ORDERS

Readings Orders 0

DEMANDS

Readings Demands 0

The Cia: an Imperial History
[Hardback - 2024]
Out of Stock
Availability in 2-4 weeks on receipt of order
List Price: £25
Our Price: Rs.5445 Rs.4900
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.545
Category: Politics
Sub-category: Political Science
Additional Category: North American History
Publisher: Basic Books Uk | ISBN: 9781399816847 | Pages: 384
Shipping Weight: .610 | Dimensions: null

A spectacular achievement Dominic Sandbrook

Fast-paced, absorbing, insightful Simon Hall

Simply superb Kathryn Olmsted

A celebrated British historian of US intelligence explores how the CIA was born in anti-imperialist idealism but swiftly became an instrument of a new covert empire both in America and overseas.

As World War II ended, the United States stood as the dominant power on the world stage. In 1947, to support its new global status, it created the CIA to analyse foreign intelligence. But within a few years, the Agency was engaged in other operations: bolstering pro-American governments, overthrowing nationalist leaders, and surveilling anti-imperial dissenters in the US.

The Cold War was an obvious reason for this transformation - but not the only one. In The CIA, celebrated intelligence historian Hugh Wilford draws on decades of research to show the Agency as part of a larger picture, the history of Western empire. While young CIA officers imagined themselves as British imperial agents like T. E. Lawrence, successive US presidents used the covert powers of the Agency to hide overseas interventions from postcolonial foreigners and anti-imperial Americans alike. Even the CIA s post-9/11 global hunt for terrorists was haunted by the ghosts of empires past.

Comprehensive, original, and gripping, The CIA is the story of the birth of a new imperial order in the shadows. It offers the most complete account yet of how America adopted unaccountable power and secrecy both at home and abroad.

Hugh Wilford is a leading expert on the history of the CIA. Born and educated in the United Kingdom, Hugh Wilford taught at the University of Sheffield before moving to his current position as professor of United States History at California State University, Long Beach. A recipient of awards and fellowships on both sides of the Atlantic, he is the author of five books, including America s Great Game: The CIA s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East and The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America. He lives in Long Beach, California.

Bestsellers in Politics

View All