SpyMasters

Hugh Wilford joins SpyMasters to talk about his brilliant new book: The CIA, An Imperial History. Hugh is Professor of United States History at California State University, and a leading expert on the history of the CIA.

His new book is a groundbreaking study of the history of the world's most famous intelligence agency. The book places the history of the CIA into a global context, in which the Cold War is a clash of empires.

We talk about the founders of the CIA, the rise of covert action, and the Agency's unique role in American history.

Buy the book: https://amzn.eu/d/0hpxkVpP

Let us know what you think on X: @spymasterspod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oliver Webb-Carter, the editor of Aspects of History, picks his top 5 books and his top 3 films about espionage. Some left-field options here from Oliver! Let us know what you think on X @spymasters

We talk about the new SpyMasters anthology of top spy writing.

And Ollie's picks:

RISE and Kill First, Ronan Bergman. Buy.

Operation Chiffon, Peter Taylor. Buy

The Sympathiser, Viet Thanh Nguyen Buy

Goldfinger, Ian Fleming. Buy

One Day in September, Simon Reeve. Buy

Films:

Zero Days

Living Daylights

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, we talk to Roger Moorhouse, the acclaimed historian of Central and Eastern Europe. Roger's new book, The Forgers, is the fascinating story of how a group of Polish diplomats sought to save Jewish victims of the Holocaust by issuing false passports.

Roger's book also covers the subject of espionage and the holocaust, and how the brave agents of Polish intelligence sought to bring news of the horrific genocide to the outside world. This is the fascinating subject of this week's episode.

https://aspectsofhistory.com/spy-masters-podcasts/

Buy the book here: https://amzn.eu/d/01ZnlVLV

Follow Roger on X: @Roger_Moorhouse

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Top Spy novelist Alex gerlis joins Antonia Senior to talk about his new book, Every Spy a Traitor. The first in a new series, it follows the adventures of two British men who end up working for the NVKD in the run up to WW2.

We talk about the 1930s, the mindset of spies, and the perils of intricate, multi-book plots.

Buy the book: https://amzn.eu/d/fJMM8dx

More on Alex: https://alexgerlis.co.uk/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Top spy novelist Thomas Waugh talks to Antonia Senior about his trilogy featuring the reluctant spy Daniel Ambler. We talk Putin, oligarchs, publishing and more.....

Buy End Game here:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the second of an epic two-part series about the espionage wars between East and West, top intelligence historian Calder Walton talks Putin, disinformation and the decline of the Soviet Union. We talk about how Putin, the former KGB officer, turned his former service into a private mafia army. We turn to the threat from China, whose intelligence gathering operation against the West is on a scale never seen before.

Buy Calder's book here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first of two episodes with Dr Calder Walton. This one looks at the development of the intelligence war between the West and the Soviet Union from 1917, follows the story through the fulcrum period of the Second World War and pushes on into the intense espionage games of the Cold War.

Based at Harvard's Kennedy Business School, Calder Walton is one of the world's leading experts on intelligence and national security.

We talk about Marx, the Great Illegals and the Cambridge Five. We talk about a US administration which was riddled with spies. How did intelligence affect the Cold War? How crucial was Oleg Gordievsky?

Next time, we will be talking about espionage, Russia and the West, beyond the Cold War.

The conversation is an insight into Calder's brilliant, bestselling book. Just out in paperback, SPIES: The epic intelligence war between East and West, is a masterful and comprehensive look at the incredible story of Soviet and Western espionage. The West, Calder argues, has a long term Russia problem. Christopher Andrew called it 'a masterpiece'.

Buy Calder's book: https://amzn.eu/d/08N5KXb

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What was it like to meet Anthony Blunt? How did the British Security Service try to stop Nigel West uncovering its secrets? And what qualities do you need to spend your career delving into the murky, shifting waters of intelligence?

Join Antonia Senior as she quizzes Nigel West about a lifetime writing about intelligence, and his brilliant memoir: Classified!: The Adventures of a Molehunter.

Buy the book here.

https://aspectsofhistory.com/spy-masters-podcasts/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How did August revolutionise Roman intelligence? How connected was Caesar? What intelligence failures dogged the Roman republic?

All these questions answered and more by top novelist, Peter Tonkin.

Buy the the Caesar's Spies' omnibus here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices