A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century

by Jeffrey T. Richelson and Jeffery T. Richelson

Book Overview

Here is the ultimate inside history of twentieth-century intelligence gathering and covert activity. Unrivalled in its scope and as readable as any spy novel, A Century of Spies travels from tsarist Russia and the earliest days of the British Secret Service to the crises and uncertainties of today's post-Cold War world, offering an unsurpassed overview of the role of modern intelligence in every part of the globe. From spies and secret agents to the latest high-tech wizardry in signals and imagery surveillance, it provides fascinating, in-depth coverage of important operations of United States, British, Russian, Israeli, Chinese, German, and French intelligence services, and much more.
All the key elements of modern intelligence activity are here. An expert whose books have received high marks from the intelligence and military communities, Jeffrey Richelson covers the crucial role of spy technology from the days of Marconi and the Wright Brothers to today's dazzling array of Space Age satellites, aircraft, and ground stations. He provides vivid portraits of spymasters, spies, and defectors--including Sidney Reilly, Herbert Yardley, Kim Philby, James Angleton, Markus Wolf, Reinhard Gehlen, Vitaly Yurchenko, Jonathan Pollard, and many others. Richelson paints a colorful portrait of World War I's spies and sabateurs, and illuminates the secret maneuvering that helped determine the outcome of the war on land, at sea, and on the diplomatic front; he investigates the enormous importance of intelligence operations in both the European and Pacific theaters in World War II, from the work of Allied and Nazi agents to the "black magic" of U.S. and British code breakers; and he gives us a complete overview of intelligence during the length of the Cold War, from superpower espionage and spy scandals to covert action and secret wars. A final chapter probes the still-evolving role of intelligence work in the new world of disorder and ethnic conflict, from the high-tech wonders of the Gulf War to the surprising involvement of the French government in industrial espionage.
Comprehensive, authoritative, and addictively readable, A Century of Spies is filled with new information on a variety of subjects--from the activities of the American Black Chamber in the 1920s to intelligence collection during the Cuban missile crisis to Soviet intelligence and covert action operations. It is an essential volume for anyone interested in military history, espionage and adventure, and world affairs.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019511390X
• ISBN13: 9780195113907
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Good read

Good book, deals with a lot of sigint, more than I cared for but is very useful for basic knowledge.

Everything you wanted to know

This book was originally assigned to me in college as part of a course on US Intelligence. It has stayed on my bookshelf ever since then. I've reread parts of it for fun, or when I needed to reference something.It's a great book that includes a least a small section on every major, and most minor intelligence operation or development of the century. Human Intelligence, technical, it doens't limit itself to one area. Obviously WW2 and the Cold War get the most attention, but there is plenty on various other conflicts and other parties.All the major subjects are covered, and there will be quite a few smaller incidents that I (and most likely you) had not heard of previously, or only new very little about.Richelsen has excellent credentials and is a great source, the book is very informative and accurate, as well as maintaining a factual and unbiased tone on a subject is very often not to unbiased. Despite it all this it remains a fun and enjoyable read, accessible to readers with a lot or very minimal previous knowledge of Intelligence work.

concise history of the intelligence world

this book, written by a military scholar, will appeal to those seeking the tree to many branches; it gives excellent accounts of operations from the shadowy days of secret wartime missions, as well as up-to-date workings of the separate intelligence communities. With a comprehensive bibliography, the would-be intelligence analyst cannot go wrong choosing this book as their guide