Spy Chiefs, Volume 1: Intelligence Leaders in the United States and United Kingdom

By: Christopher R. Moran - editor, Mark Stout - editor, Ioanna Iordanou - editor, Paul Maddrell - editor, Patrick M. Hughes - foreword

Narrated by: Jim Woods

In literature and film, the spy chief is an all-knowing, all-powerful figure who masterfully moves spies into action like pieces on a chessboard. How close to reality is that depiction, and what does it really take to be an effective leader in the world of intelligence?

This first volume of Spy Chiefs broadens and deepens our understanding of the role of intelligence leaders in foreign affairs and national security in the US and UK from the early 1940s to the present. The figures profiled range from famous spy chiefs such as William Donovan, Richard Helms, and Stewart Menzies to little-known figures such as John Grombach, who ran an intelligence organization so secret that not even President Truman knew of it.

Many of those profiled in the audiobook served at times of turbulent change, were faced with foreign penetrations of their intelligence service, and wrestled with matters of transparency, accountability to democratically elected overseers, and adherence to the rule of law. This audiobook will appeal to both intelligence specialists and general listeners with an interest in the intelligence history of the US and UK.

©2018 Georgetown University Press (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"This pathbreaking volume illuminates a key dimension of the knowledge-secrecy-power nexus that helps define intelligence." (Mark Phythian, University of Leicester)

"The contributors to this unique volume cut through the mystique and secrecy surrounding many of the men and women who once stood at the apex of British and American intelligence." (James J. Wirtz, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California)

Great Book but the narrator is boring.

Narrator can put anyone to sleep with his monotone voice, yet the book is amazing.

Swampy!

I had heard about the Swamp but never knew so much as I do now.