Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe
Curiosity led Edward Epstein to investigate some of the greatest political mysteries of our time, such as the JFK assassination in Dallas, the Vatican banking scandal in Rome, and the diamond cartel in South Africa. Seeking more information, he often found himself a fly on the wall at the highest reaches of the establishment, observing how presidents, tycoons, bankers, and media moguls secretly greased the wheels of power. This memoir recounts his life as a pursuer of lost truths. 

Some accuse Epstein of being a conspiracist, but that is incorrect. He is a puzzle solver. Instead of accepting the received wisdom, he searches for the missing pieces of the picture, such as the autopsy photographs of President John F. Kennedy that were kept from the investigation conducted by the Warren Commission. Finding suppressed or overlooked evidence may result in overturning an established narrative, as happened with the publication of Inquest, Epstein’s book about the official probe into the JFK assassination. But that is very different from looking for a conspiracy. 

Sometimes, Epstein’s work has in fact uncovered a deep conspiracy, as with the world diamond cartel. Other times, it has discredited belief in a conspiracy, as when he delved into the murders of numerous Black Panthers. After his findings were published in the New Yorker, newspapers including the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times issued editorial apologies for their own reporting on the murders, which had suggested that an FBI conspiracy was behind them.

Epstein’s primary interest has never been to advance an agenda, but rather to spot gaps in the conventional narrative and fill them in. Assume Nothing is the story of a lifelong quest for missing puzzle pieces, and also a story of self-actualization. 

1141490654
Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe
Curiosity led Edward Epstein to investigate some of the greatest political mysteries of our time, such as the JFK assassination in Dallas, the Vatican banking scandal in Rome, and the diamond cartel in South Africa. Seeking more information, he often found himself a fly on the wall at the highest reaches of the establishment, observing how presidents, tycoons, bankers, and media moguls secretly greased the wheels of power. This memoir recounts his life as a pursuer of lost truths. 

Some accuse Epstein of being a conspiracist, but that is incorrect. He is a puzzle solver. Instead of accepting the received wisdom, he searches for the missing pieces of the picture, such as the autopsy photographs of President John F. Kennedy that were kept from the investigation conducted by the Warren Commission. Finding suppressed or overlooked evidence may result in overturning an established narrative, as happened with the publication of Inquest, Epstein’s book about the official probe into the JFK assassination. But that is very different from looking for a conspiracy. 

Sometimes, Epstein’s work has in fact uncovered a deep conspiracy, as with the world diamond cartel. Other times, it has discredited belief in a conspiracy, as when he delved into the murders of numerous Black Panthers. After his findings were published in the New Yorker, newspapers including the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times issued editorial apologies for their own reporting on the murders, which had suggested that an FBI conspiracy was behind them.

Epstein’s primary interest has never been to advance an agenda, but rather to spot gaps in the conventional narrative and fill them in. Assume Nothing is the story of a lifelong quest for missing puzzle pieces, and also a story of self-actualization. 

36.99 In Stock
Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe

Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe

by Edward Jay Epstein
Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe

Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe

by Edward Jay Epstein

Hardcover

$36.99 
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Overview

Curiosity led Edward Epstein to investigate some of the greatest political mysteries of our time, such as the JFK assassination in Dallas, the Vatican banking scandal in Rome, and the diamond cartel in South Africa. Seeking more information, he often found himself a fly on the wall at the highest reaches of the establishment, observing how presidents, tycoons, bankers, and media moguls secretly greased the wheels of power. This memoir recounts his life as a pursuer of lost truths. 

Some accuse Epstein of being a conspiracist, but that is incorrect. He is a puzzle solver. Instead of accepting the received wisdom, he searches for the missing pieces of the picture, such as the autopsy photographs of President John F. Kennedy that were kept from the investigation conducted by the Warren Commission. Finding suppressed or overlooked evidence may result in overturning an established narrative, as happened with the publication of Inquest, Epstein’s book about the official probe into the JFK assassination. But that is very different from looking for a conspiracy. 

Sometimes, Epstein’s work has in fact uncovered a deep conspiracy, as with the world diamond cartel. Other times, it has discredited belief in a conspiracy, as when he delved into the murders of numerous Black Panthers. After his findings were published in the New Yorker, newspapers including the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times issued editorial apologies for their own reporting on the murders, which had suggested that an FBI conspiracy was behind them.

Epstein’s primary interest has never been to advance an agenda, but rather to spot gaps in the conventional narrative and fill them in. Assume Nothing is the story of a lifelong quest for missing puzzle pieces, and also a story of self-actualization. 


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781641772945
Publisher: Encounter Books
Publication date: 03/07/2023
Pages: 404
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Edward Jay Epstein was born in 1935 in New York City. He received his BA at Cornell University, his PhD at Harvard University, and taught political science at MIT and UCLA, where he was Regent Professor of Government. He was a staff writer for the New Yorker and a columnist for Manhattan, Inc and Slate. Viking Press published his undergraduate thesis under the title Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth in 1966. His PhD thesis, which was excerpted in the New Yorker, was published by Random House as News from Nowhere: Television and the NewsDossier, his biography of Armand Hammer, also excerpted in the New Yorker, won the Financial Times/Booz-Allen-Hamilton award as both the best biography and the best business book. He has published 18 books and lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Part 1 On the Serendipity Trail

1 The Nabokov Imperative 3

2 Encountering the CIA 11

3 My Iliad 17

Part 2 The JFK Assassination

4 The Magic of Self-Actualization 37

5 The Seven Most Powerful Men in America 43

6 The Liebeler File 63

7 The Night Thief 73

8 Hannah Arendt's Intervention 81

9 The Jolly Green Giant 87

19 The Great JFK Debate 97

11 James Jesus Angleton 103

12 De Mohrenschildt's Last Interview 133

13 Specter in Jakarta 143

14 Dick Clark Gets a Confession 149

Part 3 Discovering Politics

15 The Moynihan Connection 157

16 Around the World in 60 Days 171

17 Amateur Politics 177

18 Meeting Kim Roosevelt 187

19 My Double Life 193

20 Forgetting Obama 203

Part 4 Reversing Received Wisdom

21 News from Nowhere 211

22 The Black Panthers 215

23 Nixon's War on Drugs 219

24 The DSK Timeline 229

25 The Zia Crash 237

Part 5 The Goldsmith Detour

26 Being Early 247

27 A World of His Own 257

28 Nixon's Vacation 263

29 Donald Trump and the Tokyo Whale 287

30 Kissinger 291

31 The Last Days of Jimmy Goldsmith 301

Part 6 Encounters on the Dark Side

32 Deception 311

33 The Hammer Tapes 323

34 The Curious Case of Jeffrey Epstein 341

Epilogue: Hall of Mirrors 359

Acknowledgments 373

Index 375

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