The Secret War Council, Germany’s spy organization in New York, received orders from Berlin to stop the flow of munitions through terrorism in January 1915. German agents in the U.S. firebombed freighters on the high seas, incited labor unrest, fomented troubles along the Mexican-American border, and damaged or destroyed dozens of American factories and logistics installations. The German secret war against the United States in 1915, its discovery and publication, combined with the disastrous sinking of the Lusitania in May of that year, did much to prepare the American public to finally accept joining the Entente powers against Germany in 1917. This is the story of a group of German agents in the United States, who executed this mission.

The Secret War Council illuminates the activities of German agents in the United States in 1914, a critical battlefield of the Great War. This crucial time of German-American relations builds the foundation for a thorough understanding of the road that led the two nations into open confrontation in 1917. A little known group of agents, diplomats, and businessmen organized in the Secret War Council helped pave that road.

Combining the pulsating drive of Showtime's Homeland with the fascinating historical detail of such of narrative nonfiction bestsellers as Double Cross and In the Garden of Beasts, Dark Invasion is Howard Blum’s gritty, high-energy true-life tale of German espionage and terror on American soil during World War I, and the NYPD Inspector who helped uncover the plot—the basis for the film to be produced by and starring Bradley Cooper. When a “neutral” United States becomes a trading partner for the Allies early in World War I, the Germans implement a secret plan to strike back. A team of saboteurs—including an expert on germ warfare, a Harvard professor, and a brilliant, debonair spymaster—devise a series of “mysterious accidents” using explosives and biological weapons, to bring down vital targets such as ships, factories, livestock, and even captains of industry like J. P. Morgan. New York Police Inspector Tom Tunney, head of the department’s Bomb Squad, is assigned the difficult mission of stopping them. Assembling a team of loyal operatives, the cunning Irish cop hunts for the conspirators among a population of more than eight million Germans. But the deeper he finds himself in this labyrinth of deception, the more Tunney realizes that the enemy’s plan is far more complex and more dangerous than he suspected. Full of drama and intensity, illustrated with eight pages of black and-white photos, Dark Invasion is riveting war thriller that chillingly echoes our own time.

This vivid, detailed history of World War I presents the general reader with an accurate and readable account of the campaigns and battles, along with brilliant portraits of the leaders and generals of all countries involved. Scrupulously fair, praising and blaming friend and enemy as circumstances demand, this has become established as the classic account of the first world-wide war.

Over the course of the half century from 1865 to 1915, the British and Dutch delineated colonial spheres, in the process creating new frontiers. This book analyzes the development of these frontiers in Insular Southeast Asia as well as the accompanying smuggling activities of the opium traders, currency runners, and human traffickers who pierced such newly drawn borders with growing success. The book presents a history of the evolution of this 3000-km frontier, and then inquires into the smuggling of contraband: who smuggled and why, what routes were favored, and how effectively the British and Dutch were able to enforce their economic, moral, and political will. Examining the history of states and smugglers playing off one another within a hidden but powerful economy of forbidden cargoes, the book also offers new insights into the modern political economies of Southeast Asia.

Using primary Mexican sources, Joseph A. Stout Jr. takes a new look at the Mexican-American border conflicts of 1915 through 1920. Stout explores Mexico's difficult revolutionary period and its clashes with the United States as seen through the eyes of Mexican soldiers and statesmen. Border Conflict chronicles the activities of Venustiano Carranza's Constitutionalist army and presents original insights from Mexican correspondence, telegrams, and military documents. In the examination of the events along the border, the book includes the invasion of Mexico by the United States Punitive Expedition. The Punitive Expedition, under command of General John J. Pershing, further complicated the volatile situation on the northern frontier of Mexico and led to diplomatic tensions and the threat of war. The military education and leadership tactics of both armies are examined and compared. The struggles of the armies are presented in vivid detail by including a rich array of quotes from soldiers involved in the conflicts. Pancho Villa became an elusive target for both the Carrancistas and for the U.S. troops. Border Conflict provides a background on Villa and his relationship with the United States, the Constitutionalist government and the Mexican Revolution. The author argues that Carranza and the Constitutionalist army were dedicated to Villa's destruction, despite the contrary beliefs of American President Woodrow Wilson and his staff and generals. Based on his interpretation of military correspondence between Carranza and his commanders, Stout believes that Carranza considered Villa a more dangerous military problem than the presence of U.S. troops in Mexico. Pancho Villa was ". . . not over five feet ten, with the chest and shoulders of a prize fighter and the most perfect bullet-shaped head . . . covered with black hair. . . . A small black mustache serves to mask a mouth which is cruel even when it is smiling. The most attractive feature of the face is the eyes . . . they are really not eyes at all, but gimlets which seem to bore into your very soul."--New York Times, 1914 This fresh examination of the historical clashes at the border adds a new perspective to an old tale.

In May 1915, Italy declared war on the Habsburg Empire. Nearly 750,000 Italian troops were killed in savage, hopeless fighting on the stony hills north of Trieste and in the snows of the Dolomites. To maintain discipline, General Luigi Cadorna restored the Roman practice of decimation, executing random members of units that retreated or rebelled. With elegance and pathos, historian Mark Thompson relates the saga of the Italian front, the nationalist frenzy and political intrigues that preceded the conflict, and the towering personalities of the statesmen, generals, and writers drawn into the heart of the chaos. A work of epic scale, The White War does full justice to the brutal and heart-wrenching war that inspired Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.