Presidential Agent I.

by Upton Sinclair

Presidential Agent, written in 1944 is the fifth in the magnificent and epic eleven book Lanny Budd Series written by Upton Sinclair and covering the period of 1937 and 1938. Upon publication, Viking Press issued a statement that the books were related but could be enjoyed independently. I disagree. As I have previously noted, I read the third book, the Pulitzer Prize winning Dragon's Teeth first and it lived up to the awards and recognition it received but I was convinced that one had to start at the beginning to fully appreciate the series. And so I did. I read all eleven books in about six weeks and have reread World's End, Wide Is The Gate and Presidential Agent again.
Presidential Agent begins with a chance encounter Lanny has in New York with his boss at the Versailles Treaty. When Lanny is nineteen years old he is hired to assist a college Professor, Charlie Alston with the geographical aspects of the remaking of Europe after the dissolution of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires following the end of World War One. Professor Alston, one of President Roosevelt's closest advisors and a "fix-it" man introduces Lnnny to President Roosevelt and Lanny has many confidential meetings with FDR and becomes Presidential Agent 103. The meetings are brought to life in such a way you feel yourself in the room with them as they discuss the coming storm in Europe. Lanny sounds the alarms to the coming of Fascism and Nazism and the fall of the democratically elected government of Spain and the rape of Abyssinia by Mussolini. All of the terror brought by Franco, Mussolini and Hitler is financed by rich and powerful industrialists and financiers. Their reasoning behind supporting these onetime skid row bums is to ward off the Red Menace or Bolshevism. These European plutocrats are more fearful of the Reds than surrendering their freedoms to Fascism and Nazism.
Lanny's secret wife Trudi has been kidnapped by the Gestapo and the insuring efforts by Lanny to rescue her are riveting and as daring as the rescue of Alfy from Franco's dungeon in Spain and the attempt to rescue Fredi from the Gestapo in Dragon's Teeth.
There is a conspiracy Lanny is privy to involving the "200" families of France to over throw the French government, known as the Cagoular's or hooded men. The Plutocrats of France are determined to make nice with Hitler in the hope of retaining their wealth and avoiding another war. They believe order of the German variety is the only solution to the corruption of the various French political factions or even worse, the Bolsheviks.
There is also much intrigue in England and France between the wealthy, the diplomats and the politicians. The powerful in England want to believe that Hitler will be content with regaining the territories that were predominantly German people prior to the Versailles Treaty. Hitler has demanded Austria, Czechoslovakia as well as Poland.
The Munich agreement is reached in which Engla

380 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906). To gather information for the novel, Sinclair spent seven weeks undercover working in the meat packing plants of Chicago. These direct experiences exposed the horrific conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Jungle has remained continuously in print since its initial publication. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after the initial publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence." In 1943, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Sinclair also ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Socialist, and was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of California in 1934, though his highly progressive campaign was defeated.

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just started reading this book from Upton Sinclair's outstanding series of historical novels taking us through WWI and WWII. Be sure to start with the classic "World's End" and then read the series in order, but if you can't find the whole series, each book is worth a read on its own. The best historical novel series I have ever read!

[Nell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatest historical fiction that I've read. The Lanny Budd series should be read in order. This is the first one that I read and now in the middle of the first in the series which I've listed in order. Flashbooks are ok with me as I've met Lanny as a man and now I'm knowing him as a boy.

[Mark W. Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am shocked that Ford and Watson (IBM) supported Hitler's rise to power. The stuff in this book was never taught to me in school.