Intelligence Studies in Britain and the USHistoriography since 1945
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About this book
The first introduction to writing about intelligence and intelligence services
- 15 chapters from contributors including Richard Aldrich, intelligence historian; Matthew Jones, novelist; Nicholas Dujmovic, CIA Staff Historian; Keith Jeffery, author of the first official history of MI6; Jo Wippl, Former CIA operations officer; Chapman Pincher, journalist
- Explores topics such as CIA historiography, MI5/MI6 historiography, the literature of eavesdropping and the importance of film in constructing proto or counter-histories of intelligence
- Offers original insights into intelligence through an engagement with its past formulation and emerging patterns
Secrecy has never stopped people from writing about intelligence. From memoirs and academic texts to conspiracy-laden exposés and spy novels, writing on intelligence abounds. Now, this new account uncovers intelligence historiography’s hugely important role in shaping popular understandings and the social memory of intelligence.
In this first introduction to these official and unofficial histories, a range of leading contributors narrate and interpret the development of intelligence studies as a discipline. Each chapter showcases new archival material, looking at a particular book or series of books and considering issues of production, censorship, representation and reception.
Reviews
A much-needed examination of the extensive and rapidly growing historiography of intelligence studies. It addresses the difficulties posed by official secrecy, how real world developments influenced historiography, and the recent trend toward state-sanctioned histories. Given the diversity of the literature examined, it is fitting that the contributors range from scholars to journalists and intelligence professionals … Summing Up: Recommended.
A fascinating collection of perspectives that chronicles the development of intelligence studies during the past 30 years from a 'missing dimension' of modern history to a mature discipline fully able to hold its own with its scholarly forbears.
Table of contents
Preface
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones
Introduction: Intelligence Studies Now and Then
Christopher R. Moran and Christopher J. Murphy
Part I. American Intelligence Historiography
1. CIA History as a Cold War Battleground: The Forgotten First Wave of Agency Narratives
Richard J. Aldrich
2. The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom
Eric Pullin
3. ‘Real Substance, Not Just Symbolism’? The CIA and the Representation of Covert Operations in the Foreign Relations of the United States Series
Matthew Jones and Paul McGarr
4. Bonum Ex Malo: The Value of Legacy of Ashes in Teaching CIA History
Nicholas Dujmovic
5. Narrating Covert Action: The CIA, Historiography and the Cold War
Kaeten Mistry
6. FBI Historiography: From Leader to Organisation
Melissa Graves
7. Reconceiving Realism: Intelligence Historians and the Fact/Fiction Dichotomy
Simon Willmetts
8. The Reality is Stranger than Fiction: Anglo-American Intelligence Cooperation from World War Two through the Cold War
Frederick P. Hitz
Part II. British Intelligence Historiography
9. A Plain Tale of Pundits, Players and Professionals: The Historiography of the Great Game
Robert Johnson
10. No Cloaks, No Daggers: The Historiography of British Military Intelligence
Jim Beach
11. The Study of Interrogation: A Focus on Torture, But What About the Intelligence?
Samantha Newbery
12. Whitehall, Intelligence and Official History: Editing SOE in France
Christopher J. Murphy
13. A Tale of Torture? Alexander Scotland, The London Cage and Post-War British Secrecy
Daniel Lomas
14. 1968 – ‘A Year to Remember’ for the Study of British Intelligence?
Adam D. M. Svendsen
15. Their Trade is Treachery: A Retrospective
Chapman Pincher
16. Intelligence and ‘Official History’
Christopher Baxter and Keith Jeffery
Index