly evoke the world of occupied New York City in which the scheme unfolded, describing the tensions within the overcrowded wartime community and the webs of relationships linking powerful backstage plotters with the greedy, desperate, or committed ordinary people designated to carry it out. Hickey itself was hardly a uniquely menacing undertaking, however. As the book makes clear, the Revolutionary War was fraught with conspiracies and plots against key leaders on both sides. What Meltzer and Mensch do bring out is how the scheme helped to inspire American innovations in defensive spycraft, eventually known as counterintelligence, by their juxtaposing the Hickey attempt with the ad hoc nature of the political and military leadership seeking to control the city and prosecute the war. Readers who like their histories full of twists, turns, and cliff-hangers will enjoy this romp through the Revolution.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

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Taking place during the most critical period of our nation's birth, The First Conspiracy tells a remarkable and previously untold piece of American history that not only reveals George Washington's character, but also illuminates the origins of America's counterintelligence movement that led to the modern day CIA.
In 1776, an elite group of soldiers were handpicked to serve as George Washington's bodyguards. Washington trusted them; relied on them. But unbeknownst to Washington, some of them were part of a treasonous plan. In the months leading up to the Revolutionary War, these traitorous soldiers, along with the Governor of New York, William Tryon, and Mayor David Mathews, launched a deadly plot against the most important member of the military: George Washington himself.
This is the story of the secret plot and how it was revealed. It is a story of leaders, liars, counterfeiters, and jailhouse confessors. It also shows just how hard the battle was for...

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