The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice [Hardcover]

Chad Millman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 12, 2006

Twenty years after blowing up Black Tom Island in the New York Harbor, the German government had still evaded responsibility for the crime. Three lawyers made it their mission to solve a mystery that began during the first World War and barely ended before the second.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Millman (The Odds; Pickup Artists), best known for his sports writing, tackles a fascinating but little-known episode in World War I history: the extensive plot by a network of German spies to wreak havoc in the U.S. Their one big success, he observes, was the massive explosion that blew up a spit of land in New York Harbor next to Liberty Island known as Black Tom, including an ammunition depot, and caused extensive damage throughout Manhattan and Jersey City, with reverberations felt as far south as Philadelphia. Millman has delved into the story deeply and with verve, basing much of this fast-paced, thrillerlike tale on affidavits, briefs, memos and letters from those involved in the plot and the long postwar effort to get to the bottom of it. Although the American government had plenty of clues about who was responsible, nothing of substance was done to solve the mystery until the early 1930s when three American lawyers"John McCloy, Amos Peaslee and Harold Martin"set out in earnest to investigate it. Millman's emphasis on the personal stories of the main characters involved in hatching the Black Tom plot and those who solved it makes for gripping reading. 8 b&w photos. (July 12)
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From Booklist

In the first two years of World War I, a German government annoyed by American shipments of ammunition to the Allies decided to do something about it. Not content with diplomatically protesting the incompatibility of America's arms sales with its neutral status, the Germans unwisely decided on sabotage. Black Tom Island in New York Harbor exploded on July 30, 1916, killing several and shattering the windows of lower Manhattan. Initially German involvement remained concealed, but after the war, litigation coaxed out the truth. Leading off with the organization of the sabotage campaign, Millman backfills his narrative with revelations brought forth by years of legal proceedings before a German-American commission. From a storytelling perspective, Millman commendably rises above a dry recitation of briefs and rulings, his chief agent being future cold-war figure John J. McCloy, who questioned many implicated in the case. With its obvious contemporary resonance, Millman's able account of an earlier foreign attack on America should draw the espionage audience and more. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (July 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316734969
• ISBN-13: 978-0316734967
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Judge a Book by its Author, August 13, 2006

By 

Steve Iaco (northern new jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice (Hardcover)

The title of my review is not meant as an insult to the author. Indeed, I wish to praise him. Whenever I'm intrigued by a book, I'll check out the author's bio on the dust jacket. Chad Millman's credentials: Sports Illustrated, CNNSI, ESPN The Magazine. I thought: What's a guy like this doing writing about history?

My skepticism proved groundless. Millman has produced a well-researched, highly engaging, elegantly written chronicle about the German Fifth columnists who operated in the U.S. prior to America's involvement in WW I. The German sabotage campaign culminated in the explosion of the munitions depot on Black Tom Island in New York Harbor in 1916. Millman vividly re-creates the events that led up to this sordid incident, and the decades-long quest to hold the German government to account for it.

The complex storyline involves a long cast of characters, and the author helpfully publishes a list of them at the outset of the book. One of them, the German military attache who masterminded a counterfeit passport operation, would go on to briefly lead the German government in the waning days of the Weimar Republic. However, the most famous of Black Tom's characters is John McCloy, the intrepid lawyer whose indefatigable pursuit of justice (aided by two other attorneys) was a springboard to a prominent role in military intelligence during WW II, as a senior aide to War Secretary Henry Stimson. McCloy was later appointed the first High Commissioner in West Germany after the war, and served as an advisor to Presidents until his death in 1989.

Millman writes in a captivating narrative style that makes "The Detonators" a quick, pleasing read. But I ended the book still wondering how and when he became interested in the long-forgotten Black Tom story. I wish he would have told us.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping story of a forgotten episode in our history, July 15, 2006

By 

Michael B. Grayson "Mike Grayson" (Anaconda, MT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice (Hardcover)

I got this book while on vacation because the cover caught my interst. I ended up not being able to put the book down.

This book describes sabotage episodes that occurred right before the U.S. entry into WWI. Even more, the book gives details of the persistence of efforts between the two world wars to prove that Germany conducted this sabotage.

It is a fascinating portrait of the many characters involved, and a well written account of episodes in our history that I had never heard of before, despite reading quite a bit of history. I recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in history.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Those who do not learn from history..., August 21, 2006

By 

G. Belsky (New York City, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice (Hardcover)

How no one thought to write this book until now is extraordinary. Millman found a chapter in U.S. history that eerily foreshadows the events of 9/11 and beyond, and he had the writerly discipline to avoid hitting readers over the head with it. Instead, he tells a dramtaic story of espionage and legal intrigue, in prose that's fast-paced and easily accessible without being simple or condescending. Perfect summer reading. Fall, Winter and Spring, too.