War of Lies : When George Washington Was the Target and Propaganda Was the Crime
Overview
On February 14, 1778, at Valley Forge, George Washington read a New York handbill printing a letter signed with his name. In it, he doubted Martha's fidelity, confessed he loved his king, and regretted ever being called a rebel. He had written none of it.
Week after week, more counterfeit family letters appeared in print, painting the commander in chief as a frightened hypocrite who privately opposed independence. Washington called the campaign villainous, showed the handbill to Martha with grim sarcasm, and refused to answer it in public. He died without learning who wrote it.
Jane Hampton Cook reopens this cold case, tracing the forgeries from an eighty-page London pamphlet in 1777 to the presses of occupied New York, and weighing four suspects who each had the access, the motive, and the ink. Propaganda nearly cost America its general before it cost the British the war.
Washington never found the forger but the evidence outlived him.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9798988092629
- ISBN-10: 9798988092629
- Publisher: Wheelhouse Lit Valor & Virtue History Mystery
- Publish Date: June 2023
- Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.55 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.79 pounds
- Page Count: 264
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