IndexIntroductionSummaryAuthor's ArgumentsEvaluationConclusionIntroductionIn Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring, Alexander Rose tells the story of spy network that helped America win the Revolutionary War. Rose takes us beyond the battlefield, into the secret world of double agents and triple agents, of classified operations that include code breaking, and tells the story of some of the spies who completed these top-secret assignments. Rose focuses on four longtime friends who create the Culper Ring, one of whom was the American Major, Benjamin Tallmadge. He reveals this operating system as a third-person point of view and exposes the method that led America to victory against Great Britain, while also mentioning other people's reactions to this savage method. This article aims to review Rose's book and its main points, evaluate the excellence of Rose's writing, and focus on any weaknesses in the story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essaySummaryThis section contains a summary of Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring. Alexander Rose begins the story in the summer of 1778, when the war is predicted to go in General George Washington's favor. Washington desperately wanted to know what Britain's plan was and where they intended to attack next. At that time, the headquarters of Great Britain was located in New York. So, to figure out their plan, Washington sent a small group of men, who would soon become the Culper Ring, to New York to gain intelligence on their military strategies, including future battle plans. Going into this, he acknowledged that the chances of the plan succeeding were unlikely. However, Washington went against all odds, thus unleashing its secret weapon. Washington's spies included a young Quaker, Nathan Hale, who had studied at Yale, a sickly farmer who begged to retire but always supported Washington, and Benjamin Tallmadge, an American military officer of the time and Abraham Woodhull. Although each of the men proved to be excellent spies, the ailing farmer distinguished himself by enlisting to do whatever was necessary to assist Washington. Ironically, he proved to be an expert in espionage. The intelligence networks created by the spies became known as the Culper Ring. Although Washington thought the men underperformed, he gained a tremendous amount of information from the Culper Ring that may never have been discovered. To communicate with Washington, the spies had to develop their own espionage system that included invisible ink and encryption attempts. Furthermore, the British were aware of the Culper Ring and were determined to stop them. They would pay for information about the Culper Ring, and if they thought you knew something and didn't tell them, they would punish you severely. The English unwittingly lead the spies to learn about loyalty, betrayal and friendship. Although Alexander Rose was not present during this period, he provided detailed information about the lives of spies within the Culper Ring. Author's Arguments As stated above, Rose's primary purpose in writing Washington's Spies is to inform the reader of how intelligent the Patriot spies were by revealing the complex and secret world that helped America win the Revolutionary War. The three main points, or arguments presented, by Rose were the complexity of the spy's communication tactics with Washington, the importance ofremain unidentified to the British and the overall experience during the Revolutionary War. Communication with Washington during the late 1700s was difficult enough, but having them communicate without anyone knowing was quite a task. The members of the Culper Ring must have been some of the smartest of their generation. Cryptography, or secret codes, was one of the methods used. The spies had symbols, codes and signs used to transmit various undercover messages. Invisible ink played a huge role in encryption, black chambers used to scan mail did not detect invisible ink which gave spies a private way to exchange messages with Washington. To interpret the letters, the government heats them and the message is revealed by spies. “There are about five hundred known formulas of invisible ink, and no doubt many hundreds more could be invented.” George Washington also used cryptography to pass letters by making a given letter represent a different number, letter, or person. “His code was a distant descendant of the Hail Mary code created by a priest, Johannes Trithemius.” To say that the communications system between Washington and its spies was complex would be an understatement. Remaining unidentified was also a difficult feat for the British because not only did the spies have to remain undercover, but they also had to collect tons of classified information. . From simply talking to citizens and gathering what little they could from them, to the difficulty of listening to town meetings. Many times the spies would pose "as merchants" and "discuss the defenses of West Point" with British generals to retain information. One of the spies, Woodhull, traveled daily between New York and Long Island to gather intelligence and observe naval tactics. Dedication to the Culper Ring was essential to success, and it also made unpleasant circumstances not so bad for the spies. The overall experience of the Culper Ring members during their period of espionage was focused in Washington's Spies. Rose documents the “long and bitter experiences” encountered by the spies. They experienced many things physically and mentally; While they were away from their families they experienced loneliness and had to deal with all the pressure that came with their work to gather information and please their boss, George Washington. Evaluation This section contains an evaluation of Rose's book. First, Alexander Rose did a phenomenal job of chronicling the time the Culper Ring was in action. He told the stories from each member's perspective and at some points in the story you felt like you knew the men personally. Rose also introduced the book using a simple choice of words. Rose has informed the reader in detail about the tactics used by George Washington, and he tells you what the spies' tactics were for obtaining information. While Rose does a great job of informing the reader of the tactics, it almost feels like he drags out the information and expands on it too much. This flaw represents a small weakness in his writing style. A second weakness in Rose's writing style is that at certain points in the story I found myself very confused and unsure of what was happening, resulting in having to re-read a lot. Early in the story (chapters 1-3) I found myself wondering if the Culper Ring was really favoring the Patriots and not the English. Personally, I believe that the favorable side of the group should be clearly indicated and undoubtedly reassured throughout the book. During chapters 4-9 I slowly began to pick up on Rose's subtle writing style and understand.