A small bomb goes off in a Manhattan office tower. Four days later, with no arrests and a city still on edge, Aidan Cole, a failed journalist-turned-blogger, opens an anonymous email to find a photograph of a young American woman. There is a chilling message: "This is Paige Roderick. She's the one responsible…." His reporter's curiosity suddenly piqued, Aidan begins an unlikely journey into the dark soul of America - a story stretching from environmental radicals in the Smoky Mountains to a bomb factory in Vermont, from a wealthy enclave on Fishers Island to a safe house on the Lower East Side. An ominous play on recent U.S. history, AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE explores the connection between our collective apathy and the roots of insurrection. Paige and Aidan are two Americans who, like many of us, are grasping for a foothold in a culture-and a country-that's crumbling around them. Beautifully written and relentlessly suspenseful, AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE is a cautionary tale with a culturally adroit, hyper-realistic, and bitingly humorous voice.
Aidan Cole and his friends are a band of savvy—if cynical—New York journalists and bloggers, thriving at the intersection of media and celebrity. They meet at loft parties and dive bars, talking of scoops and page views, sexual adventures and new restaurants. And then, without warning, a bomb rips through a deserted midtown office tower, and Aidan’s life will never be the same. Four days later, with no arrests and a city on edge, an anonymous e-mail arrives in Aidan’s inbox. Attached is the photograph of an attractive young white woman, along with a chilling message: “This is Paige Roderick. She’s the one responsible.” An astonishing debut novel, American Subversive is a “genuinely thrilling thriller” (NewYorker.com) as well as “an exploration of what motivates radicalism in an age of disillusion” (The New York Times Book Review).
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws
This is an account of the nation’s first intelligence agency, the Office of Special Services (O.S.S.) — how it operated, what it accomplished, and how it laid the basis for the present Central Intelligence Agency — and how its charismatic founder, “Wild Bill” Donovan, established control over it, recruited its staff, and, most importantly, sold Roosevelt, the armed services, the Allies, and the rest of the country on the agency’s varied — and often bizarre — shadow warfare missions during World War II. The O.S.S.’s special relationship with the British, the key role of academics and its embarrassing connection with the Soviets’ N.K.V.D. are also addressed. Smith concludes that the creation of the C.I.A. after the war owed less to the accomplishments of the O.S.S. than to Donovan’s public relations skills and the precarious military situation the country found itself in at the time. “Mr. Smith... has done an exhaustive job of research on the O.S.S. and Donovan... the book offers an honest, lively portrait of an important American and the contributions, good and bad, that he and the O.S.S. made to the American intelligence system... Much of this book can be read for the pleasure of observing a genuine American character in action. Mr. Smith, who does not fawn on his subject, captures Donovan’s kinetic energy and vision.” — Philip Taubman, The New York Times “This may be as close to a definitive medium-length history of OSS as we are likely to get. It draws fully on the extensive original files now available (both American and British) and on the recent flood of secondary writing... The author has a sure grasp of the basic history of the war. His narrative chapters put OSS firmly into that wider context, and his perspectives and judgments ring true. And there are excellent chapters on the usually neglected Research and Analysis section and on the relations between OSS and Soviet intelligence agencies... an important book.” — Foreign Affairs “[A]lmost certainly the most balanced study to date of the ‘shadow’ or ‘irregular’ warfare that was the special province of OSS... Resting on an impressive amount of research into unpublished manuscript collections in both this country and Great Britain, [The Shadow Warriors] is a convincing account, in large measure because its author retains a balance in his conclusions even as he does not hesitate to render firm judgments.” — The Public Historian “Bradley F. Smith has produced a carefully researched, lucid study of... the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)... Smith deserves recognition for writing the most comprehensive study to date on the origins of United States central intelligence.” — The Journal of American History “Bradley Smith has undertaken a formidable task in writing this history of the Office of Strategic Services which is the most reliable record to date of its wide range of activities during the Second World War... an audacious book that is fascinating for its disclosures and entertaining to read.” — The Slavonic and East European Review “Bradley Smith... credits the OSS with accomplishments in support of the military, but considers shadow warfare dangerously overvalued... The book is... humanly interesting at the same time that it addresses the very largest moral and military questions.” — Kirkus
