Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy

Written by M. William Phelps

Narrated by Phil Gigante

Although famous for his purported last words—“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”—few people know the real Nathan Hale. M. William Phelps brings into focus the life of this famed patriot and first spy of the American Revolution, charting Hale’s rural childhood, his education at Yale, and his work as a schoolteacher. Like many young Americans, he was soon drawn into the colonies’ war for independence and became a captain in Washington’s army. When the general was in need of a spy, Hale willingly rose to the challenge, gathering intelligence behind British lines on Long Island, and in the end bravely sacrificing his life for the sake of American liberty. Using Hale’s own journals and letters as well as testimonies from his friends and contemporaries, Phelps depicts the Revolution as it was seen from the ground. From the confrontation in Boston to the battle for New York City, readers experience what life was like for an ordinary soldier in the struggling Continental Army. In this impressive, well-researched biography, Phelps separates historical fact from long-standing myth to reveal the truth about Nathan Hale, a young man who deserves to be remembered as an original American patriot.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781423374077

M. William Phelps

Crime writer and investigative journalist M. William Phelps is the author of twenty-four nonfiction books and the novel The Dead Soul. He consulted on the first season of the Showtime series Dexter, has been profiled in Writer’s Digest, Connecticut Magazine, NY Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, Suspense Magazine, and the Hartford Courant, and has written for Connecticut Magazine. Winner of the New England Book Festival Award for I’ll Be Watching You and the Editor’s Choice Award from True Crime Book Reviews for Death Trap, Phelps has appeared on nearly 100 television shows, including CBS’s Early Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today Show, The View, TLC, BIO Channel, and History Channel. Phelps created, produces and stars in the hit Investigation Discovery series Dark Minds, now in its third season; and is one of the stars of ID’s Deadly Women. Radio America called him “the nation’s leading authority on the mind of the female murderer.” Touched by tragedy himself, due to the unsolved murder of his pregnant sister-in-law, Phelps is able to enter the hearts and minds of his subjects like no one else. He lives in a small Connecticut farming community and can be reached at his website, www.mwilliamphelps.com.

Reviews for Nathan Hale

[torrey23 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nathan Hale is a very informative book. It is full of information that is not known by most people. There was much more to Nathan Hale than a school teacher who became a soldier and died as a spy. In modern times it is difficult to understand the magnitude of what Nathan Hale had done. Spying was frowned upon, and was seen as a disgrace to the family of the spy. Hale risked death and family disgrace in order to help America's cause. William Phelps does a good job of bringing Nathan Hale out of the fog of historical legend, and into the sun of historical fact. Phelps clearly reveres Hale, but he is still able to show his shortcomings.

[Montesque09 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I initially was very interested in learning about Nathan Hale as America's first spy, but this book (in audiobook format) was downright tedious to listen to. The author frequently indulges in long tangents about later aspects of the book or things that are happening that do not necessarily have to be in the book. These tangents are generally so frequent and so long that I struggled to remember the main subject of the book. I would like to commend the author on digging up so much information but also suggest that take all the footnotes and organize the chronologically to give the dialogue a smoother narrative. I do not reccommend this book for anyone but a history buff.

[mgeorge2755 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So much is not commonly known about spying during the War for Independence. It is exciting to see more people taking an interest in it now. Nathan Hale is certainly a legend, but how much do we really know about this man and what he did? This book is well written and is full of information to bring history to life.

[cweller_19 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

William Phelps biography of Nathan Hale is a very enjoyable read. The book is well researched, but I did find the heavy use of quotes a little distracting from the story.

[dougcornelius_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

"I regret that I have but one life to give to my country." Nathan Hale speaks this famous line and is then hung at the gallows by the British General Howe as a spy for the American rebellion.I thought the legend was interesting enough that I took a review copy from publisher to learn more about America's first spy. What I learned is that the legend is much more interesting than the truth. Hale was used a martyr for the American rebellion, becoming synonymous with patriotism, freedom, and the fight for liberty. He was a well-learned man, handsome, and good with the ladies. As much as Mr. Phelps tries to bring Hale to life and fill in his background, there just is not much there. The book is thin and spends as much time filling in stories about the Revolutionary War and other people in Hale's life as it does telling Hale's life.It turns out that Hale was not a very good spy. He was caught on first mission. It also turns out that he probably did not speak that famous line.Maybe I'll stick with the legend.

[jpsnow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Phelps' coverage of the "The Life and Death of America's First Spy" is insightful and enjoyable to read. What I most appreciated was how well he provided the cultural and military background as context, without delving to deep into either. He also dispels some of the previous legends that grew more from oral tradition than from historical fact. It would be hard to ready this and not have a new appreciation for the short life of Nathan Hale.

[sherman1951 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America’s First Spy is somewhat of a disappointment. Not in the book itself which is well-written and provides a bird’s eye view of the revolution. It’s a disappointment because the life and death of Nathan Hale is so anti-climatic. While he was well-educated (for the times) and a patriot through to the core, his life itself is fairly unremarkable. A hard drinking student, a ladies’ man, and an excellent teacher before he volunteered to join the Connecticut forces; America’s first spy failed in his first and only mission. While he died with honor (without actually making the the often quoted last words “I regret I have but one life to give for my country.”) he appears to have been on a fool’s errand that would have had little effect on the war. From the perspective of understanding American history better and to rely less on legend and more on fact, this is a good place to start.

[smithwil_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've read several dozens of book on the Revolutionary War era, including a couple specifically on Washington's spy network, so my brief comments are in that context. I found this Nathan Hale "biography" (quotes used in reference to an earlier reviewers' comments) almost more useful for the specific information from original documents about the lives of individuals in the war and near the war than for the information about Nathan. This well-researched detail, meant to provide a context for understanding the life Nathan led, was both the book's greatest strength and its greatest weakness, from my point of view. I'll never read those original documents, but Phelps obviously did. In the book he has shared his points of view of the life Nathan led, based on those readings. For that, I thank him.I concur with some other readers that the book could be considered 'boring' if all you looked for and expected was the Nathan Hale life story... but, the detail we got about this particular period of the war, from the view of those around and interacting with Hale, was extraordinary. I would recommend this book to anyone really interested in what "the life and times" of someone living there, in that time and place, was really like.

[daddywarbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nathan Hale, by M. William Phelps, is an interesting biography, even though it addresses the life of a man who died in his early twenties. The story is further challenged by the fact that Nathan Hale's life was generally uneventful, except for his limited military experience and ultimate hanging as a Revolutionary War spy.Although the text is somewhat disjointed, at times, with perhaps abrupt changes of subject, the Author's technique is fruitful. His research pays dividends, as he provides a well-illuminated view of the broader context of the War and life in the region. He illustrates the evolution of Hale's thoughts and views, and shows a human side of George Washington, and others, as their collective experience, or lack thereof, effected decisions that were made during these early stages of the War.Ultimately, Hale's life was sacrificed with no apparent gain, but his service and dedication to his country was undeniable. Selflessness may be a better measure of heroism than the gaining of other more tangible results. His story reminds me of the courage continuing to be displayed by men and women on behalf of our Country.

[xieouyang · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I faintly remember hearing about Nathan Hale in one of the many history books I've read, but I don't remember anything memorable. This book, a biography of Nathan Hale, is a reminder that were it not for his being captured and hanged, his life story does not mark him as anyone exceptional, worthy of being recorded in a book.The writer, M. William Phelps, seems to be a non-historian trying to write a more or less scholarly history book. Thus the many pages of footnotes- about 60 pages contrasted to 231 of narrative. But footnotes do not make a historian. Much less the multitude of quotes sprinkled liberally throughout. I don't think Mr. Phelps knows how and when to use quotes. In one page I selected at random just now, I counted 11 different quotations in the 34 lines in the page; that is, there is a quote every three lines of writing. It appears like the author's contribution is the words connecting quotations. Furthermore, to make things worse, many of the quotations are just plain silly and ludicrous, and reading so many quotations is annoying, to say the least. For instance, the following are some quotations that he cites:"banked" p. 6"with 62 rooms designated for study" p. 8"plantations" p. 9"frequent trips" p. 13"without severity" p. 45"9 soldiers from Windham and spent the night" p. 110Unfortunately, I can't find some of the most inane ones, such as one that mentioned "12 horses." A good history writer would've taken all the material he's read, obviously he did research his subject, and express most of his research findings in his own words. A good writer would use quotations judiciously.But to summarize, I found this story generally extremely boring.

[kristenembers · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This short biography of the short life of Nathan Hale builds on the work of prior Hale biographies and benefits from the 2003 discovery of a Tory manuscript that documents Hale's capture. Prior biographies lacked shopkeeper Consider Tiffany's manuscript of the American Revolution, written during or shortly after the conflict, which corroborates most of the existing evidence regarding Hale's apprehension and fills in some of the missing pieces.I thought the account was very readable and while there were a couple of instances where the narrative jumped ahead and then backwards, on the whole the book was well organized. I enjoyed it and recommend the book to anyone looking to learn more about our nation's first spy.Full Disclosure: I won a copy of this book in a LibraryThing giveaway.

[koalamom_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Nathan Hale's life - truth or legend? A simple biography on the short but important life of the man who became America's first spy to die at the hands of the British.

[libri_amor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anyone that has grownup in Connecticut; particularly near Coventry, the Nathan Hale homestead, has heard the story of Hale's patriotism and oft quoted final words. I count myself among one of these Connecticut Yankees. But as I started this book I realized I was ignorant of the details of Hale's life and service in the Revolutionary war. M. William Phelps fills this void in a straight forward biography of Nathan Hale from his early family life in Coventry to his death as a young man at the hands of the British army. Phelps does an excellent job bringing the many first and second hand sources together to paint a clear portrait of this larger than life figure. Where sources disagree or explanations are not plausible, Phelp's succinctly explains his rationale for the most likely correct fact or interpretation.Phelps describes a young man brought up in a strict religious family in Coventry, CT; graduating Yale at age 18 and becoming a somewhat restless school teacher in Moodus and New London. Hale's strong faith led him to believe that much of your life is ( and should be) guided by God's will.Two of the common misconceptions about Hale's spy mission that Phelps clarifies are Hale's last words and the circumstances of his detection as a spy. In the first case it widely reported that Nathan Hale's last words were "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Why a succinctly romantic statement, Phelps clarifies that these words were an invention in the Revolutionary War play Cato. His actual last words, though similar, were "I am satisfied with the cause in which I have engaged that my only regret is that I have not more lives than one to offer n its service."In second case it was widely rumored and reported in the Essex Journal (without sources) that Hale's cousin, Sam betrayed him as a rebel spy. Phelps considers this very unlikely given that Hale's father, Richard wrote family members that he did not believe Sam was involved. Further, Sam Hale denied betraying his cousin. The more likely scenario, as described in detail by Phelps, is that Hale was betrayed by his own naivety as a spy when confronted by Robert Rogers. Robert Rogers, commander of Rogers Rangers, had been tasked by Gen Howe to scour Long Island and Connecticut for traitors (aka rebel spies etc) and became suspicious of a young asking many questions related to British army intentions. Hale's naivety is demonstrated by his traveling under his own name and carrying his Yale diploma as proof he was a school teacher looking for work!Following his unceremonious hanging as a spy, Phelps ends his narrative with Enoch Hale's search for news of his brother and unsuccessful return of his remains for proper burial.Nathan Hale is a well researched book with extensive reference notes and bibliography.