Book- The German Secret Service in America: 1914-1918

When the Great War, known today as World War I, engulfed Europe in the summer of 1914, the United States wanted no part of it.

Even as the war extended into Africa and Asia, American mothers and fathers remained determined to keep their sons at home.

That the U.S. might enter the conflict was unthinkable—

except to the Germans.

The authors have provided us with a detailed, impressively documented, and contemporary account of the secret German effort to prevent the unthinkable from happening.

Infiltration of German operatives into the U.S. promised access to two vital resources:

1) easy entry into Canada, a major Allied Power

2) cooperation of a sizeable German-American population

A large percentage of that population were first- or second-generation Americans, some of whom still owed military service to Germany.

If the operatives could slow production of war materials and turn public opinion in a pro-German direction, as they believed they could, victory for the Central Powers was a likely outcome.

The German operatives obviously did not achieve their major goal.

They did, however, have some considerable success in the area of sabotage in the U.S. and in Canada: sunken ships, factory fires, collapsed bridges, major—and deadly—explosions in bomb factories.

This volume is a fascinating view into a little-known episode of

American history.

It is not a wartime propaganda piece—it is a serious study of an

(at the time) ongoing investigation.

Those readers with an interest in the history of espionage and intelligence organizations will find its findings remarkably consistent with more recent works.

194 pages.