Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This unique publication is definitive and fascinating. Definitive because, after decades of ill-informed or partial accounts this book fully defines and describes its subject; no future writer can ignore it. Fascinating because the fluent clarity of Andrew’s narrative, his eye for colourful individual detail and the sheer interest of his subjects…this book is essential reading for anyone with even the slightest interest in intelligence in the modern period." – Alan Judd, Spectator

"A scholarly and hugely entertaining account…often enthralling…Professor Andrew is an entertaining and authoritative guide through the labyrinth of secret files, with an infectious fascination for the game of counter-espionage…an important part of Andrew’s achievement is to narrate with clarity an incredibly complex story in which bizarre and improbable reality often outruns the most rococo fabrications of the spy novelist…the reader is left in no doubt that the defence of the realm is being vigorously conducted by the secret state with all the extraordinary powers at its command." – Robert McCrum, Observer

"MI5 is the first major security or intelligence service in the world to give a historian free range of its records—nearly 400,000 paper files, some with many volumes, say Christopher Andrew with a touch of exhaustion…it has been well worth the effort. The Defence of the Realm throws new light on an important area of the running of the country, analysing the changing threats to national security over the 100 years and discussing the appropriateness or otherwise of the service’s response. But just as interestingly, the book gets inside the culture of this secret service, showing how attitudes have changed with those changing threats; how woman have worked their way from the fringes to the heart of the organisation and how a sense of humour has always been important. It will be enthusiastically scrutinised by historians, intelligence buffs and conspiracy theorists…[there are] anecdotes and operational details as gripping as any thriller." – Stella Rimington, Financial Times

"Andrew’s magisterial study is an authorised, but not official, history and is clearly written, brilliantly organised and extremely readable, not least because of something he shares with many of MI5’s staff over the past hundred years—a sense of humour…" – Oleg Gordievsky, The Times

"To mark the centenary, the service took the unprecedented step of inviting Christopher Andrew, Cambridge historian and doyen of intelligence chroniclers, to write an authorised history. The outcome is weighty, measured and compelling…with this book, the author has done a formidably good job for both the service and the public interest…I find it hard to disbelieve much he asserts or denies…his narrative offers a feast for students and politics." – Max Hastings, Sunday Times

"A ripping read and just the kind of work one would hope for from a well-qualified academic who has been given the run of MI5’s treasure-trove of files. It is scrupulously documented, covering both the glory days of war, when MI5’s deception operations outsmarted Hitler, and the later nightmare penetrations by the double agent Kim Philby and friends, in which the KGB thoroughly outsmarted the British…Dramatically, it is confirmed that there was indeed a secret Wilson MI5 file, under the pseudonym ‘Worthington’…There is more." – David Leigh, Guardian

"The book covers everything from the agency’s origins 100 years ago as a shoestring outfit hunting German spies to the duping of the Nazis during the second world war, the scandals and successes of the intrigues against the Soviet Union and, latterly, the counter-terrorist campaigns first against the IRA and then against Jihadist suicide bombers…It is a striking experiment in openness." – Economist

"Professor Andrew’s account is magisterial, authoritative, balanced, readable and, particularly in the first half, full of wry humour and with an eye for the absurd. Andrew shows himself to be in command of his vast amount of material and be able to fashion it into a coherent narrative which is as comfortable with MI5’s organisational structure and development and relations with Whitehall as with individual cases and personalities…MI5 has been well-served by this history and so have future historians, Service staff and the public in general." – Andrew Lownie, Sunday Telegraph
"The thousand pages of this book are brimming with some wonderful details…The Defence of the Realm is a valuable and important contribution to our understanding of the 20th century." – Susan Williams, Independent

"Andrew’s scholarship is meticulous and extensive. He deals at length with MI5’s role in the decolonization process in the Fifties and Sixties, something little known and still less appreciated. He also gives a superb account of the Service’s role in the struggle against IRA terrorism, casting new light on the Gibraltar shootings. There is a tantalizing section on MI5’s role in the battle against organized crime, especially drug trafficking; but that now seems to be taking second place to the Service’s counter-terrorism activities, in the wake of September 11 2001. MI5 could not have wanted a better historian than him. He has captured every important detail of the Service, but also its ethos and its place in our country as an institution. This book is unlikely to be surpassed for another 100 years, and until then will be the necessary starting point for anyone who wants to know what, exactly, MI5 is." – Simon Heffer, Telegraph

Product Description

An unprecedented publishing event: to mark the centenary of its foundation, the British Security Service, MI5, has for the first time opened its archives to an independent historian. The book reveals the precise role of the Security Service in twentieth-century British history, from its foundation by Captain Kell of the British Army in October 1909, through two world wars, up to and including its present roles in counterespionage and counterterrorism. The book describes how MI5 has been managed, what its relationship has been with government, where it has triumphed, and where it has failed. In all of this no restriction has been placed on the judgments made by the author.

Defend the Realm also reveals the identities of previously unknown enemies of the United Kingdom whose activities have been uncovered by the Service, adds significantly to our knowledge of many celebrated events and notorious individuals, and definitively lays to rest a number of persistent myths. Above all, it shows the place of this previously extremely secretive organization within the United Kingdom. Few books could make such an immediate and extraordinary increase to our understanding of British history over the past century.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1056 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (November 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307263630
• ISBN-13: 978-0307263636
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,060 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A SPY FOR ALL SEASONS, November 3, 2009

By	Paul Gelman "PAUL Y. GELMAN" (HAIFA , ISRAEL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Many years ago,Professor Christopher Andrew has written an article with co-author David Dilks.They claimed that the history of intelligence and espionage was missing and was ignored even by serious historians.They called this "the missing dimension of history".Indeed, it would be absurd today for any serious historian
to dismiss or disregard this important part of history.In the past, historians said that the history of espionage and intelligence should be dealt by quacks,second- or third-hand writers or amateurs
and that this kind of history does not have any importance or relevance for the historical profession.
However,with the fall of the Iron Curtain,this view has changed drastically mainly because classified archival materials were open to everyone.
The USA archives were among the first to declassify and thus enable historians and others to come and read perhaps tens of millions of documents that were produced by intelligence analysts and sources
during the Cold War.
Professor Andrew was among those pioneers to whom humanity and serious researchers owe a lot in this respect, because he has dedicated many years to write and lecture about many and various intelligence episodes, thus offering the readers a new perspective on the Cold War.
This is exactly what he has done again.We all remember his magnum opus on the Mitrockhin Archive, published some years before.In this current heavyweight volume, which has more than one thousand pages,he offers us a linear ,fascinating and intriguing history of MI5.
It all started in 1909 when two officers from the Navy and the Army started to work in an office in London.Their mission was to try and catch as many German spies as they could.The first German agent who showed up in England after WW1 started was Carl Lody,who was sentenced to death and he was executed in the Tower of London.The first director of MI5 was Vernon Kell and he kept his job for more than 31 years- the longest period of any director.
Another director was Maxwell Knight.He is described as someone who had a special interest " in unusual pets".Visitors to his house would usually find him taking his bear for a walk.(The bear's name was Bessie.)Knight would also feed a giant toad or carry a parrot on one of his shoulders.He did not mind being "considered a bit mad" because "a few unusual people give a little colour to life"(.p.123)
We are talking about the period between the two wars,especially during the thirties,when the job of MI5 agents was to infiltrate as many fascist groups as possible.This was also when the famous Cambridge spies made their debut and Prof.Andrew devotes many pages to the way Kim Philby and the others were recruited by the Russians.
Another short chapter deals with the way the Soviets penetrated the Communist party in Britain .
The best part of this book, however,which starts the second third of it,is-in my opinion- about the history of MI5 during the Cold War.Here we are offered much new information about the various spies that were engaged to work for the Soviet Union during the forties.The first female recruits were employed by the MI5 masters.Many new insights are given about Igor Gouzenko,a cipher clerk who was working for the GRU and decided to defect in Canada.He had with him hundreds of pages which showed clearly to what extent the Manhattan Project and other sectors of the American administration were deeply penetrated by KGB spies.In fact, one can say that Giuzenko has caused a Pandora box to open and spill out many secrets which shocked the public opinion in the west, especially in the USA and Britain.During the fifties and sixties the hunt for the Magnificent Five of Cambridge was itensified .A KGB agent by the name of Oleg Gordievsky ,who was recruited by the the British(and has written a number of intelligence studies together with Prof.Andrew)confirmed that the fifth man's name was John Cairncross.(p.441)
Chapter 9 is unique because it has-for the first time- a new topic never discussed before, namely:the role of MI5 during the decolonizanion and demise of the British Empire.African leaders were especailly kept under surveillance because of their ties with the masters from the Kremlin.
The author dismisses all the conspiracy theories which were built around Roger Hollis, one of the most famous MI5 directors,and this beacuse he found no evidence about such claims in the Hollis archives.
The most surprising revelation in the book is that Harold Wilson was under surveillance of the MI5 agents, not because he was suspected of being a spy, but because of Wilson's many contacts with the Russians.Talking one day in his PM's office to one of his confidants,Lord Kissin, Wilson told him:"There are only three men listening-you, me and MI5"(p.632) Andrew also thinks that one cabinet minister,John Stonehouse,who was a Czech agent, was the only
minister to have worked for a foreign power.Stonehouse faked his own death in Miami in 1974.
The various attitudes to the MI5 displayed by the various Prime Ministers after 1945 is discussed in detail.Harold Macmillan, for instance,used to bellitle the agents of MI5.Here, we get vintage Andrew, as he discusses in length the Profumo affair and offers the reader new facts unknown hitherto.
Additional chapters are about Mi5's role in the struggle against IRA ,and the service's battle against organized crime and the different ways that are employed to combat contemporary terrorism.There are 82 photos which show many the many players of the Great Game,including the present Director General's picture,Jonathan Evans,who has also written the foreword of the book.
This is a brilliant and authoritative work, full of vignettes and hundreds of meticulously- researched episodes running from 1909 to 2009.
In short: this work is a must for everyone interested in spies, espionage,modern and contemporary history and the role of intelligence ,written by a master historian.