Overview

The shocking history of the espionage and infiltration of American media during WWI and the man who exposed it. A man who was not who he seemed ... Russia was not the first foreign power to influence American popular opinion from the inside. In the lead-up to America's entry into the First World War, Germany spent the modern equivalent of one billion dollars to infiltrate American media, industry, and government in order to undermine the supply chain of the Allied forces. If not for the ceaseless activity of John Revelstoke Rathom, editor of the scrappy Providence Journal, America may have remained committed to its position of neutrality. But he emerged to galvanize American will, creating the conditions necessary for President Wilson to request a Declaration of War from Congress--all the while expelling German diplomats and exposing sensational plots along the way. And yet John Rathom was not his real name. And his many acts of journalistic heroism, which he recounted on nationwide speaking tours to rapt audiences, never happened. Who then was this great, beloved, and ultimately tragic imposter? In The Imposter's War, Mark Arsenault unearths the truth about Rathom's origins and revisits a surreal and too-little-known passage in American history that reverberates today. The legend of John Rathom encompasses the propaganda battle that set the US on a course for war. He rose within the editorial ranks, surviving romantic scandals and combating rivals, eventually transitioning from an editor to a de facto spy (and enthusiastic collaborator) with Great Britain. He brought to light the Huerta plot (in which Germany offered an alliance to Mexico, promising them the arms necessary to retake territory lost in the Mexican-American War) and helped to upend labor strikes organized by German agents to shut down American industry. But Rathom was eventually brought low, having exhausted the goodwill of the Department of Justice by an up-and-coming Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he embarrassed the US Navy with coverage of a sex scandal. Arsenault tracks the rise and fall of this enigmatic figure, while providing the rich and fascinating context of Germany's acts of subterfuge and the early years of World War I. The Imposter's War is a riveting and spellbinding narrative of a flawed man who nevertheless changed the course of history.

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John Rathom isn't exactly a household name in American journalism, but [Arsenault has]painted a fascinating, if complicated, portrait of him. -- Boston Globe Superb...His eye-opening account...is a valuable look at both the ethics of journalism that prioritizes the ends over the means and century-old antecedents for foreign propaganda disseminated as part of a sophisticated scheme. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) World War I German skulduggery combined with the biography of a flamboyant newspaper editor who trumpeted it...Rathom was quickly forgotten, but Arsenault does readers a favor by reviving his memory. -- Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

Mark Arsenault has covered national politics, gambling, and worked on Spotlight Team investigations as a staff reporter for the Boston Globe, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. This is his first nonfiction book. After producing, directing, and engineering spoken word recordings for over twenty years, Paul Heitsch began narrating audiobooks in 2011, and has recorded many bestselling titles as both himself and under a pseudonym. A classically trained pianist, Paul is also a composer and sound designer, and is currently the director of music for the James Madison University School of Theatre and Dance, and an adjunct instructor for the JMU School of Music. He and his family live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia (although Chicago will always be his hometown).

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