The Plot to Seize the Whitehouse

The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR

By: Jules Archer

Narrated by: Ken Maxon

Most people will be shocked to learn that in 1933 a cabal of wealthy industrialists - in league with groups like the K.K.K. and the American Liberty League - planned to overthrow the U.S. government in a fascist coup. Their plan was to turn discontented veterans into American "brown shirts," depose F.D.R., and stop the New Deal. They clandestinely asked Medal of Honor recipient and Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to become the first American Caesar. He, though, was a true patriot and revealed the plot to journalists and to Congress. In a time when a sitting President has invoked national security to circumvent constitutional checks and balances, this episode puts the spotlight on attacks upon our democracy and the individual courage needed to repel them.

©2007 Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. Originally published by Hawthorne Books, Inc., New York in 1973. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Interesting theme but disappointing book

This would’ve been better as a long- form article. As a book, there is far too much repetition (at one point, he cites extensive Congressional testimony that is redundant and should’ve been greatly summarized) and too much detail (such as the extensive bio on Smedley Butler).

Unknown history comes alive

This book captures in great detail a fascinating yet overlooked incident of US history. You will never see this mentioned in most school history books.

Wow!

I love the stories about hidden plots thwarted -especially when they are true. this story was told in a very engaging and engrossing manner.
The narrator was generally good, but mispronounced some words that made me cringe.

Not the book advertised

This book is actually a biography of Smedly Butler, with only a little bit on the coup plot. This not what I expected.
The reader needs to learn to pronounce the words correctly before narrating the book.

A Great Work of Non Fiction, Largely A Biography, Than About "The Plot"

This is a very well read audiobook. The book is largely about the life of Smedley Butler, a Marne Corps General. He was approached and asked to lead an unofficial army of veterans to Washington and install alternate individuals into government in an effort to limit the authority of FDR. That part of the story is fascinating and well researched. However it does not represent the bulk of this book.

I did thoroughly enjoy this audiobook and found it very illuminating. I learned a great deal. It is also thought provoking and has relevance today. Just understand that one is purchasing a biography of a great man as mush as a story of political intrigue and upheaval. Thank You...

Stranger than Fiction

I have read and listened to many books on the leaders and events of years that this event took place and never heard about this.Just like some leaders say Jan 6 protest was just "Tourists ". I can see how people involved tried to downplay this conspiracy.

Mostly biography, not much about the plot

The book is mis-titled. It should be The Career Biography of Smedley Butler.

I was disappointed in the content. I have known about the plot to overthrow the FDR and the US Government and about Smedley Butler's role in exposing it for years. I was hoping to find out more about who was behind it, why they are not household names in the same way Aaron Burr, the Rosenbergs, or Donald Trump are in regards to treason. I wanted to know about the investigation and the coverup.

I wanted to know whether the plot was a "Cocktail Insurrection" misinterpreted by a hallucinating Smedley Butler as it is referred to by deniers of the plot discussed in the book.

But there is no apparent research to fill out the narrative of the book, other that what is readable in the New York Times of the era, never a source of information that would be uncomfortable to the plutocrats in the Hamptons.

I did learn more about Smedley Butler from the discussion of his career stretching back to the early 1900's, That information is worth spending time with and is covered well in this book.

My disappointment is that I hoped this book would be more enlightening about this barely known and poorly covered historical whitewash. It isn't.

Educational but rather dry and repetitive

I didn’t know the story. The book gives a strong warning about the dangers of corporate influence on government and how far they might go. Shocking stuff.

The book would have benefited from stronger editing

Good storytelling, poor voice-over

What did you like best about this story?

This opened an era and a sequence of events that I had never read about in depth. I'm a former soldier, son of several generations of soldiers, yet I never knew fully of the cynical way that the military had been used to further business interests in the first part of the twentieth century. I had my suspicions, many of them confirmed by first-hand experience in Viet Nam, but this book made me look at that era of my life, and the current mess in the Mideast, in an entirely different light.

What didn’t you like about Ken Maxon’s performance?

Mr. Maxon is difficult to listen to, principally because of his tendency to pronounce the letter A as "a" rather than "uh," which is commonly accepted in standard pronunciation. If the publisher knew of this rather stilted tendency and approved the work anyway, well so be it.

interesting history that I never heard before

the narrator was easy to listen to. some parts of the book repeated the initial narrative when actual committee interviews were read verbatim.