michael bockman

On October 16, 1907, the American financial system stood on the brink of collapse after one of the largest investment firms failed because of speculative trading. There was no Federal Reserve to help, no government agencies to prop up the failing institutions. Seeing this as a defining crisis, J. Pierpont Morgan stepped in and organized a consortium of bankers and financiers to support the ailing system until the crisis passed. When it finally did, Morgan vowed that he would do everything in his power to make sure such a calamity never happen again.

Set between the years of 1907 to 1912 and inspired by true events, The Plan tells the story of the many factions of American society as they struggled for power in one of the most dynamic times in the country’s history. The major characters are the giants of that era: capitalists J. Pierpont Morgan, John Astor, William Vanderbilt; labor leaders Big Bill Haywood and Emma Goldman; and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
At the center of it all is Captain Archibald Butt, the Military Aide (and close confidant) to both Roosevelt and Taft. Captain Butt becomes involved in a deepening intrigue after an old Army compatriot is killed in a mysterious explosion. The quest by Captain Butt to solve the mystery of his best friend’s death leads him from the White House, to the anarchist circles in Greenwich Village, to the shadowy halls of the newly created FBI, and finally, to the parlors of the rich and powerful. Amid double-crosses and shifting alliances, Archie Butt witnesses the formulation of The Plan and recognizes it as a brilliant and dangerous power grab that will lead to the first great disaster of the 20th Century.