The history of espionage is far older than any of today’s intelligence agencies, yet the long history of intelligence operations has been largely forgotten. The codebreakers at Bletchley Park, the most successful World War II intelligence agency, were completely unaware that their predecessors in earlier moments of national crisis had broken the codes of Napoleon during the Napoleonic wars and those of Spain before the Spanish Armada.
Those who do not understand past mistakes are likely to repeat them. Intelligence is a prime example. At the outbreak of World War I, the grasp of intelligence shown by US President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was not in the same class as that of George Washington during the Revolutionary War and leading eighteenth-century British statesmen.
In this book, distinguished historian Christopher Andrew recovers much of the lost intelligence history of the past three millennia—and shows its relevance today.
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“Narrator Clive Chafer recognizes the challenge of delivering Christopher Andrew’s lengthy book, and he is up to the task. With his British accent and low-key style, Chafer adeptly uses a mix of tone and inflection, while pacing his delivery. As a result, listeners can savor the audiobook. Another benefit is that many chapters are stand-alone stories, which provide an easy way for busy listeners to take in the work a little at a time if they wish.”
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