The CIA and American Democracy: Third Edition [Paperback]

Professor Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300099487 | ISBN-13: 978-0300099485 | Publication Date: February 8, 2003 | Edition: 3

This third edition of Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones's engrossing history of the Central Intelligence Agency includes a new prologue that discusses the history of the CIA since the end of the Cold War, focusing in particular on the intelligence dimensions of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Praise for the earlier editions: "I have read many books on the CIA, but none more searching and still dispassionate. Nor would I have believed that a book of such towering scholarship could still be so lucid and exciting to read."-Daniel Schorr "This is one of the best short histories of the CIA in print, up-to-date and based on a wide range of sources."-Walter Laqueur "Judicious and reasonable. . . . A sophisticated study that should challenge us to take a more serious view about how our democracy formulates its foreign policy."-David P. Calleo, New York Times Book Review A brief, yet subtle and penetrating, account of the Central Intelligence Agency."-Leonard Bushkoff, Christian Science Monitor "Subtle and crisply written. . . . A book remarkable for its clarity and lack of bias."-William W. Powers, Jr., International Herald Tribune, Paris

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This supportive, comprehensive study of the CIA traces the changing status of the agency from its 1947 beginnings to the present. Jeffreys-Jones, history lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, reveals how the CIA and its successive directors have been enmeshed in presidential politics and foreign policy, experiencing a "golden age" in the Eisenhower era and relatively hard times during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. The periodic congressional crusades aimed at unveiling "the truth" about the CIA are closely analyzed, the author arguing that such probes not only serve to keep the agency in check but in the long run strengthen it. Good congressional relations and mutual respect are, in Jeffreys-Jones's view, crucial to the proper functioning of U.S. intelligence. President Reagan, "a keen supporter" of the CIA, is shown here to have been virtually deaf to its advice. Jeffreys-Jones concludes: "The various people who say that the CIA has been the world's best postwar foreign-intelligence agency are not wide of the mark." History Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This book is a useful introduction to the diversity of the anti-Vietnam War movement. Jeffreys-Jones (American history, Univ. of Edinburgh) examines the war's effects on four components of the Democratic Party coalitionAstudents, African Americans, women, and laborAand their evolution from prowar conformists to alienated antiwar protesters. Initially, each group had political and material reasons to support Vietnam policy. But when the war began to threaten the lives, economic status, and social progress of students, blacks, and women, many ceased to support it. Full employment and the presidential courtship of union leaders made labor slower to recognize Vietnam's cost in lost sons and jobs. Jones argues that labor's support for LBJ and later Nixon's policies prolonged the war. This thorough survey reminds readers that the antiwar movement was more than a student rebellion. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries.ADuncan Stewart, State Historical Society of Iowa Lib., Iowa City
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 3 edition (February 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300099487
• ISBN-13: 978-0300099485
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #819,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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