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Start giftingThe Secret World
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThe history of espionage is far older than any of today’s intelligence agencies, yet the long history of intelligence operations has been largely forgotten. The codebreakers at Bletchley Park, the most successful World War II intelligence agency, were completely unaware that their predecessors in earlier moments of national crisis 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 World War I, 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 leading eighteenth-century British statesmen.
In this book, distinguished historian Christopher Andrew recovers much of the lost intelligence history of the past three millennia—and shows its relevance today.
Christopher Andrew is professor of modern and contemporary history and chair of the History Department at Cambridge University, a former visiting professor of national security at Harvard, a frequent guest lecturer at other US universities and a regular host of BBC radio and TV programs. His books—which include Her Majesty’s Secret Service; KGB: The Inside Story (with Oleg Gordievsky); and For the President’s Eyes Only—have established him as one of the world’s leading authorities on intelligence history.
Clive Chafer is a professional actor, director, producer, and theater instructor. Originally from England and educated at Leeds and Exeter universities, he has performed and directed at many theaters in the San Francisco area, where he makes his home, and elsewhere in the US. In 1993 he founded TheatreFIRST, Oakland’s professional theater company, where he served as artistic director until 2008.
Reviews
“Comprehensive…Easy to dip into, and surprisingly funny. Spies have an acute sense of the ridiculous and their own absurd and lethal drama.”
“The author’s breadth and depth of knowledge are unrivalled.”
“A work accurate, comprehensive, digestible, and startling, and all in a single volume.”
“Both brilliant in its sweep and near-miraculous in the detail.”
“Narrator Clive Chafer recognizes the challenge of delivering Christopher Andrew’s lengthy book, and he is up to the task. With his British accent and low-key style, Chafer adeptly uses a mix of tone and inflection, while pacing his delivery. As a result, listeners can savor the audiobook. Another benefit is that many chapters are stand-alone stories, which provide an easy way for busy listeners to take in the work a little at a time if they wish.”
“Fans of Fleming and Furst will delight in this skillfully related true-fact side of the story.”
“In this extraordinarily ambitious and monumental work, Christopher Andrew brings an enormous amount of detail together in one place so patterns can begin to emerge and readers can appreciate connections and dissimilarities. No other book has come close to what Andrew has done here.”
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