This book could be called the Michelin Guide to espionage. The authors take us into the inner workings of secret services.
We discover the often unacknowledged operations of governments. Revolutions, wars, and special operations where the men and women of the shadows are the agents and architects of historical events. We know the history and outcomes of wars, battles, and uprisings.
But while the curious seeker of historical facts is informed about the outcome of a war, they do not have intimate knowledge of it. Is someone who spies a traitor? We will see it’s much more complex, and the authors of this fascinating book help us to discover what lies behind the scenes.
This worldwide history of intelligence allows us to understand the events and grasp their endings better. Why did Franco win the Spanish Civil War? Why did Stalin abandon the Republicans? The question is asked, but the answer is not always what one might think.
This work gives us the tools to understand and answer these two questions, among many others. A valuable book for the historian and indispensable for anyone who wants to know why a battle was won or lost. How was the Enigma cipher machine cracked, the masters of espionage? These men and women, double or even triple agents.
In the 20th century, after the fall of empires in 1918, two ideologies would clash, two totalitarian regimes, two dictatorships, two monstrous entities responsible for the cruelest genocides. It is a race for world domination; these two imperialisms will operate, ally, and fight against each other.
Thierry Jan
