The CIA: An Imperial History
Jun 2024 · Hachette UK
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About this ebook
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024
'Gripping history that also informs the present' Sunday Times
'Lively and original' The Spectator
'A spectacular achievement' Dominic Sandbrook
'Fast-paced, absorbing, insightful' Simon Hall
'Simply superb' Kathryn Olmsted
The definitive history of how the CIA became the foremost defender of America's covert global empire
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 at home.
The Cold War was an obvious reason for this transformation - but not the only one. In The CIA, celebrated British 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 abroad and at home.
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024
'Gripping history that also informs the present' Sunday Times
'Lively and original' The Spectator
'A spectacular achievement' Dominic Sandbrook
'Fast-paced, absorbing, insightful' Simon Hall
'Simply superb' Kathryn Olmsted
The definitive history of how the CIA became the foremost defender of America's covert global empire
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 at home.
The Cold War was an obvious reason for this transformation - but not the only one. In The CIA, celebrated British 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 abroad and at home.
About the author
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.
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