This little book is so much fun! A very quick read, but original and entertaining!

Love this book. Small, clear, concise. Historically appropriate. Used it multiple times from 2009-2013 in my Intelligence and Democracy course I taught at the undergraduate level. Pick it up from time to time when I want to refresh my memory on the history of this issue. The French definitely helped wrap things up at the end, but I will always contend it was Washington's masterful employment of intelligence (including denial and deception) (along with the efforts of Hamilton and Tallmadge) that turned the tide of the war for the American cause. Love the appendices that include spy terms and pictures of the actual code books (that are currently housed at Mount Vernon). Fun book! Would be good for teaching at high school and even middle school level also.

[read for middle school ‘8th grade year’]

Good but is confusing at times

Quick, entertaining read on a fascinating chapter of American history. Not much pierces the heart quite like Nathan Hale standing at the gallows and saying "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

This was an informative read that provided a deeper look on how George Washington’s role as a spymaster helped to win the revolutionary war. This book had coded messages written in the margins, with a code in the back of the book. This allows the reader to experience Tallmadge’s code from that time period.

I really enjoyed reading this book . It was very easy to read and comprehend and full of information about George Washington and the spies that helped him win The Revolutionary War. This is great for anyone at any age . I didn't realize how much I have forgotten ..

I enjoyed reading this to my kids to go along with what they’re learning about in history. One of my kids really enjoyed it and the other thought it was boring.

This is a wonderfully designed little book–feels good in your hands, pages have deckled edges, uses a font reminiscent of the time, and the jacket is printed in letterpress. I can see where kids, especially boys, would get caught up in the whole spy thing; there are codes to decipher throughout the whole book. Kudos to National Geographic for making history fun!

This books is a "wet your appetite" kind of book. It gives you tidbits of interesting historical moments, but it doesn't flesh out the deep, detailed accounting that a lot of history buffs are looking for. If you're looking for a lightweight historical read, or if you're amassing Revolutionary era resources, you'll enjoy this book. If you're looking to write an exhaustive paper or book based on Revolutionary players, you'll need more than this little volume. (Safe for older kids and teens to read, nothing too shocking.)

It was very informational

Many people know George Washington’s adventures as a General, and his presidential years are also well known. But did you know that Washington had one of the best spy rings in the world? And did you know that General Howe of the British said the thing he feared most about Washington was his spies? This book will open up the world of espionage during the Revolution, and and show you how George Washington was a great general, president, but also a great spymaster.

Comments: Let me say this about this book: I never knew that Washington used spies, or espionage, nor that he was one of the best spymasters in the history of spies. So when my father brought this back from a trip to Philadelphia, I was pleasantly surprised. I began a slow read through of it, and let me say this was really fun. I always love hearing about spies and such, and this book more than delivers on that front.
I love the system by which the story is told. It isn’t told in chronological order, but sort of jumps around, telling about the beginning of the war, then the end, then the middle, the end again and so on. The best of the adventures of these spies are taken, and told in plenty of detail so that you never are left wondering, “Now what just happened?”

There is almost no violence in this book. Thomas B. Allen, the author, seemed to want to make this a violence free book. As a result, the most that fights are described as is, “they fought.” This can be interpreted both ways, good and bad, but I liked the book this way, better than I think I would have if it was violence-filled.

There are some very helpful maps, and pictures in this book. I’m usually not a fan of pictures, or maps at all, but these were truly helpful. They were placed at strategic positions, with some very good markings as to where Washington’s troops were, or where this spy or that spy was.

If you like espionage, you probably will like this book. It gives you some of the ways that spies hide messages, or how spy rings worked, or things of this sort. And, the author has this thing where he talks about this spy technique, then he talks about how it relates to spy techniques nowadays. So you get some very cool information, both on how spying was back then, and also how it is now.

There are a few cons to this book. For one thing, the writing style is very grating. One of the reasons I took so long to read it was that his style was oftentimes monotonous, and repetitive. This got pretty annoying at some points, but you can slowly train yourself to ignore this.

Another thing is that this is a non-fiction book, and it isn’t a story. Allen seems to be trying to make up his mind as to whether it is or isn’t. He seems to go from novel writing, to history bookness, back to novel writing. Now, this can be done. You can have a sort of running story going, or maybe give some of the information in the form of maybe hearing Washington talking. But this book has neither. Random splotches of narrative, then back to the history book style. Also, while Allen is doing this, he introduces several people from whom the novel section of this book is told, and never says who they are. I’s, is all their referred to as.

Here’s some info on this book.

Length? At 149 pages, it may seem rather short. The author gives you a lot of information in that time, so sometimes you get almost overwhelmed. Personally, I like being given information in a machine gun form if you will. I know other people don’t like this, so I though I should mention it.

Like I said before, Cheryl Harness does a superb job illustrating all of this.

I found reading this book particularly cool because I read it while we were in Washington D.C. So I was able to visit some of the sites things like this happened and shoot out at my parents, “Hey, you know that so and so did this here?”

So, if you like non-fiction books, and espionage, or if you’re going to D.C. you will most likely enjoy this book. If you can get past the cons, this is an entertaining book. Highly recommended. I would say this is an all-ages sort of book, though younger children might have trouble reading this. 8 out of 10. The link to Amazon to buy this book can be found here.