The Rise of the Secret World

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 first mention of espionage in world literature is in the Book of Exodus.'God sent out spies into the land of Canaan'. From there, Christopher Andrew traces the shift in the ancient world from divination to what we would recognize as attempts to gather real intelligence in the conduct of military operations, and considers how far ahead of the West - at that time - China and India were. He charts the development of intelligence and security operations and capacity through, amongst others, Renaissance Venice, Elizabethan England, Revolutionary America, Napoleonic France, right up to sophisticated modern activities of which he is the world's best-informed interpreter. What difference have security and intelligence operations made to course of history? Why have they so often forgotten by later practitioners? This fascinating book provides the answers.

“To write a world history of intelligence, from the dawn of recorded history to the present day, is a daunting task. To make such a work accurate, comprehensive, digestible and startling, and all in a single volume, is a stellar achievement. But that is what Christopher Andrew has done in The Secret World .--Edward Lucas, The Times Brilliant in its sweep and near-miraculous in the detail and confident judgements provided on two and a half millennia of spying ... The book is a crowning triumph of one of the most adventurous scholars of the security world--John Lloyd, Financial Times Christopher Andrew delivers a stunning secret archaeology of a subject that he himself helped to create--Richard J. Aldrich, Times Literary Supplement”

Christopher Andrew delivers a stunning secret archaeology of a subject that he himself helped to create -- Richard J. Aldrich Times Literary Supplement Brilliant in its sweep and near-miraculous in the detail and confident judgements provided on two and a half millennia of spying ... The book is a crowning triumph of one of the most adventurous scholars of the security world -- John Lloyd Financial Times To write a world history of intelligence, from the dawn of recorded history to the present day, is a daunting task. To make such a work accurate, comprehensive, digestible and startling, and all in a single volume, is a stellar achievement. But that is what Christopher Andrew has done in The Secret World. -- Edward Lucas The Times

Christopher Andrew is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and former Chair of the Faculty of History at Cambridge University. He is also chair of the British Intelligence Study Group, Founding Co-Editor of Intelligence and National Security, former Visiting Professor at Harvard, Toronto and the Australian National University, and a regular presenter of BBC Radio and TV documentaries. His most recent book, The Defence of the Realm- The Authorized History of MI5, was a major international bestseller. His fifteen previous books include The Mitrokhin Archive volumes 1 and 2, and a number of path-breaking studies on the use and abuse of secret intelligence in modern history.

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