A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century 1st Edition

by Jeffery T. Richelson (Author)

20 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0195073911

ISBN-10: 0195073916

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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.

A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Intelligence, according to Richelson, played a crucial role in defeating Hitler, preventing the Cold War from turning into a nuclear war and keeping the superpower arms race from getting completely out of hand. His comprehensive survey explores the impact of spies and their special technology on world events in this century, showing how intelligence gathering and espionage have become a multibillion-dollar enterprise. The book covers events and developments from WWI to the age of spy satellites. With the end of the Cold War, as he shows, intelligence organizations have begun to focus more on international economic rivalries?an emphasis that includes economic espionage. Richelson predicts that intelligence technologies in the next century will become even more sophisticated but humans will still be needed for obtaining documents, technical samples and on-site reporting. This decade-by-decade review of key events and breakthroughs in intelligence and espionage is masterly. Richelson is a Senior Fellow at the National Security Archive.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this ambitious book, Richelson (America's Secret Eyes in Space, HarperBusiness, 1990) surveys the growth, development, and transformation of intelligence (a.k.a., "spying") in the 20th century. The work combines elements of popular spy books-great stories, colorful characters, and sad incidents-with more straightforward analysis. For the ardent spy buff, the volume is an interesting array of tales with a broader developmental focus; indeed, the cross-national perspective is a strength here. The book falls short, however, in providing the in-depth analysis one would hope for. For example, a final chapter on "a new world of disorder" falls short of providing a good vision of the current situation, despite a proper emphasis on economic intelligence, proliferation, and technical intelligence means. Ultimately, too many questions are left unanswered here. While Richelson believes that spying has had its beneficial aspects (e.g., breaking Hitler), its impact on domestic life, no matter what country, slips by him. An optional purchase.
H. Steck, SUNY at Cortland
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product details

Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (August 17, 1995)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0195073916
ISBN-13: 978-0195073911
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.6 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 20 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,031,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3898 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Political Science > International Relations
- #12936 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > United States
- #25289 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > International & World Politics

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Rexine (Gina) Bryant

This book might be more appropriately entitled "20th Century Spying Techniques"

November 28, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I have been a lover of mystery books and intelligence gathering almost since I learned to read. As both a literature buff and history buff, delving into the evolution of intelligence gathering (coupled with the ever-expanding technology) became almost a "must". The book is well balanced, delving into the different modalities and technology used in intelligence gathering coding, decoding, and transmission. It also features brief vignettes on particular spies who were superlative in their vocation as well as some who were not so spectacular, and some who just had amusing (or irritating) idiosynchracies that gave a smile now and then.
It is, first and last, a HISTORY book -- and anyone who reads much history knows that it is very densely packed, and very slow reading. However the information one gleans about how technological advances which are not only applied to "improvement in living ease" but also in ever-more-difficult spying techniques will long be remembered.

Taking the transmission of intelligence from private courier to telephone, to "Marconi wireless" to various kinds of wireless technology and "bugs" all had both strong and weak points which needed to be addressed.

I gave it 4-stars because the reading is so dense and moves so slowly, and in order to follow one chain of events, other developments not used in this primary endeavor must be backtracked and introduced at a later time, so it does not lend itself to a strict chronlogy, but you find you are taking mini-backtracks exploring other methods as well.

All in all, it is a very good book, but a book to be read a little bit at a time, so that there is time to "digest" it. Three Cheers to Jeffrey Richelson, who had the patience to untangle it, and present a masterful book!!

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June 25, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I found this book very informative on the evolution of spies. However, post cold war, this book is sparse and rather curt in it's analysis which comes to an abrupt halt during the Clinton Administration.

The book ends at about the 70% marker, with an additional 30% (100 pages) of references and citations. 434 pages for the book, 534 pages in all. I recommend it if you are interested in intelligence up to and during the cold war era.. but there is really nothing insightful after the 90's.

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He does a good job covering a lot of info

March 28, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Found this to be well written and enjoyable to read, but man, a lot of info. He does a good job covering a lot of info.

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Great Source of Information, Too Dense to Be Truly Enjoyable

November 15, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

For a story about international spying, the book was incredibly dry. The information was interesting, and thoroughly researched, but so far as just-for-fun reading, it's a bit of a slog.

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A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century

July 28, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The book is an excellent but very detailed account of the world of spies and Intelligence service. I can't put it down and can relate to the history, but the names, details and volume of facts are a little overwhelming.

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The worst kind of history book

June 23, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I am an avid reader of history, and especially of intelligence, spying, and military history. There are few books that I have started which I have not read to completion, but this was one of them. After about 150 pages, I realized that I wasn't enjoying the book, I wasn't learning much from it, and that I wasn't in a college course, so I could just stop reading. My criticisms, in no particular order:

* While Kindles seem plagued by typos, this book sets a new standard. The errors actually begin to distract from the work, although they do provide some comedy relief. My favorite- a chapter that chronicles that famous WWI event, "The Battle of the Mame". I think it was a Lucille Ball movie.

* A good portion of the book is a recitation of names, dates, places and events. Some of these are important, some should be footnotes to the footnotes.

* Much of the information presented is devoid of any context. As an example, one section of the book describes in detail the intelligence efforts behind the Battle of Jutland. These efforts, however, make little sense unless you have a fairly detailed appreciation of the naval tactics and geographical context of Jutland. I suspect few readers have such details committed to memory, and must, like me, resort to an external source for background material.

* The author makes sweeping statements, but does not back them up. For example, Richelson credits the Nazi intelligence services with a good portion of the credit for allowing Hitler's early successes in the Rhineland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Probably true to some extent, but certainly an opinion that requires some argument and facts to support it.

* In other cases, Richelson seems shy about taking a position. Richard Sorge, a Soviet spy, provided Stalin with information that was likely the reason that the Soviets were able to concentrate the vast majority of their armies against the Germans. Without too much imagination, you could make a case that this was one of the turning points in the European Theater. While Sorge's story is told, there is but brief mention of the consequences.

So in summary I found the work to be mostly a collection of facts, with some opinions thrown in but not particularly well supported. As a narrative, it falls short as well, glancing over events whose details are truly interesting and important.

I'd say skip it.

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Amazon Customer Radar240

Interesting Book

January 3, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book was more like a text book that would be read on a college level. Like many books that we all dealt with in college it was interesting and boring throughout. I will not read it again as I do some books after a long period. Of course this is all IMHO.

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A lesson in History

April 5, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book is a lesson in History I haven't seen any other place.There was a lot of under cover work going on in this world that we aren't aware of.It has been put together in this book in an understandable way.

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Most recent customer reviews

Century of Spies

Quite a good book.

Published 1 year ago

Excellent book!

Published on March 25, 2015

This book captures many intricate and heretofore unknown details of ...

This book captures many intricate and heretofore unknown details of the US Intelligence efforts & people in the 20th. century, fascinating!

Published on October 26, 2014

André Luiz Cabral Dutra

Interesting at minor points

The book has some point of interest, but the majority of it is related to politics spionage. It states orders and groups of cypher breakers.Read more

Published on July 5, 2013

I couldnt wait to read it since im interested in this. i thought it was a great book. i cant wait to read the next one.

Published on June 6, 2013

Interesting, in good condition, cool book, i like it there is a lot of Historical and special aspects. I needed it!

Published on February 7, 2013

English United States

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