Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is a wonderful read - interesting, relevant and timely, and better than fiction. Millman has struck an excellent balance, weaving facts into a captivating narrative that is a perfect book for relaxed reading. Books like THE DETONATORS should be part of curricula in high school and college history courses because it brings history alive. Impressive that a sports guy can turn such an excellent page-turner.

At 2:08 a.m., on the morning of July 30, 1916, the munitions depot on the island of Black Tom, in New York Harbor, exploded. The explosion was felt as far away as Maryland, the Statue of Liberty was pelted with shrapnel and other debris, Ellis Island had to be evacuated, and as much as $377,000,000 in 2007 dollars worth of damage was done. Thankfully, only seven people were killed that night, though many were injured.

But, what *really* happened that night? To answer that question, one must go back to 1915, when the Imperial German Government decided that it would be in its best interests to use sabotage to disrupt the flow of American arms and material to the Allies in Europe. This book traces the formation and activities of the German espionage and sabotage networks within the United States, the events surrounding the Black Tom explosion, and the activities of the German-American Mixed Claims Commission that examined the explosion during the inter-war years.

I must say that I found this to be a very interesting and enlightening book. The Black Tom explosion was a very large event, which strangely has almost completely disappeared from the American collective-memory. Well, I think that this book does a great job of bringing the story of Black Tom back to life. All of the book, even the events of the Mixed Claims Commission (interestingly enough), is told in a compelling manner that makes the whole book fascinating to read.

I really enjoyed this book, and think that anyone who likes a good spy story will enjoy it. Heck, even if you are just interesting in little-known historical happenings, you will like this book. Get this book, you won't be disappointed!

What an astonishing story. Yes, in the days before the U.S. entered WWI, German saboteurs really did blow up a munitions dump in New York harbor, shattering windows all across Manhattan and in parts of New Jersey. The mighty blast was felt as far away as Baltimore. And this is no fantasy-- men were actually tried and convicted of the crime. How strange that "nobody" knows about these events! Well-written and well documented.

In 1916 World War I was going full strength in Europe but America was not involved. Or to be more accurate America was willing to sell anything (such as arms and ammunition) to anyone and everyone.

Because of the blockade imposed on Germany by England and France, this effectively meant that nothing could be sold to Germany but England and France could get anything they wanted. Germany was not pleased by this state of affairs.

On July 30, 1916 there was an estimated two million pounds of explosives and ammunition in storage on Black Tom Island in New York harbor. German agents were able to blow it up.

Strangely enough there seemed to be little investigation of the incident until many years later when three lawyers outside of the Government uncovered the facts. This book is the story of the German plot and the subsequent investigations. This incident is so little known that this is a very welcome book.

Picked this book off a bargain shelf locally not knowing what to expect. As a retired intelligence officer, I scoop up bits and pieces of history; in this case expecting an incomplete or inaccurate picture of Germany's espionage network in the US prior to WWI.

What I got instead both surprised and greatly pleased me. This story makes a great summer time or rainy day book.

As a not so great fan of Woodrow Wilson's assault on the Constitutional rights of US citizens during WWI - I see a slightly different take on a President forced into war by Germany's 'death by a 1,000 cuts'. Between unrestricted submarine warfare; the sinking of the Lusitania - and the Zimmerman letter trying to draw Mexico into a war with the United States - I see how Wilson was pushed into a decision for WAR against Germany!

With such a large German population on the East Coast, New York (Yonkers), New Jersey (Jersey City) and Baltimore, Maryland - it became clear that Wilson had an anti-war and demographic problem siding against the Brits and French and had to start a large propaganda campaign on the American people to wake them up to the German threat. I was very unaware that many Germans living in the United States tried every way possible to return to Germany to serve in the German Army (the US not entering the war till 1917). The resentment of the American Irish against America's ally - England - (because of England's heavy handedness subduing insurrection in their native Ireland) also with huge demographics in the United States weighted heavily on Wilson's treatment of the American population in general. The Alien and Sedition Act came out of Wilson's nervousness with his own citizens.

The US intelligence community in 1916 was a fraction of what is is now - and probably as inept in many areas. Starved for resources - the German government culpability was finally brought to us by British code breakers - and informally at that. Sad to see the lawyers doing their own investigations - now a days done by vast legions of Federal Special Agents.

A fair job of character development - in sequence focusing on the Germans - and the Irish who worked the waterfronts of New York and New Jersey - the haunting characters of the German shipping companies working their secret plans for destruction in the shadow of what would later be the World Trade Center - all combined to climax with an explosion estimated to be 5.5 on the Richter Scale - essentially destroying a major transshipment point loading ammunition for the British and French WWI effort.

The book then shifts to the post WWI era where lawyers struggled with German intransigence blocking the claims of the Lackawanna Railroad who suffered a major portion of the damage at Black Tom. A thorough detailing of the workings of a German American Settlement Board settling WWI claims - makes up the rest of the story; as a worldwide hunt for convincing clues and witnesses by the fledging agency which would later morph into the FBI and the incredable tenacity of individual lawyers and members of the New York City Police Bomb Squad.

From this point on the story is about lawyers, ours, theirs (German) and neutrals - spanning the Atlantic, South America other US locations. Lawyers came and went - died and quit - but one man beat Germany at its own game.

This was a case that spanned 3 decades - outlived lawyers and umpires from both sides and took the legal action from the early Weimar Republic to the days of Hitlers 3rd Reich. Three American Presidents and their State Departments funded the investigation or tried to quash it - and a very successful and very obsessed Philadelphia Lawyer, John McCloy finally perservered - using his reputation on this case to build a career as an advisor to 3 more Presidents and helped shape the US containment policy against Russia during the cold war.

'Dry' in a few spots - even most historians have paid little attention to this footnote of history where almost no reader I know would have any idea of the final outcome.

The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice Fascinating account of what went on in our country and how we actually became involved in WW 11. 911 was NOT the first attack on this country, good historical reading.

Excellent description of how German spies operated in the U.S. AND BLEW UP bLACK tOM MUNITIONS TERMINAL AND THE YEARS OF LITIGATION CULMINATING IN A RULING AGAINST gERMANY