Veteran journalist and author Joseph C. Goulden offers a
good review in the Washington Times of Christopher Andrew's The Secret World: A History of Intelligence.
At hand
is a truly magisterial work, a sweeping history that stretches from the
biblical era to the present. Christopher Andrew is the leading academic
intelligence historian of our time. A professor at the University of Cambridge,
he has written a veritable shelf of books on intelligence.
“The Secret World” is a must-read
for any person with a serious interest in intelligence. But be forewarned. The
more than 800 pages of text require more than a casual scan, but are well worth
the investment of serious time.
His evidence, buttressed in 111
pages of documentation sources, is rich with anecdotes and opinions of world
leaders who relied on — or ignored — intelligence as a tool of office.
Despite
his overall admiration of the intel trade, Mr. Andrew is coldly objective about instances where matters
were flubbed. Consider, for instance, Israeli spies who scouted Canaan as the
Promised Land centuries ago. The Canaanites, they claimed, “included giants who
made them feel no bigger than grasshoppers.” He also notes that some glitches
are timeless, citing a biblical operation where spies ended up in a brothel,
thus melding “the two oldest professions.”
You can
read the rest of the review via the below link:
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