In Spies We Trust : The Story of Western Intelligence ISBN: 9780191651700 Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Oxford University Press, Incorporated Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time Subjects: Political Science;
British and American intelligence services collaborate and compete to produce preeminent spies and surveillance tactics in this comprehensive account from Scottish historian Jeffreys-Jones (The FBI: A History). Beginning in WWI, upper-crust Brits and affluent Ivy Leaguers joined together and began "running espionage and secret diplomacy in such a manner that held at bay not only competing nations, but also what they viewed as repugnant elements in their own societies." Neither nation had qualms about suppressing its own people, nor did either hide its disdain for the left-leaning French Maquis resistance in WWII. During the Cold War, however, the allied groups drifted apart: the British waned, while the U.S. rocketed to primacy, creating, en route, the agency that would become the model for those around the world-the CIA. The rivalry between the two countries' espionage organizations even prompted the CIA to pursue an American answer to popular British spy-fiction writers like Ian Fleming. During this time, the goals of intelligence gathering also changed-rather than win wars, it was hoped that intel could be used to avoid them. Fascinating asides (and tales of notorious gaffes) abound, and Jeffreys-Jones displays a formidable knowledge of his subject throughout this impressive history. 15 b&w images. Agent: Sydelle Kramer, Susan Rabiner Literary Agency. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones is Emeritus Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh and has held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard, the Free University of Berlin, and Toronto. The founder of the Scottish Association for the Study of America, of which is he the current honorary president, he has also published widely on intelligence history, including The CIA and American Democracy (1989) and The FBI: A History (2007).
