The Second Oldest Profession
Published on 6. November 2003
Book
Paperback/Softback
528 pages
978-1-84413-091-7 (ISBN)
Description
The spy is as old as history but spy services are quite new. Britain founded the first, Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, in dubious circumstances in 1909. Others followed until no country considered itself a nation unless it had a corps of spies. The biggest and most expensive is America's Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, formed as recently as 1947. The CIA's principle enemy was the Soviet Union's KGB, and the clash of these two giants has been the thrilling stuff of history, novels, films and plays. In assessing the real role of the spy, Phillip Knightley brilliantly takes all the real characters of the spies themselves - Mata Hari, Sidney Reilly, Richard Sorge, Kim Philby, George Blake, James Jesus Angleton, Ruth Kuczinsky, the Rosenbergs - and answers the crucial question. Did they make any difference to the course of history? Or was spying the biggest confidence trick of our time?
Reviews / Votes
"A powerful book, a drawing together of twenty years of research and writing; a critical history of intelligence in the twentieth century" Sunday Times "A brilliant and original book that makes sense for the first time of the world of espionage" -- Edward Jay Epstein "As readable as any spy novel, the research thorough and extensive, the book gives an observer's view of British and American intelligence that will make it a standard work for a long time to come" IndependentMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
740 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84413-091-7 (9781844130917)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Phillip Knightley is the author of ten non-fiction books. He is best known for The Second Oldest Profession and The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker. He has met nearly every spy chief on both sides in the spy Cold War and spent one week with the British traitor Kim Philby in Moscow in 1988 debriefing him just before he died. Knightley has also dined with several heads of the KGB, several chiefs of the British Secret Intelligence Service, the Inspector General of the CIA, and the director of its anti-Soviet operations. For twenty years he was a special correspondent of The Sunday Times and a member of the Insight Team. He has served as a representative in Europe for the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and twice been nominated Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards. He spends most of him time writing books and articles for publications around the world. He lives in Britain, India and Australia.