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Book An Imperfect Spy

    Book Details:
  • Author : Amanda Cross
  • Publisher : Ballantine Books
  • Release : 2011-07-27
  • ISBN : 0307802159
  • Pages : 182 pages

Download or read book An Imperfect Spy written by Amanda Cross and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2011-07-27 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "FASCINATING . . . The dialogue is, as always, elegant and polished." --Los Angeles Times While guest-teaching a semester at Schuyler Law School, Kate Fansler gets to know an extraordinary secretary named Harriet, who patterns her life after John le Carré's character George Smiley. Harriet reveals that Schuyler has some serious skeletons swinging in its perfectly appointed closets, including the fate of Schuyler's only tenured female professor and a faculty wife who has killed her husband. As if Kate doesn't have enough to tackle, she is also up against the men who comprise the faculty of Schuyler itself--a thoroughly unapologetic bastion of white male power, mediocrity, and misogyny. Although she has only a few months on campus, Kate refuses to let Schuyler's rigid ideals and insistence on secrecy suppress her indefatigable curiosity--or her obsession with the truth. . . . "Cross manages to keep this book as lighthearted and witty as any of the Kate Fansler mysteries, while depicting an institution as lethal as any cold war." --Marilyn French "A funny, snappish polemic on political correctitude that takes great relish in Kate's sardonic views." --The New York Times Book Review

Book An Imperfect Spy

Download or read book An Imperfect Spy written by Amanda Cross and published by . This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Kate Fansler teaches a semester at Schu yler Law School, she learns some disturbing information abou t the only female professor - and finds herself up against t he whole faculty, a bastion of misogyny. '

Book The Imperfect Spy

    Book Details:
  • Author : Andy J. Byers
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2005
  • ISBN : 9780918339669
  • Pages : 256 pages

Download or read book The Imperfect Spy written by Andy J. Byers and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ImPerfect Spy is the inside story of George Trofimoff, an American civil servant and army reserve colonel, convicted in 2001 of spying for the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. It is a story of betrayal, greed, and treachery at an almost incomprehensible level. It begins with Trofimoff's early years as a Russian refuge living in pre-World War II Germany, and continues throughout the remarkable series of coincidences that converged to give him a new life and made him an American citizen. It follows Trofimoff's life as he advanced in the American intelligence community through positions of increasing responsibility, and his unlikely recruitment by a Russian Orthodox Priest, Trofimoff's stepbrother, as a spy for the Soviet Union. It ends with his arrest, trial, and conviction for espionage. The Imperfect Spy is a remarkably complete look at the life of a spy, told from both Trofimoff's point-of-view and from the trial record. The author's observations of Trofimoff over a five-year period combine with the author's unique access to Trofimoff's writings create a remarkably intimate look at a very public event.

Book An Imperfect Spy

Download or read book An Imperfect Spy written by Amanda Cross and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "FASCINATING . . . The dialogue is, as always, elegant and polished." --Los Angeles Times While guest-teaching a semester at Schuyler Law School, Kate Fansler gets to know an extraordinary secretary named Harriet, who patterns her life after John le Carré's character George Smiley. Harriet reveals that Schuyler has some serious skeletons swinging in its perfectly appointed closets, including the fate of Schuyler's only tenured female professor and a faculty wife who has killed her husband. As if Kate doesn't have enough to tackle, she is also up against the men who comprise the faculty of Schuyler itself--a thoroughly unapologetic bastion of white male power, mediocrity, and misogyny. Although she has only a few months on campus, Kate refuses to let Schuyler's rigid ideals and insistence on secrecy suppress her indefatigable curiosity--or her obsession with the truth. . . . "Cross manages to keep this book as lighthearted and witty as any of the Kate Fansler mysteries, while depicting an institution as lethal as any cold war." --Marilyn French "A funny, snappish polemic on political correctitude that takes great relish in Kate's sardonic views." --The New York Times Book Review From the Paperback edition.

Book Every Spy A Prince  The Complete History of Israel   s Intelligence Community

Download or read book Every Spy A Prince The Complete History of Israel s Intelligence Community written by Dan Raviv and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2024-01-15 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the New York Times Best Seller list for 12 weeks (August 12-October 28, 1990) “This is a comprehensive history of Israel’s security establishment. The authors celebrate successes like Eichmann’s capture, but far more interestingly, they do not shy away from examining the security services’ failures... the book is riveting because Israel’s early intelligence feats still resonate in today’s world... the book makes valuable reading for anyone interested in Israel’s world-wide plans to deal with matters affecting its security.” — Wall Street Journal “The authors... obviously found enough talkative sources... to provide them with the remarkable case histories they describe here. Even though some of the Israeli operatives sound boastful, the book is not propaganda or disinformation. While it is filled with many examples of how Mossad pulled off major coups, the authors are at pains to point out that the Israelis sometimes goofed... The authors flesh out stories that once made headlines with fresh material. Not all the Israeli intelligence triumphs involved violence. The Israelis managed to outrun the C.I.A. and all of Western Europe’s spy agencies in getting their hands on a copy of Nikita S. Khrushchev’s secret speech in 1956 to a special Communist Party Congress in Moscow that exposed the horrors of the Stalin era... The story of the 1960 capture in Buenos Aires of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal, by Mossad and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, is lovingly re-created. A high point of Israeli intelligence came in 1967, during the Six-Day War, when foreknowledge of enemy positions and abilities paved the way for a rapid victory. The astonishing rescue in 1976 by army commandos of hijacked passengers from Entebbe airport in distant Uganda gained added respect for Israel in the Western world. Against the triumphs, the authors balance these failures: Mossad’s misjudgments in Lebanon, Shin Bet’s killings of Arab terrorists in captivity, and the involvement of Israel in the disarray of Irangate. In addition, double agents were used in Britain and caught there; an American, Jonathan Pollard, was encouraged to spy and sell military secrets to Israel, and faulty intelligence resulted in ‘misleading the Government over the future of the occupied territories, just as a Palestinian uprising was beginning.’... [a] highly revealing book.” — New York Times “Everything you wanted to know about Israel’s spies and secret services — but were afraid to discover. This comprehensive history and analysis of the Israeli intelligence community offers many original insights into the secret psyche of the Jewish State... The book presents new information on some of Israel’s greatest intelligence coups and failures.” — Kirkus “Basing their work on interviews with former operatives and on declassified documents, CBS news correspondent Raviv and Israeli journalist Melman here produced a revealing critical history of the rise and decline of Israel’s vaunted security and intelligence arm.“ — Publishers Weekly “[A] detailed history of Israel’s intelligence agencies.“ — Washington Post “Every Spy a Prince is by far the best book ever published on Israel’s intelligence community, filled with new and fascinating information, skillfully and intelligently written and, above all, bold and judicious in its assessments of the triumphs and failures of one of the most remarkable espionage organizations in the world.” — San Francisco Chronicle “A highly readable, well-organized portrait of the main Israeli intelligence services .. . . Every Spy a Prince is a valuable, balanced addition to the mushrooming literature about the world’s second oldest profession.” — Newsday

Book Legends

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert Littell
  • Publisher : Abrams
  • Release : 2020-10-06
  • ISBN : 1683359224
  • Pages : 373 pages

Download or read book Legends written by Robert Littell and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brooklyn P.I. and ex-CIA agent looks for a missing man while suffering from an identity crisis in this thriller by the bestselling author of The Company. Martin Odum is a onetime CIA field agent turned private detective in Brooklyn, struggling his way through a labyrinth of memories and past identities—“legends” in Agency parlance. But who is Martin Odum? Is he a creation of the Legend Committee at the CIA’s Langley headquarters? Is he suffering from multiple personality disorder, brainwashing, or simply exhaustion? Widely considered one of the true grand masters of American spy fiction, Robert Littell shifts focus from the broad Cold War canvas of his international bestseller The Company to the life of a single CIA operative caught in a contradictory “wilderness of mirrors” in which remembering the past and forgetting it are both deadly options. From unforgettable opening to astonishing ending, Legends again proves Littell’s unparalleled prowess as a seductive storyteller. “Littell provides plenty of inside intelligence info in his superb new thriller, but he adds a decidedly comic spin. . . . As the bodies of his friends and clients begin to pile up, Odum searches for answers about not only the missing husband but also himself. Wonderful writing and a great sense of fun make this another winner.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “Now and then novels come along of such originality and power that they blow me away.... [Legends] makes it blazingly clear that Littell’s is one of the most talented, most original voices in American fiction today.” —The Washington Post

Book An Imperfect Spy

    Book Details:
  • Author : Douglas Lockhart
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2023-05-25
  • ISBN : 9781800165762
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book An Imperfect Spy written by Douglas Lockhart and published by . This book was released on 2023-05-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a novel with an international theme set in Australia circa 1996 which develops into a tale of intrigue and deception at the political level. It is the story of John Hennessey, a novelist and ex-army intelligence officer who has had a manuscript stolen and published in the UK by one Gavin Dean, an Australian criminal of vicious temperament. There is, however, much more to the situation than a stolen book. Hennessey is questioned by the police, and subsequently interviewed by an urbane individual representing the Office of Special Investigation (OSI), a small, specialist unit set up to identify and prosecute war criminals living peacefully, but furtively, in Australia since 1945. As a skilled interviewer of German civilians wishing to work for the British army in Germany in 1959-1961, National Service Captain John Hennessey finds himself drawn into a situation that quickly escalates and darkens. "Couldn't put this book down" Lynn Martin Author, historian and authority on single malts "An Imperfect Spy is something more than a thriller - it is also a sensitive, nuanced reflection on human relationships that pays heed to the emotional level. Bravo!" Jean Curthoys Author and feminist philosopher. "The spy may be imperfect but Lockhart's new novel is the perfect philosophical thriller - delivering an enthralling tale of love, politics, and corruption, it also plunges the reader into the midst of some of the most compelling intellectual questions of our time" Jeff Malpas Author and philosopher

Book Intrigue

    Book Details:
  • Author : Allan Hepburn
  • Publisher : Yale University Press
  • Release : 2008-10-01
  • ISBN : 0300148488
  • Pages : 352 pages

Download or read book Intrigue written by Allan Hepburn and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Intrigue' examines the tradition of the spy narrative in the 20th century, setting the historical contexts for the main themes of the genre, such as the Cambridge spy ring & the Profumo Affair. Hepburn offers a systematic theory of the conventions & attractions of espionage fiction.

Book Washington s Spies

    Book Details:
  • Author : Alexander Rose
  • Publisher : Bantam
  • Release : 2014-03-25
  • ISBN : 055339259X
  • Pages : 402 pages

Download or read book Washington s Spies written by Alexander Rose and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Turn: Washington’s Spies, now an original series on AMC Based on remarkable new research, acclaimed historian Alexander Rose brings to life the true story of the spy ring that helped America win the Revolutionary War. For the first time, Rose takes us beyond the battlefront and deep into the shadowy underworld of double agents and triple crosses, covert operations and code breaking, and unmasks the courageous, flawed men who inhabited this wilderness of mirrors—including the spymaster at the heart of it all. In the summer of 1778, with the war poised to turn in his favor, General George Washington desperately needed to know where the British would strike next. To that end, he unleashed his secret weapon: an unlikely ring of spies in New York charged with discovering the enemy’s battle plans and military strategy. Washington’s small band included a young Quaker torn between political principle and family loyalty, a swashbuckling sailor addicted to the perils of espionage, a hard-drinking barkeep, a Yale-educated cavalryman and friend of the doomed Nathan Hale, and a peaceful, sickly farmer who begged Washington to let him retire but who always came through in the end. Personally guiding these imperfect everyday heroes was Washington himself. In an era when officers were gentlemen, and gentlemen didn’ t spy, he possessed an extraordinary talent for deception—and proved an adept spymaster. The men he mentored were dubbed the Culper Ring. The British secret service tried to hunt them down, but they escaped by the closest of shaves thanks to their ciphers, dead drops, and invisible ink. Rose’s thrilling narrative tells the unknown story of the Revolution–the murderous intelligence war, gunrunning and kidnapping, defectors and executioners—that has never appeared in the history books. But Washington’s Spies is also a spirited, touching account of friendship and trust, fear and betrayal, amid the dark and silent world of the spy.

Book Unlikely Allies

Download or read book Unlikely Allies written by Joel Richard Paul and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-11-02 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Without Precedent and Indivisible, the gripping true story of how three men used espionage, betrayal, and sexual deception to help win the American Revolution. Unlikely Allies is the story of three remarkable historical figures. Silas Deane was a Connecticut merchant and delegate to the Continental Congress as the American colonies struggled to break with England. Caron de Beaumarchais was a successful playwright who wrote The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. And the flamboyant and mysterious Chevalier d'Éon⁠—officer, diplomat, and sometime spy⁠—was the talk of London and Paris. Is the Chevalier a man or a woman? When Deane is sent to France to convince the French government to support the revolutionary cause, he enlists the help of Beaumarchais. Together, they successfully smuggle weapons, ammunition, and supplies to New England just in time for the crucial Battle of Saratoga, which turned the tide of the American Revolution. And the catalyst for Louis XVI's support of the Americans against England was the Chevalier d'Éon, whose decision to declare herself a woman helped to lead to the Franco-American alliance. These three people spin a fascinating web of political intrigue and international politics that stretches across oceans as they ricochet from Versailles to Georgian London to the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. Each man has his own reasons for wanting to see America triumph over the British, and each contends daily with the certainty that no one is what they seem. The line between friends and enemies is blurred, spies lurk in every corner, and the only way to survive is to trust no one. An edge-of-your-seat story full of fascinating characters and lavish with period detail and sense of place, Unlikely Allies is Revolutionary history in all of its juicy, lurid glory.

Book The Company

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert Littell
  • Publisher : Abrams
  • Release : 2020-10-06
  • ISBN : 1683359216
  • Pages : 864 pages

Download or read book The Company written by Robert Littell and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This realistic New York Times–bestselling epic spy novel captures the thrilling story of CIA agents in the latter half of the Twentieth Century. The New York Times bestselling spy novel The Company lays bare the history and inner workings of the CIA. This critically acclaimed blockbuster from internationally renowned novelist Robert Littell seamlessly weaves together history and fiction to create a multigenerational, wickedly nostalgic saga of the CIA—known as “the Company” to insiders. Racing across a landscape spanning the legendary Berlin Base of the ’50s, the Soviet invasion of Hungary, the Bay of Pigs, Afghanistan, and the Gorbachev putsch, The Company tells the thrilling story of agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an amoral, elusive, formidable enemy—and each other—in an internecine battle within the Company itself. “Compulsive reading from start to finish.” —The Boston Globe “Hugely entertaining . . . A serious look at how our nation exercises power. . . . Popular fiction at its finest.” —The Washington Post Book World “As it happens, this longest spy novel ever written turns out to be one of the best.” —Chicago Tribune “Reads like a breeze . . . guaranteed to suck you right back into the Alice-in-Wonderland world of spy vs. spy.” —Newsweek “If Robert Littell didn’t invent the American spy novel, he should have.” —Tom Clancy “It's gung-ho, hard-drinking, table-turning fun.” —Publishers Weekly

Book The Good Spy

Download or read book The Good Spy written by Kai Bird and published by Crown. This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Good Spy is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird’s compelling portrait of the remarkable life and death of one of the most important operatives in CIA history – a man who, had he lived, might have helped heal the rift between Arabs and the West. On April 18, 1983, a bomb exploded outside the American Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people. The attack was a geopolitical turning point. It marked the beginning of Hezbollah as a political force, but even more important, it eliminated America’s most influential and effective intelligence officer in the Middle East – CIA operative Robert Ames. What set Ames apart from his peers was his extraordinary ability to form deep, meaningful connections with key Arab intelligence figures. Some operatives relied on threats and subterfuge, but Ames worked by building friendships and emphasizing shared values – never more notably than with Yasir Arafat’s charismatic intelligence chief and heir apparent Ali Hassan Salameh (aka “The Red Prince”). Ames’ deepening relationship with Salameh held the potential for a lasting peace. Within a few years, though, both men were killed by assassins, and America’s relations with the Arab world began heading down a path that culminated in 9/11, the War on Terror, and the current fog of mistrust. Bird, who as a child lived in the Beirut Embassy and knew Ames as a neighbor when he was twelve years old, spent years researching The Good Spy. Not only does the book draw on hours of interviews with Ames’ widow, and quotes from hundreds of Ames’ private letters, it’s woven from interviews with scores of current and former American, Israeli, and Palestinian intelligence officers as well as other players in the Middle East “Great Game.” What emerges is a masterpiece-level narrative of the making of a CIA officer, a uniquely insightful history of twentieth-century conflict in the Middle East, and an absorbing hour-by-hour account of the Beirut Embassy bombing. Even more impressive, Bird draws on his reporter’s skills to deliver a full dossier on the bombers and expose the shocking truth of where the attack’s mastermind resides today.

Book A Private Spy

Download or read book A Private Spy written by John le Carré and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2022-10-13 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John le Carré was a defining writer of his time. This enthralling collection letters - written to readers, publishers, film-makers and actors, politicians and public figures - reveals the playfully intelligent and unfailingly eloquent man behind the penname. _____ 'The symbiosis of author and editor, father and son, has resulted in a brilliant book, le Carré's final masterpiece' 5*, Jake Kerridge, Sunday Telegraph _____ A Private Spy spans seven decades and chronicles not only le Carré's own life but the turbulent times to which he was witness. Beginning with his 1940s childhood, it includes accounts of his National Service and his time at Oxford, and his days teaching the 'chinless, pointy-nosed gooseberry-eyed British lords' at Eton. It describes his entry into MI5 and the rise of the Iron Curtain, and the flowering of his career as a novelist in reaction to the building of the Berlin Wall. Through his letters we travel with him from the Second World War period to the immediate moment in which we live. We find le Carré writing to Sir Alec Guinness to persuade him to take on the role of George Smiley, and later arguing the immorality of the War on Terror with the chief of the German internal security service. What emerges is a portrait not only of the writer, or of the global intellectual, but, in his own words, of the very private, very passionate and very real man behind the name. _____ Includes letters to: John Banville William Burroughs John Cheever Stephen Fry Graham Greene Sir Alec Guinness Hugh Laurie Ben Macintyre Ian McEwan Gary Oldman Philip Roth Philippe Sands Sir Tom Stoppard Margaret Thatcher And more...

Book The Spy Who Was Left Behind

Download or read book The Spy Who Was Left Behind written by Michael Pullara and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shocking true story of international intrigue —“a highly detailed, engrossing work” (Kirkus Reviews)—involving the 1993 murder of CIA officer Freddie Woodruff by KGB agents and the extensive cover-up that followed in Washington and in Moscow. “In a post-truth era, we need a lot more fearless writers like Michael Pullara” (Robert Baer, author of See No Evil). On August 8, 1993, a single bullet to the head killed Freddie Woodruff, the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Within hours, police had a suspect—a vodka-soaked village bumpkin named Anzor Sharmaidze. A tidy explanation quickly followed: It was a tragic accident. US diplomats hailed Georgia’s swift work, and both countries breathed a sigh of relief. Yet the bullet that killed Woodruff was never found and key witnesses have since retracted their testimony, saying they were beaten and forced to identify Sharmaidze. But if he didn’t do it, who did? Those who don’t buy the official explanation think the answer lies in the spy games that played out on Russia’s frontier following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Woodruff was an early actor in a dangerous drama. American spies were moving into newborn nations previously dominated by Soviet intelligence. Russia’s security apparatus, resentful and demoralized, was in turmoil, its nominal loyalty to a pro-Western course set by President Boris Yeltsin, shredded by hardline spooks and generals who viewed the Americans as a menace. At the time when Woodruff was stationed there, Georgia was a den of intrigue. It had a big Russian military base and was awash with former and not-so-former Soviet agents. Shortly before Woodruff was shot, veteran CIA officer Aldrich Ames—who would soon be unmasked as a KGB mole—visited him on agency business. In short order, Woodruff would be dead and Ames, in prison for life. Buckle up, because The Spy Who Was Left Behind reveals the full-throttle, little-known thrilling tale.

Book The Spy Who Changed History  The Untold Story of How the Soviet Union Won the Race for America   s Top Secrets

Download or read book The Spy Who Changed History The Untold Story of How the Soviet Union Won the Race for America s Top Secrets written by Svetlana Lokhova and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2018-06-14 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘A superbly researched and groundbreaking account of Soviet espionage in the Thirties ... remarkable’ 5* review, Telegraph On the trail of Soviet infiltrator Agent Blériot, in this bestseller, Svetlana Lokhova takes the reader on a thrilling journey through Stalin’s most audacious intelligence operation.

Book An Imperfect Future

    Book Details:
  • Author : David Penny
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2021-04-10
  • ISBN : 9781912592609
  • Pages : 412 pages

Download or read book An Imperfect Future written by David Penny and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-10 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nazis have the key to the ultimate weapon. Can a special squad of British operatives destroy their plans before the Third Reich rules the earth? 1944, England: Calum Auger can see ten seconds into the future. Desperate not to die in the air over Germany, the Lancaster bombardier uses his unique gift to drop his payload more accurately and help the pilot avoid enemy fire. But when he can't find a way through the flak and their damaged plane crash-lands in England, he's stunned to discover two government agents waiting to recruit him. Drafted into a top-secret team of psychics, Calum and his new unit are tasked with tracking down spies who stole sensitive information. And with the missing papers containing information on how to build an atomic bomb, they're in a race against time to prevent Hitler from bringing the world to its knees. Can Calum and his extraordinary teammates retrieve the documents before they fall into the hands of a madman?

Book The Secret World

    Book Details:
  • Author : Christopher Andrew
  • Publisher : Yale University Press
  • Release : 2018-09-04
  • ISBN : 030024052X
  • Pages : 1019 pages

Download or read book The Secret World written by Christopher Andrew and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 1019 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A comprehensive exploration of spying in its myriad forms from the Bible to the present day . . . Easy to dip into, and surprisingly funny.” —Ben Macintyre in The New York Times Book Review The history of espionage is far older than any of today’s intelligence agencies, yet largely forgotten. The codebreakers at Bletchley Park, the most successful WWII intelligence agency, were completely unaware that their predecessors had broken the codes of Napoleon during the Napoleonic wars and those of Spain before the Spanish Armada. Those who do not understand past mistakes are likely to repeat them. Intelligence is a prime example. At the outbreak of WWI, the grasp of intelligence shown by US President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was not in the same class as that of George Washington during the Revolutionary War and eighteenth-century British statesmen. In the first global history of espionage ever written, distinguished historian and New York Times–bestselling author Christopher Andrew recovers much of the lost intelligence history of the past three millennia—and shows us its continuing relevance. “Accurate, comprehensive, digestible and startling . . . a stellar achievement.” —Edward Lucas, The Times “For anyone with a taste for wide-ranging and shrewdly gossipy history—or, for that matter, for anyone with a taste for spy stories—Andrew’s is one of the most entertaining books of the past few years.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker “Remarkable for its scope and delightful for its unpredictable comparisons . . . there are important lessons for spymasters everywhere in this breathtaking and brilliant book.” —Richard J. Aldrich, Times Literary Supplement “Fans of Fleming and Furst will delight in this skillfully related true-fact side of the story.” —Kirkus Reviews “A crowning triumph of one of the most adventurous scholars of the security world.” —Financial Times Includes illustrations