AMC's Turn Brings an Earlier War to our Living Rooms

With all the attention on modern wars and related security risks in the news, we still lack television programs that discuss America at war, be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, the World Wars, or the Civil War.  Where is the new MASH, China Beach, or even Hogan's Heroes?  We seem to be recreating the Civil War in NBC's Revolution, but I am talking about the past stories and not our fears of the future.  

Maybe things are changing with tomorrow night's (April 6) broadcast of AMC's series Turn.  This new program, starring Jamie Bell, is a look at America's Revolutionary War, with specific focus on American spying in British-occupied Long Island.  History knows this small group of American spies as the Culper Spy Ring, which was set up under the order of General George Washington to monitor British activities.  

What is also also interesting is that the spy ring was so secret that Americans did not really learn of it until the 1930s when a trunk of old letters was found in a family home.  The letters are now in the Library of Congress. 

And if you are interested in the book that inspired the series - Alexander Rose's Washington's Spies -  you can learn more about the author and his writing here. You may also want to read a short article on the spy ring in John A. Burke and Andrea Meyer's article "Spies of the Revolution."