The Secret World, Christopher Andrew
The Secret World, Christopher Andrew
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The Secret World
A History of Intelligence

Author: Christopher Andrew

Narrator: Clive Chafer

Unabridged: 37 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/04/2018

Synopsis

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.

About Christopher Andrew

Christopher Andrew is professor of modern and contemporary history and chair of the History Department at Cambridge University, a former visiting professor of national security at Harvard, a frequent guest lecturer at other US universities and a regular host of BBC radio and TV programs. His books—which include Her Majesty’s Secret Service; KGB: The Inside Story (with Oleg Gordievsky); and For the President’s Eyes Only—have established him as one of the world’s leading authorities on intelligence history.

About Clive Chafer

Clive Chafer is a professional actor, director, producer, and theater instructor. Originally from England and educated at Leeds and Exeter universities, he has performed and directed at many theaters in the San Francisco area, where he makes his home, and elsewhere in the US. In 1993 he founded TheatreFIRST, Oakland’s professional theater company, where he served as artistic director until 2008. 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Italo on July 15, 2018

This book is a history of intelligence work covering roughly 3000 years of human history. It is a scholarly work (16% is notes, references...) lightened with quick-moving, free-flowing prose. There is plenty of scope for further study, encouraged by the excellent bibliography, and there are lots of......more

Goodreads review by Steve on September 02, 2018

I came to this book, less from an deep interest in codebreaking or espionage, but more because it falls into my favourite genre: Histories of the World From some Interesting Perspective. And of course, intelligence as a human endeavour is very interesting. This is a long book. On the spectrum from sh......more

Goodreads review by Laura ☾ on April 13, 2020

The Secret World is an interesting and comprehensive account of the History of Intelligence, albeit a bit dry and very very long. There were strange segways in parts of the narrative and abrupt changes in argument. Overall this felt very episodic, and no larger picture was painted, and very few conc......more

Goodreads review by Ludwig on August 27, 2023

Puh! Det tog bara hela sommaren. Fantastiskt väldetaljerad bok om underrättelsetjänstens historia. Innehållern fascinerande anekdoter som påvisar att världshistorien inte skulle ha varit detsamma utan underrättelsetjänstens existens (de allierades avledningdmanöver innan dagen D hör till bland det m......more

Quotes

“Comprehensive…Easy to dip into, and surprisingly funny. Spies have an acute sense of the ridiculous and their own absurd and lethal drama.” New York Times Book Review

“The author’s breadth and depth of knowledge are unrivalled.” Sunday Times (London)

“A work accurate, comprehensive, digestible, and startling, and all in a single volume.” Times (London)

“Both brilliant in its sweep and near-miraculous in the detail.” Financial Times (London)

“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.” AudioFile

“Fans of Fleming and Furst will delight in this skillfully related true-fact side of the story.” Kirkus Reviews

“In this extraordinarily ambitious and monumental work, Christopher Andrew brings an enormous amount of detail together in one place so patterns can begin to emerge and readers can appreciate connections and dissimilarities. No other book has come close to what Andrew has done here.” Harvey Klehr, Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus of Politics and History, Emory University

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