About the Book
Officers from the U.S. Embassy, Scotland Yard, and MI5 broke into the bedroom of suave young American code clerk Tyler Kent. They found him standing beside his unmade bed, wearing a pair of striped pajama bottoms. His mistress, Irene Danischewsky, was wearing the matching top—and nothing else. Along with keys to the Embassy code room, the men also found almost 2,000 documents that Kent had smuggled out, including top-secret cables that he had encoded and transmitted from Churchill to Roosevelt seeking American help for besieged Britain. Kent planned to give those cables to Roosevelt’s isolationist enemies in Congress. Also among the documents lay an incriminating volume, the infamous Red Book, containing the names of high profile Nazi sympathizers that Churchill wanted behind barbed wire. American ambassador Joseph Kennedy waived Kent’s diplomatic immunity and turned him over to the British, who imprisoned him until his secret trial. It was a long way for Kent to fall. A Princeton dropout, he had used his brilliant language skills and privileged position to get ahead. Looking down his nose at all around him, he made a very bad impression on everyone he met. But his father’s friends—anti-Roosevelt, anti–New Deal, and anti-Semitic—helped maintain his career. His good looks didn’t hurt, either. Through his father’s connections, he had gone to Moscow with the first American ambassador to the Soviet Union. Suspecting him of spying for the Russians, officials transferred him to London, where he met Danischewsky, the Russian wife of a British merchant. A black sheep with diplomatic privilege, Tyler Kent stood at the crossroads of history: Stalin’s purges, the rise of Hitler, and the Phony War. Peter Rand arrestingly weaves together Kent’s star-crossed love affair, imprisonment, and trial into a rich tapestry that conveys a fresh vision of the tumultuous era.
For more about the book and the author, please visit ConspiracyOfOne.net.
About the Author :
Peter Rand is the author of six books, including China Hands. A former editor of Washington Monthly and a regular reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, he has taught at Columbia and Harvard universities and has appeared at numerous conferences and on television and radio shows, including the Leonard Lopate Show, Christopher Lydon’s The Connection, WNYC, WBAI, and WBUR, among others. Rand teaches journalism at Boston University and lives with his wife in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Review :
"A vivid, meticulously detailed, and historically accurate chronicle of Kent's scandal, trial, and imprisonment, Conspiracy of One is a fascinating addition to world history shelves."
—Midwest Book Reviews
"An in-depth look at the intriguing dark days at the break of World War II ... A fascinating work enriched by the author’s deep knowledge and command of his material.
—Kirkus Reviews
"A wonderful spy story, proving once again that fact out-powers fiction. Every word of Conspiracy of One is true—and it's very strange truth indeed."
—Tim Weiner, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author of Legacy of Ashes and Enemies
"Just when it might have seemed that all the great World War II spy stories had already been told, Peter Rand uncovers a fascinating new one. It is full of colorful characters and wild plot twists, against the deadly serious background of wartime espionage. Most intriguingly, it provides a new perspective on World War II that many historians have overlooked."
—Stephen Kinzer, bestselling author of Overthrow and The Brothers
“Peter Rand’s story of ill-fated Tyler Kent gives us a glimpse of a lost world that produced a global war, countless dramas, and had a bygone class system where Tyler Kent seems to have stepped out of a John le Carré novel by way of Graham Green. Rand opens the curtains to tell us what made him who he was, what he did, and how he ended up. It is told elegantly while making one turn pages eagerly. It’s a hard trick to pull off, but Rand does it. What a story, what a read!”
—John Bowers, author of Love in Tennessee and Stonewall Jackson
Critical acclaim for Peter Rand’s China Hands:
“A splendid job, history vividly evoked ... A fine book.” —Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
“A well-drawn portrait of a generation ... Rand does a good job of tracing relationships among his colorful characters and brings in personal detail from unpublished letters and interviews.” —New York Times Book Review
“Rand writes with an appreciative zest and an understanding sensitivity.” —Boston Globe
“China emerges in the pages of this book with its dazzling complexity intact. ... Worth reading not only for the welcome attention it brings to a largely unexamined chapter in American journalism but for its flashes of insight into the byzantine politics of the Kuomintang.” —The Nation
“Rand’s work provides an introduction to such fascinating people … Insightful observation … excellent writing, characterization of the writers, and use of the journalists’ letters make this work stand far above most popular histories. … Engrossing … highly recommended.” —Library Journal
“An absorbing account ... Rand skillfully weaves context into these highly personal narratives and vividly recreates a fascinating, confounding, and ultimately tragic era.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Rand vividly recreates the period, lucidly and penetratingly presenting the Chinese experiences of the journalists.” —Publishers Weekly
“A sweeping narrative … a vivid mural of a generation.” —Booklist
