History of Espionage: The Secret World of Spycraft, Sabotage and Post-Truth Propaganda

by Ernest Volkman

The History of Espionage recounts the fascinating story of spies and spying from the cloak-and-dagger machinations of the Ancient Greeks and Romans to the high-tech surveillance operations of the post-9/11, post-truth world. It is a tale of clandestine agents, military scouts, captured documents, dead-letter drops, intercepted mail, decoded telegrams, secret codes and ciphers, bugging devices, desperate plots and honey traps. Featuring case studies on the most fascinating spies and plots through history and illustrated with rare photographs throughout, The History of Espionage decodes the sinister world of surveillance like never before.

Genres: Espionage

208 pages, Hardcover

Published October 6, 2020

About the author

Ernest Wyman Volkman was an American author, investigative reporter, and journalist who wrote about war, espionage, and the criminal underworld. Volkman was a 1959 graduate of Walt Whitman High School in South Huntington, New York, and attended Hofstra University.
A U.S. Army veteran, Volkman was also a military intelligence specialist and wrote many books on the subjects of spies and spying.

Reviews

[David Peddy]

Interesting book .
If you are a culprit you ar hanged not hung
Amazing that a book covering this topic completely omits Sir Francis Walsingham , Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster who dealt with agents, coded correspondence , secret inks ..........

[Peter Lipták · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obsahovo pútavé, ale štýl v niektorých pasážach á la stredoškolský referát. Asi je na čase prestať kupovať knihy v Tescu.

[jeremia Jere Joki-Erkkilä · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alhtough the facts and stories are really interesting, the general layout and the way the book was written lowers the rating from 5 to 3

[Joni · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, though it could have gone into more detail about the spycraft stuff and maybe a more extensive glossary. Maybe Volkman has already written about these same topics in his other books, but I would've liked a more in-depth look at things. I was also surprised that some very succesful covert ops were not mentioned at all, such as Operation Fortitude during WW2. I guess there's only so much you can cover in 203 pages.