The Lion and the Fox, Alexander Rose
The Lion and the Fox, Alexander Rose
4 Rating(s)
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

The Lion and the Fox
Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Navy

Author: Alexander Rose

Narrator: Mark Bramhall

Unabridged: 8 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: 12/06/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of Washington’s Spies, the thrilling story of the Confederate spy who came to Britain to turn the tide of the Civil War—and the Union agent resolved to stop him.
In 1861, soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, two secret agents—one a Confederate, the other his Union rival—were dispatched to neutral Britain, each entrusted with a vital mission.The South’s James Bulloch, charming and devious, was to acquire a cutting-edge clandestine fleet intended to break President Lincoln’s blockade of Confederate ports, sink Northern merchant vessels, and drown the U.S. Navy’s mightiest ships at sea. The profits from gunrunning and smuggling cotton—Dixie’s notorious “white gold”—would finance the scheme. Opposing him was Thomas Dudley, a resolute Quaker lawyer and abolitionist. He was determined to stop Bulloch by any means necessary in a spy-versus-spy game of move and countermove, gambit and sacrifice, intrigue and betrayal. If Dudley failed, Britain would ally with the South and imperil a Northern victory. The battleground was the Dickensian port of Liverpool, whose dockyards built more ships each year than the rest of the world combined, whose warehouses stored more cotton than anywhere else on earth, and whose merchant princes, said one observer, were “addicted to Southern proclivities, foreign slave trade, and domestic bribery.”From master of historical espionage Alexander Rose, The Lion and the Fox is the astonishing, untold tale of two implacable foes and their twilight struggle for the highest stakes. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

About Alexander Rose

Alexander Rose is the author of Washington’s Spies (the basis for the AMC drama series, Turn), Empires of the Sky, Men of War, and several other nonfiction books. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020 and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He writes the Spionage newsletter at Substack.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ben on February 01, 2023

I liked this book. Recounting of the Confederacy Efforts to hire English firms to build a Confederate Navy. But it was really a fascinating game of cat and mouse between the undercover spies, agents, and bad actors that maneuvered back and forth to get the new boats delivered , versus stopping this c......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on November 28, 2022

Sometimes a book's plot is a winner no matter who the author is. The story is so amazing and exciting that it can't help but be a winner. This is not one of those books. The Lion and the Fox could be an extremely boring slog in the wrong hands, but luckily Alexander Rose knows how to write an engagi......more

Goodreads review by Brian on November 16, 2023

I'm probably too enthused by the nautical, the diplomatic, the clandestine, and all things Civil War for my rating to stand in for the average reader's experience. Still, Alexander Rose can WRITE. He constantly hones a New Yorker-ish engaging tone of wry fascination. He deftly weaves together economi......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on April 16, 2023

Really interesting book about the importance of the UK to the Civil war. Little did I know Liverpool played such a vital role in the cotton industry, as well as the shipbuilding industry. I wish I would have read this book before my trip over there! #YNWA......more

Goodreads review by Rich on October 06, 2022

-4.25- Full disclosure this was a goodreads winner. I can honestly say I put in for this book as a bit of an after thought and was pleasantly surprised by how good the book was. The author has meticulously researched the topic and conveys his arguments and point of view with humor and peppers the na......more