The League
The True Story of Average Americans on the Hunt for WWI Spies
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Narrated by:
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Eric Jason Martin
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By:
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Bill Mills
About this listen
The amazing true story of the national paranoia that turned US citizens into volunteer detectives.
Two weeks before the U.S. entered World War I, a Chicago advertising executive visited the Department of Justice with a proposal - organize the country’s businessmen into a secret force of volunteer agents to ferret out and investigate enemy activities within the United States. The country, overcome by a wave of patriotic fervor, had also become gripped with fear and uncertainty of the influx of immigrants from the very countries with which the country was now at war.
The idea received quick approval and caught on like wildfire. Soon thousands of volunteers in every major industry, trade, and profession were on the alert nationwide, maintaining surveillance and investigating cases for the Department of Justice Bureau of Investigation. They would grow to become 250,000 strong.
Written as a real-life adventure story, The League reveals how the organization began, the manner in which it operated, and the varied missions that it performed on behalf of the U.S. government. It is an extraordinary chapter in American history, when almost any citizen could receive official credentials as a volunteer investigator. From a running gun battle on the streets of Philadelphia, to the seizure of a disguised German commerce raider on the high seas, to the hunt for the radical bomber that attacked the Federal Building in Chicago, The League is a fascinating true story that will not soon be forgotten.
©2013 Bill Mills (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
Bill Mills chronicles the formation of the American Protective League, a group of ordinary American citizens who organized to prevent espionage during World War I. This true story is presented with great narrative verve and an almost pulpy style that is augmented by Eric Martin's vibrant performance. Martin affects a noir-ish demeanor that calls to mind a hard-nosed detective in an old black-and-white film, making it an appropriate performative choice for this enthralling look at the thousands of Americans who enacted their own undercover work in order to keep their country safe.
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From 1933 to 1945, the Gestapo was Nazi Germany's chief instrument of counter-espionage, political suppression, and terror. Jacques Delarue, a saboteur arrested by the Nazis in occupied France, chronicles how the land of Beethoven elevated sadism to a fine art. The Gestapo: A History of Horror draws upon Delarue's interviews with ex-Gestapo agents to deliver a multi-layered history of the force whose work included killing student resisters, establishing Aryan eugenic unions, and implementing the Final Solution.
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Once read never fogotten!!
- By Peter M. O'Handley on 04-27-13
By: Jacques Delarue, and others
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American Mafia
- A History of Its Rise to Power
- By: Thomas Reppetto
- Narrated by: Paul Costanzo
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Organized crime - the Italian American kind - has long been a source of popular entertainment and legend. Now Thomas Reppetto provides a balanced history of the Mafia's rise - from the 1880s to the post-World War II era - that is as exciting as it is authoritative. Structuring his narrative around a series of case histories featuring such infamous characters as Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, Reppetto draws on a lifetime of field experience and access to unseen documents to show us a locally grown Mafia.
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Mob at its best
- By Thomas on 02-14-23
By: Thomas Reppetto
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Into the Lion's Mouth
- The True Story of Dusko Popov: Word War II Spy, Patriot, and the Real-Life Inspiration for James Bond
- By: Larry Loftis
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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James Bond has nothing on Dusko Popov. A double agent for the Abwehr, MI5 and MI6, and the FBI during World War II, Popov seduced numerous women, spoke five languages, and was a crack shot, all while maintaining his cover as a Yugoslavian diplomat....
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A boring account of exciting events.
- By Amazon Customer on 11-30-18
By: Larry Loftis
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The Quiet Don
- The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino
- By: Matt Birkbeck
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Secretive - even reclusive - Russell Bufalino quietly built his organized crime empire in the decades between Prohibition and the Carter presidency. His reach extended far beyond the coal country of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and quaint Amish farms near Lancaster. Bufalino had a hand in global, national, and local politics of the largest American cities, many of its major industries, and controlled the powerful Teamsters Union. His influence also reached the highest levels of Pennsylvania government and halls of Congress, and his legacy left a culture of corruption that continues to this day.
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Important But Edited By Lawyers?
- By Ted on 04-03-14
By: Matt Birkbeck
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The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep
- Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship Under Yeltsin and Putin
- By: David Satter
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In this book Satter tells the story of the apartment bombings and how Boris Yeltsin presided over the criminalization of Russia, why Vladimir Putin was chosen as his sucessor, and how Putin has suppressed all opposition while retaining the appearance of a pluralist state. As the threat represented by Russia becomes increasingly clear, Satter's description of where Russia is and how it got there will be of vital interest to anyone concerned about the dangers facing the world today.
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David understands Russia better than Russians do
- By Grigory on 04-05-17
By: David Satter
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The Edge of Anarchy
- The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America
- By: Jack Kelly
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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The dramatic story of the explosive 1894 clash of industry, labor, and government that shook the nation and marked a turning point for America. The Edge of Anarchy offers a vivid account of the greatest uprising of working people in American history. At the pinnacle of the Gilded Age, a boycott of Pullman sleeping cars by hundreds of thousands of railroad employees brought commerce to a standstill across much of the country. Famine threatened, riots broke out along the rail lines. Soon the US Army was on the march and gunfire rang from the streets of major cities.
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Wow! every workingman should read.
- By Calemos on 01-18-20
By: Jack Kelly
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Donovan
- America’s Master Spy
- By: Richard Dunlop, William Stephenson - foreword
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 25 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The fascinating biography of the man who laid the foundation for the CIA. One of the most celebrated and highly decorated heroes of World War I, a noted trial lawyer, presidential adviser and emissary, and chief of America’s Office of Strategic Services during World War II, William J. Donovan was a legendary figure. Donovan, originally published in 1982, penetrates the cloak of secrecy surrounding this remarkable man. The result is the definitive biography that Donovan himself had always expected Dunlop would write.
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Fascinating Biography
- By Jean on 10-15-14
By: Richard Dunlop, and others
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L.A. Noir
- The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City
- By: John Buntin
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
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Midcentury Los Angeles: A city sold to the world as "the white spot of America", a land of sunshine and orange groves, Midwestern values, and Hollywood stars, protected by the world's most famous police force, the Dragnet-era LAPD. Behind this public image lies a hidden world of "pleasure girls" and crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters on the make. Into this underworld came two men - one L.A.'s most notorious gangster, the other its most famous police chief - each prepared to battle the other for the soul of the city.
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A good (but a little corny) history of LA
- By Jimmy on 10-23-12
By: John Buntin
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The Devil Is Here in These Hills
- West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom
- By: James Green
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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From before the dawn of the 20th century until the arrival of the New Deal, one of the most protracted and deadly labor struggles in American history was waged in West Virginia. On one side were powerful corporations whose millions bought armed guards and political influence. On the other side were 50,000 mine workers, the nation's largest labor union, and the legendary "miners' angel", Mother Jones.
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Phenomenal labor history, riveting narrative
- By Chris Brooks on 03-11-18
By: James Green
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Racing for the Bomb
- The True Story of General Leslie R. Groves, the Man Behind the Birth of the Atomic Age
- By: Robert S. Norris
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 23 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Revealed for the first time in Racing for the Bomb, Groves played a crucial and decisive role in the planning, timing, and targeting of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. Norris offers new insights into the complex and controversial questions surrounding the decision to drop the bomb in Japan and Groves' actions during World War II, which had a lasting imprint on the nuclear age and the Cold War that followed.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 04-22-15
By: Robert S. Norris
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Grey Wolf
- The Escape of Adolf Hitler
- By: Simon Dunstan, Gerrard Williams
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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When Truman asked Stalin in 1945 whether Hitler was dead, Stalin replied bluntly, "No." As late as 1952, Eisenhower declared: "We have been unable to unearth one bit of tangible evidence of Hitler's death." What really happened? Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams have compiled extensive evidence - some recently declassified - that Hitler actually fled Berlin and took refuge in a remote Nazi enclave in Argentina.
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Intriguing and Utterly Engrossing!
- By morton on 10-27-11
By: Simon Dunstan, and others
What listeners say about The League
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jean
- 05-12-13
Interesting
In all my readings over the past 2 years about World War 1, I had not come across The American Protective league. It was started in 1914 by A.M. Briggs a well-known Chicago Ad executive. at its height, in 1917, the League had 250,000 dues paying members. The League was an Auxiliary of the Dept. Of Justice. Attorney General Thomas Gregory approved them as an Auxiliary of the Bureau of Investigation. The BI had less than 200 men, few automobiles, they used public transportation to get around. The first thing Briggs did was organize the business men in Chicago and New York to donated some autos to the BI and obtain volunteer who had cars to drive the agents around. The unpaid auxiliary was assigned jobs by the DOJ, BI, military intelligent, local police, and various other government agencies. Bill Mills states that in 1914 and all through the War, American munitions plants were sabotaged and blown up as were other industries providing Britain with supplies. The League was to help hunt for the saboteurs. Mills states that J .Edgar Hoover was head of the Department of Food and Fuel regulations enforcement and he was one of the biggest user of the League making sure people adhered to the restriction. Mills also states that when the F.B.I was formed and Hoover but in charge, he would not officially restart up the League, but he used it as a group of unpaid informants. Mills states by the time the League was disbanded in 1919 after the war they had performed 75% of all investigation by the B.I. such as background check for security clearance, investigation of German Americans, also did undercover investigation, following people and checking out rumors. They also did general assistance of local police acting as a police reserve. Bill Mills provides a positive attitude toward the League and it's work but I can envision at number of problems having a group of unpaid, untrained people with some possibly being zealots.. It is interesting that the group was totally disbanded in 1919 and not used in WWII or in the Cold War. Mills gives some individually stories of spies caught also some smugglers and con men. Over all it is an interesting piece of history that I was totally unaware of. Eric Martin does a good job narrating the story. Anyone interested in history will enjoy this book.
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- IGoWhereIPlease
- 09-17-22
Learned about my g-grandfather
I found an APL membership card in my g-grandfather’s papers. Thank you for writing this book.
I understand much better what he did during the war now. His younger brothers were in the military. Nice to see he was able to contribute as well.
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- Logophile
- 10-02-19
Forgotten history of US home front during WW1
Shadowy corners, betrayals, suspicions, arson, bombing, average citizens uncovering spy rings. The League is an uncovering of an amazing and rather shocking true story of a well-orchestrated and defined group of a huge number of everyday neighbors and co-workers who formed the all-volunteer American Protection League to watch, listen, and report up the ladder any seditious or suspicious words or activities that might indicate an undermining of the Allied powers during WW1. The extent to which our constitutional rights were violated is rather shocking, all in a sincere effort to protect the world, the nation, our allies, and eventually "our boys overseas" - and to assure that we didn't fail. The costs were high both of complacency and diligence. This book will make even those who roll their eyes at conspiracy theories pause to catch their breath.
As in most documentaries, there is an abundance of dull statistics and logistics, but if the reader doesn't get caught up in that, allowing it to paint the background, it does give scope to the story. This trivia is punctuated by stories and plots enough to make it worth it, especially since it is a part of history generally forgotten, overlooked by most historians, no doubt new to the reader.
The narrator is droll, monotonous, but with a subtle suspense in his voice. He sounds stunningly like the man who introduced the mid-century tv drama Dragnet. He was perfect for this book.
Excuse me now. I need to go see if there's a man in a trenchcoat and a fedora lounging near the streetlamp, looking this way as he lights his cigarette in the fog.
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