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The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War

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The Harding Affair

by James D. Robenalt

The time setting; an age of prim and proper people. Nice girls, and certainly upstanding gentlemen, simply did not have extra-martial affairs in 1905. Wanna bet? The future president of the United States of America will engage in just such an affair with the wife of one of his good friends. And he got away with it... kind of.

Carrie Fulton Phillips was the woman. On a couples trip to Europe with the future president,Warren Harding,and his wife and Carrie's husband, she managed to find romantic time alone with him. From that moment, until just before Harding took the stage as president, they enjoyed one another's intimate company - often. The affair was back dropped by World War I, and Harding's conflicted views about war with Germany while a US Senator.

So what, you say? The "so what" is, Carrie may have been a German spy. There is no doubt she was a German sympathizer. Her entire family enjoyed strong connections to Germany. And there was a bit more. A German-American baroness, daughter to Wilhelm Pickhardt, an American millionaire of German descent, somehow managed to take up residence near a US Army base while enjoying the company of many officers, some so much younger than the older, but still handsome, divorcee Baroness Iona Zollner. A Postmaster spotted the connection to Jim Phillips and his daughter Isabelle, to whom a navy lieutenant named Pickhardt was writing letters. The Postmaster informed higher authorities who then followed the trail to Carrie Phillips, and Harding. The Bureau of Investigation quickly uncovered rumors of the affair in Marion, Ohio.

Was the intriguing Carrie really a German spy? Did Baroness Iona Zollner have a connection to Harding's girlfriend? Was Carrie the key to Harding's ambivalence to US entry into WW I? After the Congress voted for war with Germany, Carrie's letters to Warren disclose her belief that this is the worst move possible for the United States, and the nation will regret its decision down the road. The estrangement got worse as time progressed. When Warren told her he might be chosen as the Republican nominee for president, she began to blackmail him with his passionate letters. She kept them. It was those letters, all 106 of them, 788 handwritten pages, that were found and form the basis for Robenalt's book.

Naturally, the letters simply do not disclose complete details (I will not give away the ending or the details). But what they do in spades, is give the reader an insight into the mind of Harding, and how he thought about the world around him. This is a 19th century mind, struggling with 20th century problems. Harding, often viewed as a footnote in the presidency, told the South, in Birmingham Alabama no less, that Jim Crow legislation was the wrong path to the future. He approved of other progressive legislation as well, but his death put an end to any chance for greatness.

As a story, the book is compelling. The author brings the reader along quickly, and keeps interest high by dealing with more than one story at once and pulling them closer together chapter by chapter. A good, fun read.

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Through Jim Robenalt's book, Warren Harding becomes more than just a sentence in a history textook stating that, yes, he was president in 1921, and yes, he appointed a man to his cabinet who orchestrated the Teapot Dome oil scam. Warren Harding now emerges as a complex human being like any other human being, one who exhibits human emotions as he tries to make sense of the world in which he lives. The letters he wrote to Carrie Phillips demonstrate that she was the passion in his life, sometimes the sounding board in this life, and sometimes the curse in his life. I applaud the author for using the letters as a backdrop to a great story, rather than the story itself. He excruciatingly worked to plug the bits of information in the letters into a timeline, which is extremely valuable for the reader to see how Harding's thinking about world affairs evolved, how the Great War consumed everyone, and how a very complicated time in history is so little understood today. Harding's letter-writing was nothing atypical in that time in history -- it was an art, a pasttime, a gift to the recipient. The letters he wrote to family members and even constituents reveal the same careful thoughtfulness. If the book prompts readers to want to find the real Warren Harding and the real 29th president, rather than the myth and that scant sentence in the history text, then it has done its job.

This captivating book has all of the elements of a fictional page-turner: larger-than-life characters, steamy romance, espionage and politics-Yet, the amazing thing is that the book is all historical fact, thoroughly researched and beautifully written- Robenalt tells a great story that also gives the reader a rare glimpse into what was previously undisclosed American history-The author deftly weaves the tales of possible espionage, and the politics in America at the time of Harding's presidency with Harding's emotional-often erotic-letters to his mistress, Carrie Phillips-Through these letters, a picture of Harding emerges that few would have guessed existed- Quite simply, the stories are spellbinding- This book is a rare treat-It both entertains and educates the reader-

*** Review is of advance reader copy ***

On the back of this book, the reader is promised the "Harding's time in the United States Senate and his rise to the Presidency will never be seen the same." However, this book is more about Harding's illicit affair than it is his politics.

James Robenalt has mined nearly 900 pages of letters and journal entries to develop this story, which is mostly about Harding's pursuit of an alleged German spy from around 1910-1920. There is no evidence in the book that the woman Harding is pursuing actually was a spy - instead, it is all innuendo and accusation. I cannot think of one instance where there is documented proof that Carrie Phillips was actually a spy, though accusations were leveled against her periodically.

The strength of this book is the portrait of Warren Harding - by evaluating his illicit relationship with Carrie Phillips, one can see why his Presidency was such a failure; Harding seems to be an easily swayed man when infatuated with a person or a topic. This helps explain why he chose the men he did for his cabinet, though Robenalt does not explore this angle of Harding's life.

Overall, the book is a fun read - it shows Harding doing things that have never been previously attributed to him; usually we think of presidents (pre-Kennedy) as men who were on the "straight and narrow", but Harding certainly doesn't fit this mold. If you're looking for a historical analysis of the relationship and its impact on politics, this is NOT the book for you. If you're looking for titalating read and the sleazy side of Warren Harding, this is a great book. I trust that before formal publication the typographical errors and editorial mis-steps will be corrected; they are prevalent throughout the manuscript.

Warren G. Harding was not the first President to have an extra-marital affair. But his passionate and stormy love for Mrs. Carrie Phillips could have incurred more than general disapproval had it been revealed to the world at large; during World War One, when their relationship was at its most intense, Harding was a Senator with a stellar political future and Carrie Phillips was very likely a German spy.

Harding and Phillips were wrong for each other on many levels, something that became more evident as their affair wound to a close: she wanted him to abandon his political aspirations (it was alleged that she talked him out of running for president in 1916), and he begged her to bury the pro-German sympathies that had been instilled in her after years spent living in Berlin. Author James Robenalt skillfully parallels the deterioration of their relationship with the dissolution of U.S. - German relations as the war progressed.

In "The Harding Affair" Robenalt weaves the intense and volatile contents of some long-suppressed love letters with a well-researched account of the United States prior to and during the First World War. It's an incredible story: were it not for the fact that the events actually happened, the book would rank as one of the greatest espionage novels ever written.

"The Harding Affair" tells the story of the 13-year love affair between Warren Harding, who would become the 29th president of the United States in 1921, and Mrs. Carrie Phillips, wife of Harding's friend Jim Phillips, a Marion, Ohio businessman. This book follows their relationship, which began in 1905, from 1910-1918, as there are no extant letters before 1910. The information is based on 106 letters written by Warren Harding to Carrie Phillips, plus some drafts and notes of letters she sent him, over 1000 pages of correspondence in all. The letters surfaced in 1963 and were given to the Library of Congress by the Harding family, where they are sealed until 2014. But there are microfilm copies of the letters, which author James David Robenalt used to inform this book.

All in all, I am not impressed that the relationship between Warren Harding and Carrie Philips is important. Harding was obviously in love with the woman, but he wrote to her only of his feelings, so the letters provide no insight into his ideas or opinions. He never tired of expressing his love for her, not did she of demanding that he do so, so the letters are rather repetitive. The characters in this drama are none too appealing. Carrie Phillips was a petty, jealous woman who toyed deliberately with Harding's emotions. Harding was not a bad man, but neither was he a principled one. He adopted political positions, both destructive and constructive, not because he believed them correct, but because they were popular.

For Harding scholars, the letters illuminate his relationship with Carrie Phillips. They provide an additional tool with which to scrutinize the claims of Nan Britton, who claimed an affair with Harding beginning in 1917. And they provide some insight into Harding's views on Phillips' German sympathies during WWI, when she was accused of being a German spy. The author seems to believe that these letters cast Harding in a more positive light than historians have generally accorded him. Harding was not as bad a president as he is made out to be. His international arms control efforts were successful and appropriate. But I don't see how the revelation that he had an affair with a German spy during the Great War is going to help him, especially considering that Phillips may have used Harding to obtain information on troop movements. That would make him a dolt.

The book's structure alternates between the story of the Harding-Phillips affair and the testimony of one Baroness Iona Zollner, an American temptress married to a German army officer, in 1917, when she was also accused of spying for Germany. She has a loose connection to the Phillipses, but her presence in the book is awkward. She seems to have been included in order to provide background information on the phenomenon of Americans who spied for Germany. Harding scholars will probably want to read "The Harding Affair", but they will have to wade through a lot to get to the substance. I got the overwhelming impression of too much written about too little.

On the surface a book about a sex scandal involving Warren Harding would hardly raise an eyebrow as this particular affair and others have long been known about. What sets "The Harding Affair" apart is Robenalt's access to the enormous cache of over 900 letters from Harding kept by Carrie Phillips, the object of his affections. The cache of letters has been the source of considerable legal action for over 40 years and is for the first time explored here in detail for what they reveal, not just of Harding and Phillips, but of a larger and broader pro-German network of spies during the First World War. That larger broader story of espionage complicates the story somewhat, especially since Rosenalt chooses to focus first on the case of Baroness Iona Zollner and her arrest in Chattanooga in 1917. At first blush the reader will wonder what on earth that has to do with Harding or Phillips and the connection is only revealed further on into the book. To complicate things more Robenalt crosscuts back and forth between the two story lines which take place at different periods, but does so to explain how Baroness Zollner and Carrie Phillips are related, and their relation to the powerful Pickhardt family of industrialists.

The letters between Harding and Phillips, which form the basis for the book, are horrendously treacley and make the book a tough read as it becomes clear Harding had it bad for Carrie. The correspondence from Phillips to Harding doesn't survive so the result is a somewhat one-sided representation that makes Harding look pretty malleable when it came to love. The other primary and secondary sources that Robenalt pulls in are outstanding and help to balance the portrayal of Harding considerably. Rather than coming off solely as a love-struck fool, Harding demonstrates his astute political acumen and profound insight into the human condition; not something I was particularly aware of. But it also shows Harding's profound character defects that would lead to the widespread corruption during his Presidential Administration; he simply was too compromised to take a firm hand and seemingly everyone knew it and took advantage of it. At the risk of spoiling the book for anyone, Robenalt makes a fairly compelling circumstantial case that both Carrie Phillips and Baroness Zollner were engaged in espionage for Germany. In Phillips's case she was lucky not to get caught on account of her connection to then-Senator Harding; Zollner gets off lucky on account of her relation to the Roosevelt family and it's more than likely that Harding played a role there too as Robenalt hints at. Baroness Zollner was unexpectedly granted bail and released by Edward Sanford; a then relatively unknown United States District Court judge who would later be appointed as an associate justice to the United States Supreme Court by none other than President Harding. It's safe to say that the Baroness's connection to the Roosevelts, the Phillips, and Harding would have embarrassed the Republican Party considerably, so she likely got the light treatment and was allowed to slink away. What is clear though is that it is unlikely Harding was passing along any information that was useful to Phillips to provide to Germany and despite opportunities and threats to blackmail Harding, Phillips never followed through.

It's hard to fathom the renewed interest in Harding as in addition to this book last year saw the publication of The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country. Perhaps during the presidency of a somewhat flawed leader we like to read of similarly flawed presidents? In any case, "The Harding Affair" will be primarily of interest to historians and those who like more salacious books on public figures. As an attorney Robenalt is writing somewhat afield here but sticks to the historian's desire to remain objective. Robenalt truly does shed incredible insight into Harding and the era, mentioning long forgotten institutions such as the American Protective League and he vividly captures the era in a lively readable way. The content of Harding's hideously overwrought letters would be a challenge for any biographer but Robenalt does a great job here. John Dean's intro however is confused and confusing and it strikes me that Robenalt selected him for the "star quality" of his name more so than the quality of what he wrote. The book could desperately use a dramatis personae listing to help keep the characters straight as well. As far as the espionage goes it's more of a sideshow; something occurring offstage. It's hard to know if the information that Carrie Phillips and Baroness Zollner passed to Germany led to the actual sinking of troop ships or not. In the end "The Harding Affair" is yet another nod to how thoroughly compromised Warren Harding was.

This book forced me, as a casual history buff, to change my simplistic, two-dimensional views of Warren Harding. Ironically, it took a story of an extramarital love affair (which I do not admire) to bring Harding's more admirable public accomplishments to my attention. I was drawn in by the backstory regarding the saga of the Carrie Phillips love letters: how they came to light, briefly, but then were sealed for 50 years by court order, with the acquiescence of the New York Times, and eventually surfaced again in the archives of a local historical society. It occurred to me that there must be something worth reading in those letters. The author was the first person to study the Carrie Phillips letters in detail and to put them into the context of the times: the division and paranoia rampant in a country teetering on the brink of war. The story of the American Protective League sounds like the work of Oliver Stone's imagination, but it really happened here in America. Freedom of speech, freedom of association and other civil liberties were early casualties in the run-up to World War I. The author includes minute details and stubborn facts that have caused me to rethink what I thought I knew about America in the early part of the last century, as well as what I thought I knew about Harding. True, Harding's love letters are over the top. He was clearly smitten by Carrie Phillips, the wife of another man -- it's almost embarrassing how much this leader of men was dependent on the attention and affirmation of Carrie Phillips. But when put into the context of historical events, the letters show another side of Harding; a more complex side, of a man of principle (at least in public matters), to whom others looked for calm, steady leadership in uncertain times. Ultimately, while the story of the love letters is fascinating, the real value here to me was the detailed glimpse of life in America just before global events changed the country forever. The book is an easy read, with lots to hold your attention.

This book has everything -- a beautiful love story, an intriguing espionage plot, and a vibrant depiction of American life and politics during the decade leading up to World War I. Author James Robenalt based his book on hundreds of pages of letters from Warren G. Harding to the love of his life, Carrie Phillips, written between 1905 and 1918. The letters, which have been under seal and never before revealed, are astonishing. It turns out that Harding was a terrific writer and an unabashed romantic; the letters alone -- sometimes playful, often pleading, occasionally erotic -- would make for a fascinating book.

But Robenalt gives us much more than just the letters; he puts them in context, giving a grand picture of the times that shaped Harding as a man and as a politican. The key event in this story is, of course, World War I. For Harding, the intense debate over whether America should enter the war was both public and personal: Carrie Phillips was a rabid suppoter of Germany, and lobbied him relentlessly to vote against going to war. Robenalt shows that her influence over him -- particularly on the question of his running for president in 1916, against President Woodrow Wilson -- may have changed the course of history.

Robenalt's accessible style makes history come alive; "The Harding Affair" lives up to its thriller-esque title with its fast pace and suspenseful plotting. But Robenalt never embellishes the facts just to tell a good story. Case in point: His research into the letters turned up a doozy of a discovery. It turns out that federal investigators suspected that Carrie Phillips became a spy for the Germans during the war. Was she? The historical records are ambiguous. So Robenalt lays out the evidence -- which includes Carrie's close ties to a German family heavily involved in espionage -- and lets his readers draw their own conclusions. These sorts of mysteries, he reminds us at the end, are what make history fun, for both readers and writers.

A week ago I heard Author James Robenalt interviewed on NPR about his new book entitled the Harding Affair, Love and Espionage During the Great War. The interview was excellent and sparked my interest in learning more about Warren Harding, this oftentimes overlooked president. I was not disappointed in Robenalt's book. It is an excellent and interesting read, well researched, and elegantly written. Clearly, Robenalt is a superb authority on the subject of Harding, early 20th century/pre world war 1 America, and the conflicting yet eventually redemptive characteristics that made up the man. The book tells the story of Harding, both before and up through his presidency through letters written by Harding, that illustrate clearly the man who became president, his conflicts, and the patriotism that ultimately drove his decisions. This is a must read for anyone interested in history.