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Presidential Agent (The Lanny Budd Novels) Kindle Edition

by Upton Sinclair (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 371 ratings
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On the eve of World War II, Lanny Budd reenters the deadly snake pit of Nazi Germany as Roosevelt’s spy—in the pulse-pounding, Pulitzer Prize–winning series.

An American art expert raised in a world of European wealth and privilege, Lanny Budd is dedicated to his socialist ideals and to combatting the twin scourges of Nazism and Fascism. In 1937, a chance encounter in New York with Professor Charles Alston—his boss at the Paris Peace Conference and now one of President Roosevelt’s top advisors—provides Lanny with the opportunity to make a profound difference.
 
Appointed Presidential Agent 103, the international art dealer embarks on a secret assignment that takes him back into the Third Reich as the Allied powers prepare to cede Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler in a futile attempt to avoid war. But Lanny’s motivations are not just political: The woman he loves has fallen into the brutal hands of the Gestapo, and Lanny will risk everything to save her.
 
Presidential Agent is the action-packed fifth installment of Upton Sinclair’s Pulitzer Prize–winning series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to dramatic life. An astonishing mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of the author’s vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.
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  1. Book 5 of 11
    The Lanny Budd Novels
  2. Print length
    998 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Open Road Media
  6. Publication date
    January 19, 2016
  7. File size
    5839 KB
  8. Page Flip
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  9. Word Wise
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the Lanny Budd Novels
“These historical novels engulfed me in the thrilling and terrible imperatives of history. . . . Sinclair’s historical acumen and his calculations about powerful institutions—government, press, corporations, oil cartels and lobbyists—remain remarkably shrewd and often prescient.” —The New York Times

“Few works of fiction are more fun to read; fewer still make history half as clear, or as human.” —Time

“When people ask me what has happened in my long lifetime, I do not refer them to the newspaper files and to the authorities, but to [Upton Sinclair’s] novels.” —George Bernard Shaw

“A great and well-balanced design . . . I think it the completest and most faithful portrait of that period that has been done or will likely be done.” —H. G. Wells

About the Author

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, activist, and politician whose novel The Jungle (1906) led to the passage of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Born into an impoverished family in Baltimore, Maryland, Sinclair entered City College of New York five days before his fourteenth birthday. He wrote dime novels and articles for pulp magazines to pay for his tuition, and continued his writing career as a graduate student at Columbia University. To research The Jungle, he spent seven weeks working undercover in Chicago’s meatpacking plants. The book received great critical and commercial success, and Sinclair used the proceeds to start a utopian community in New Jersey. In 1915, he moved to California, where he founded the state’s ACLU chapter and became an influential political figure, running for governor as the Democratic nominee in 1934. Sinclair wrote close to one hundred books during his lifetime, including Oil! (1927), the inspiration for the 2007 movie There Will Be Blood; Boston (1928), a documentary novel revolving around the Sacco and Vanzetti case; The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism; and the eleven novels in the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lanny Budd series.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B018V77HTU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (January 19, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 19, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 5839 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 998 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 371 ratings

About the author

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Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair

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Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author who wrote nearly 100 books and other works across a number of genres. Sinclair's work was well-known and popular in the first half of the twentieth century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.

In 1906, Sinclair acquired particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle, which exposed 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. 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 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." He is remembered for writing the famous line: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon him not understanding it."

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
371 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

mike-w
5.0 out of 5 stars Tour-de-Force by Upton Sinclair
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2019
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A novel about the run-up to World War II, this book vividly out-lines the events leading up to the War through the eyes of Lanny Budd, a wealthy man of the world, as comfortable at the home of Adolf Hitler or Franklin D. Roosevelt. The novel is exquisitely written and tremendously informative about the events of the time. Although it is quite long, one gets the feeling that it would not have been as good if anything had been left out. It is the fifth of an eleven book series, and although it stands well on its own, I assume the context would be better if the series was started from the beginning (which I now intend to do!).
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Karl Janssen
4.0 out of 5 stars Lanny Budd, paranormal secret agent
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2017
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Presidential Agent is the fifth book in Upton Sinclair’s Lanny Budd series, which chronicles the adventures of a wealthy American art dealer in Europe who gets actively involved in some of the most important events in 20th-century world history. (Take care not to confuse this one with the almost identically titled eighth book in the series, Presidential Mission.) Published in 1944, Presidential Agent takes place from 1937 to 1938, and covers critical events in Europe leading up to World War II, including Hitler’s forced annexations of Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Through a mutual friend, Lanny is introduced to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who grants him a private meeting in the White House. Because of Lanny’s extensive travels in Europe and his acquaintance with many world leaders and dignitaries, FDR finds him to be an invaluable source of information. He asks Lanny to be his eyes and ears in Europe and periodically report back to him on the events taking place there. He even gives Lanny a code name, Agent 103. At first Lanny functions mostly as a news service, but the more he witnesses firsthand the terrifying threat of the Nazis the more involved he becomes in active espionage. Having previously met Adolph Hitler and Hermann Göring, Lanny cultivates his friendships with these two Nazi leaders and also develops a camaraderie with Hitler’s Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess. Though a socialist at heart, Lanny must pretend to embrace the Nazi party line in order to acquire valuable intelligence. Beyond helping FDR, Lanny has personal reasons for embarking on this dangerous mission. In the last novel, he found love in the form of a German Jewish artist who works for the underground resistance. She has now gone missing, possibly held by the Nazis in a concentration camp, and Lanny will risk everything to find her.

Once again, Sinclair’s leftist view of history yields fascinating insights into the course of world events. Hitler’s taking of Austria and Czechoslovakia might be covered in a few sentences in a typical history textbook, but Sinclair really gives a detailed rendering of how these events gradually unfolded. The reader gains a clear understanding of how the Nazis came to power while many Americans and Europeans either welcomed them as saviors from communism or timidly buried their heads in the sand. The most disappointing aspect of the novel, as usual, is Sinclair’s indulgence in his fascination with the paranormal, which is even more evident here than in the previous books. One of Lanny’s hobbies is communicating with the dead through séances. Because Hitler and Hess are also interested in the occult, Lanny is able to exploit their mutual interest in spirit communication as a way to get close to them. While that is a valid way to advance the story, instances where séance revelations actually influence the course of events only thwart the credibility of what is otherwise a very intelligent, thoroughly researched historical novel.

I had ten per cent of the ebook file left when, to my surprise, the book just ended—the remainder being a preview of the next book. Presidential Agent feels like an incomplete novel meant to function as a bridge between the books before and after. By this point in the series, Sinclair seems to have stopped trying to give these novels a beginning, middle, and end, and simply treats them all as one long book. Some plotlines are resolved halfway through, while new threads are only begun. The books in this series really don’t function as independent novels, so the reader has to commit for the long haul. Though I have my reservations about each individual installment, I can’t help but admire the entire series as a monumental achievement. For those interested in 20th-century world history, the Lanny Budd series is worth the effort.
13 people found this helpful
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Phyllis Godfrey
5.0 out of 5 stars A thorough and enjoyable lesson in twentieth century world history.
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2023
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There are a lot of historical facts housed in a fictional narrative.
Hard to digest and keep track of, but the personal story of the “son of Budd Earling” keeps it interesting and readable.
I highly recommend this series for lovers of historical fiction.
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jlkohler
5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons for Today
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2023
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I learn so much from these books! I see parallels between the communist and fascist ideas and the division in the US today.
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jackson
4.0 out of 5 stars Heavy, but prescient, fictional history of pre-World War II Europe.
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2017
Verified Purchase
In this segment of Upton Sinclair's famous Lanny Budd series, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author details the period from 1937 through1938. Lanny Budd, who is now in young middle age, twice married, seeks to find his second wife, lost in Nazi-land. Budd, the fictional scion of an American arms-manufacturing family, is enlisted as a foreign agent by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The book was originally published in 1944, before all the horrors of the Nazis were widely known. Sinclair, however, correctly surmises the aims of Hitler and his gang of thugs (to be kind), if not the extent of their atrocities. He does, however, correctly predict that the German people will suffer for their choice of leaders for hundreds of years.

Budd portrays his "meetings" with FDR as always taking place while the president is bathing or in bed. But FDR is never described as anything but strong and robust; there is no discussion of his illness. FDR, of course, was a paralysis victim by 1937, but the secret was kept from the public until after his death in 1945. Thus, Sinclair probably had no knowledge of the president's pain and lack of mobility. Sinclair, a devout Socialist, shows nothing but respect and admiration for Roosevelt and the New Deal, as well as his role in preparing the U.S. for World War II.

Budd, the secret agent, spends much of his time in pre-war Europe, making friends with Hitler, Goering, Goebbles and Rudolf Hess. Budd, disguised as an art collector and salesman, endears himself to the Nazi leaders, bringing them art treasures from all over the continent, while enriching himself as well. He thoroughly convinces Hitler and friends of his passive acceptance of the "master race." This allows him to bring precious information to the U.S. president. Strangely, Sinclair never mentions Albert Speer, Hitler's "architect," and the role he played in the construction of the Nazi death camps. He also leaves out any discussion of the role of the Soviets, and especially the demonic nature of Joseph Stalin and his Communist cronies. Of course, it was not known until years later that Stalin was responsible for more killings even than Hitler. It may be that Sinclair, as the Socialist, was still yearning for detente between the Socialist and Communist parties, world-wide.

What is most impressive is Sinclair's recognition of Hitler's admiration of Mohammed (and Islam). He describes them, in several places, as equals in their demagoguery and ruthlessness. This was written in 1944, before the extent of Islamic "Sharia Law" and its 12th Century barbarism was widely known in the West.

In the end, however, "Presidential Agent" is a lengthy and somewhat cumbersome read. A noble work of semi-fiction, but laden with an enormous host of characters, it will prove quite a task for modern fiction audiences. But for those with the patience and stamina, it is a satisfying journey.
11 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The series is an excellent exposition of the social history of the first half ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2017
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The series is an excellent exposition of the social history of the first half of the 20th century. Mr. Sinclairs beautiful and expressive writing is a joy to read. On the negative side, Mr. Sinclair is an avowed socialist and has a decided dislike for the catholic church. If you can ignore those two drawbacks this is a wonderful read
3 people found this helpful
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Bonnie Dickson
3.0 out of 5 stars Not a favorite
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2020
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So many people awarded this book five stars. I can see why that was the case, but all I felt was impatience for it to be done. Maybe it was just the wrong book at the wrong time.
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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The whole "Lanny Budd" series is a great experience for anybody who likes historical fiction based on ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2016
Verified Purchase
The whole "Lanny Budd" series is a great experience for anybody who likes historical fiction based on real history.
Over the years I've checked on a lot of the historical facts and found them very accurate.
The only negative point I can make is the amount of typographical errors in these e-book versions, silly sloppy mistakes.
But on a whole a definite 5 star rating.
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Nigel Barron
5.0 out of 5 stars Yet another good book in the Lanny Bud series
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2015
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Purchased as a gift. All arrived on time and as described. Yet another good book in the Lanny Bud series..
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