I found this book interesting yet a tough read to get through. This was interesting because it was a bit if micro-history that I was not aware of before. This is something they just don't teach in school. I typically love these kind of accounts as it gets to the heart of individuals involved and in this case I speculate how this event, if successful, would have changed the path of the Civil War. This was a tough read however, as there was just too much background information before we get to the actual plot. While this background is probably essential and necessary to get a true picture of the 'whys' and 'hows' of the plot, for someone like me who is not a historian, but just someone with an interest in historical events like this, it just was too much. For a professional historian, this may have been an awesome book, but for someone who is not, this just was too hard to get into. ( )

This is a very interesting book on the Confederacy Secret Service, its members and reasonings. It talks much more about the people and events leading up the attack on New York city that the attack itself which leaves you to wonder if it had gone as planned would things after that point in the war be any different. ( )

Anecdotal micro-histories can be the most helpful windows on larger historical events, and many recent Civil War histories are great examples. In his book A Vast and Fiendish Plot, Clint Johnson recounts the tale of the Confederate secret service attempt to set Manhattan ablaze on the night of November 25, 1864. The attempt was ultimately a failure due to the agents' lack of experience with the methods and materials they were using.

Though well-researched and competently recounted, Johnson's narrative is long on details and short on interpretation. For example, the first part of the book sets out to make the case that Southern hostility was directed particularly at New York City, but the connection to the actual plot seems thin. Other interpretation he does offer, setting the events in the context of the war's increasing brutality and the South's desperate thirst for retaliation, is colored by what comes across as a mild Southern apologetic. This is not to say that Johnson is not entitled to his perspective, but it does leave the reader wondering if there are other implications that were overlooked.

Finally, history readers who prefer elegant prose will be put off by Johnson's choppy journalistic style. Johnson's editors haven't done him any favors either. Nevertheless, the Johnson's contribution is valuable if for no other reason than that it gives a credible account of an under-told Civil War episode. ( )

A little disappointed in this book. Very slow going just to get to the main story. Background is necessary but when the book becomes more about the background than the story, I lose interest. Had it not been an early reviewer book, I most likely would not have finished reading it. ( )

Clint Johnson has written a book about a Confederate espionage operation in 1864 that sent eight saboteurs to New York City with the goal of burning large swaths of the city to the ground. Obviously, the attack failed -- largely due to the complete incompetence of the saboteurs -- and I had never even heard of the attempt.

The book takes a while – more than half its length – to get to the actual Confederate plot. The first half is devoted to background information on New York City and its relationship with both slavery as an institution and the South, with whom it was the major cotton trading partner. This is occasionally engaging material (particularly the information regarding New York City’s relationship with the South), but I found myself wishing the author would begin discussing the Confederate operation long before he did. There’s easily an extra hundred pages of fluff n the first half of the book that should have been trimmed, because we’ve read it all before, and frankly, it’s not that interesting. This will put off many readers, I suspect. Unfortunately, it comes off largely as filler material to pad out the account to book length.

The final 40% or so of the book is about the sabotage attempt itself, the background of the saboteurs, the aftermath of the attack, and, oddly, a long laundry list with descriptions of all the hotels targeted. The final chapter or so adopts an odd tone -- just short of the kind of pro-Confederate bias I find annoying in many Civil War accounts (and I say this as a Southerner) -- and discusses the specific tactics the author believes the saboteurs should have taken to destroy New York City. Not entirely sure that analysis was necessary. A dramatis personae would also have helped keep the large cast of characters straight, as I was constantly asking myself who X or Y was. I’d also have liked some analysis of what the chemical compound the Confederates called “Greek Fire” might have been. It was some kind of substance they procured from a sympathetic chemist in the city, and it certainly wasn’t the same substance as the original Greek Fire.

This is a work of popular history, not a scholarly work, and that’s perfectly fine for most readers. This is not to say that it is bad history, just that it is not written as a work of academic history, and its sources are almost all secondary, with some contemporaneous newspaper articles the only exception. Citations are sparse and are not noted in-line; this is a particular pet peeve of mine. (Note to publishers: please don’t do this! The occasional superscript at the end of a sentence really doesn’t scare off readers of history, I promise you.) It is particularly galling on the occasions when the author states “There is hard evidence to suggest that X is true” with no citations for what this evidence might be. That’s a significant weakness, and the reason why good academic histories emphasize transparency of sources so the reader can evaluate them for himself. Not so here.

I don’t recommend this one, as much of it seems like general Civil War filler material and worst of all, it’s just not that interesting. The heart of this book would have made a great magazine or journal article, or a single chapter in a larger work on Confederate espionage and sabotage operations.

Full disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for a review. This has not influenced my review in any way.

Review copyright 2010 J. Andrew Byers ( )