Classical Spies

Classical Spies
Author: Susan Heuck Allen
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 460
Release: 2011-10-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0472027662

“Classical Spies will be a lasting contribution to the discipline and will stimulate further research. Susan Heuck Allen presents to a wide readership a topic of interest that is important and has been neglected.” —William M. Calder III, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Classical Spies is the first insiders’ account of the operations of the American intelligence service in World War II Greece. Initiated by archaeologists in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, the network drew on scholars’ personal contacts and knowledge of languages and terrain. While modern readers might think Indiana Jones is just a fantasy character, Classical Spies disclosesevents where even Indy would feel at home: burying Athenian dig records in an Egyptian tomb, activating prep-school connections to establish spies code-named Vulture and Chickadee, and organizing parachute drops. Susan Heuck Allen reveals remarkable details about a remarkable group of individuals. Often mistaken for mild-mannered professors and scholars, such archaeologists as University of Pennsylvania’s Rodney Young, Cincinnati’s Jack Caskey and Carl Blegen, Yale’s Jerry Sperling and Dorothy Cox, and Bryn Mawr’s Virginia Grace proved their mettle as effective spies in an intriguing game of cat and mouse with their Nazi counterparts. Relying on interviews with individuals sharing their stories for the first time, previously unpublished secret documents, private diaries and letters, and personal photographs, Classical Spies offers an exciting and personal perspective on the history of World War II.

Espionage and Treason in Classical Greece

Espionage and Treason in Classical Greece
Author: André Gerolymatos
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2019-11-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1498583393

This history of ancient diplomacy demonstrates how the ancient Greeks used guest-friendship as a mechanism of diplomacy. Ancient proxenoi were the equivalent of contemporary consul-generals and they served some of the same purposes. The proxenoi conducted the diplomatic affairs of the state they represented and looked after the interests of the city-state that had adopted them. In times of war the proxenoi maintained spies and supplied intelligence on the movements of fleets and armies.

Espionage in the Ancient World

Espionage in the Ancient World
Author: R.M. Sheldon
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2015-09-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1476610991

Intelligence activities have always been an integral part of statecraft. Ancient governments, like modern ones, realized that to keep their borders safe, control their populations, and keep abreast of political developments abroad, they needed a means to collect the intelligence which enabled them to make informed decisions. Today we are well aware of the damage spies can do. Here, for the first time, is a comprehensive guide to the literature of ancient intelligence. The entries present books and periodical articles in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and Dutch--with annotations in English. These works address such subjects as intelligence collection and analysis (political and military), counterintelligence, espionage, cryptology (Greek and Latin), tradecraft, covert action, and similar topics (it does not include general battle studies and general discussions of foreign policy). Sections are devoted to general espionage, intelligence related to road building, communication, and tradecraft, intelligence in Greece, during the reign of Alexander the Great and in the Hellenistic Age, in the Roman republic, the Roman empire, the Byzantine empire, the Muslim world, and in Russia, China, India, and Africa. The books can be located in libraries in the United States; in cases where volumes are in one library only, the author indicates where they may be found.

Spies and Scholars

Spies and Scholars
Author: Gregory Afinogenov
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2020-04-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674246578

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year The untold story of how Russian espionage in imperial China shaped the emergence of the Russian Empire as a global power. From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire made concerted efforts to collect information about China. It bribed Chinese porcelain-makers to give up trade secrets, sent Buddhist monks to Mongolia on intelligence-gathering missions, and trained students at its Orthodox mission in Beijing to spy on their hosts. From diplomatic offices to guard posts on the Chinese frontier, Russians were producing knowledge everywhere, not only at elite institutions like the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. But that information was secret, not destined for wide circulation. Gregory Afinogenov distinguishes between the kinds of knowledge Russia sought over the years and argues that they changed with the shifting aims of the state and its perceived place in the world. In the seventeenth century, Russian bureaucrats were focused on China and the forbidding Siberian frontier. They relied more on spies, including Jesuit scholars stationed in China. In the early nineteenth century, the geopolitical challenge shifted to Europe: rivalry with Britain drove the Russians to stake their prestige on public-facing intellectual work, and knowledge of the East was embedded in the academy. None of these institutional configurations was especially effective in delivering strategic or commercial advantages. But various knowledge regimes did have their consequences. Knowledge filtered through Russian espionage and publication found its way to Europe, informing the encounter between China and Western empires. Based on extensive archival research in Russia and beyond, Spies and Scholars breaks down long-accepted assumptions about the connection between knowledge regimes and imperial power and excavates an intellectual legacy largely neglected by historians.

Handbook for Spies

Handbook for Spies
Author: Alexander Foote
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2018-09-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1789122260

Seeking adventure, British citizen Alexander Foote fought the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Returning home after it ended, discouraged by the result, Foote was recruited into a Soviet network of spies against Nazi Germany. Based in Switzerland, Foote eventually became responsible for maintaining the network and forwarding information to the Centre in Russia. Foote describes for us how the network operated, including codes and secret transmissions, hiding from Swiss and German authorities, recruiting and funding, and eluding double agents. All the while, Foote watches Soviet Russia, presumably an ally to the free nations, become more and more like the Fascists Foote opposes. Eventually captured by Swiss police, Foote is debriefed in Russia, but manages to escape home to Britain after persuading the Soviets to send him on another mission. This is a fascinating story that illuminates a key part of the secret espionage networks undertaken during World War II.

Information Gathering in Classical Greece

Information Gathering in Classical Greece
Author: Frank Santi Russell
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780472110643

"Information Gathering in Classical Greece opens with chapters on tactical, strategic, and covert agents. Methods of communication are explored, from fire-signals to dead-letter drops. Frank Russell categorizes and defines the collectors and sources of information according to their era, methods, and spheres of operation, and he also provides evidence from ancient authors on interrogation and the handling and weighing of information. Counterintelligence is also explored, together with disinformation through "leaks" and agents. The author concludes this fascinating study with observations on the role that intelligence-gathering has in the kind of democratic society for which Greece has always been famous"--Publisher description.

The Secret World

The Secret World
Author: Christopher Andrew
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 1019
Release: 2018-09-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 030024052X

“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

A Tip for the Hangman

A Tip for the Hangman
Author: Allison Epstein
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2022-01-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593311345

An Elizabethan espionage thriller in which playwright Christopher Marlowe spies on Mary, Queen of Scots while navigating the perils of politics, theater, romance—and murder. England, 1585. In Kit Marlowe's last year at Cambridge, he is approached by Queen Elizabeth's spymaster offering an unorthodox career opportunity: going undercover to intercept a Catholic plot to put Mary, Queen of Scots on Elizabeth's throne. Spying on Queen Mary turns out to be more than Kit bargained for, but his salary allows him to mount his first play, and over the following years he becomes the toast of London's raucous theater scene. But when Kit finds himself reluctantly drawn back into the world of espionage and treason, he realizes everything he's worked so hard to attain—including the trust of the man he loves—could vanish in an instant. Pairing modern language with period detail, Allison Epstein brings Elizabeth's lavish court, Marlowe's colorful theater troupe, and the squalor of sixteenth-century London to vivid, teeming life. At the center of the action is Kit himself—an irrepressible, irreverent force of nature.

Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome

Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome
Author: Rose Mary Sheldon
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2004-12-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135771073

Professor Sheldon uses the modern concept of the intelligence cycle to trace intelligence activities in Rome whether they were done by private citizens, the government, or the military. Examining a broad range of activities the book looks at the many types of espionage tradecraft that have left their traces in the ancient sources: * intelligence and counterintelligence gathering * covert action * clandestine operations * the use of codes and ciphers Dispelling the myth that such activities are a modern invention, Professor Sheldon explores how these ancient spy stories have modern echoes as well. What is the role of an intelligence service in a free republic? When do the security needs of the state outweigh the rights of the citizen? If we cannot trust our own security services, how safe can we be? Although protected by the Praetorian Guard, seventy-five percent of Roman emperors died by assassination or under attack by pretenders to his throne. Who was guarding the guardians? For students of Rome, and modern social studies too - this will provide a fascinating read.