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Lyndon Johnson and Richard Helms, framed by a camera shutter.

Is Spying Un-American?

Espionage has always been with us, but its rapid growth over the past century may have undermined trust in government.
by James Santel via The Atlantic on May 8, 2025
Cardinals walking through the Vatican.
partner

Why Papal Conclaves Have Drawn the Attention of Spies

Intelligence agencies have long gathered information to help their governments get a sense of who the next pope might be.
by Yvonnick Denoël via Made By History on May 7, 2025
Josephine Baker and a soldier.

The Superstar Turned Spy Who Fought the Nazis and for Civil Rights

A new book highlights Josephine Baker’s wartime contribution, and how she used her fame to provide cover and promote equal rights.
by Jon Henley via The Guardian on April 6, 2025
Herbert O. Yardley and diplomatic codes from the Black Chamber.

The Spy Who Exposed the Secrets of the Black Chamber

In 1931, Herbert O. Yardley published a tell-all book about his experiences leading a covert government agency called the Cipher Bureau.
by Peter Zablocki via Smithsonian on February 4, 2025
Mugshots of Ethel Rosenberg in 1951.

President Biden Should Pardon Ethel Rosenberg

A newly released classified document shows that the National Security Agency knew Ethel Rosenberg was not a spy—and that the government executed her anyway.
by Phillip Deery via The Nation on January 2, 2025
Parade of U.S. Olympic team members, 1960.

At the 1960 Olympics, American Athletes Recruited by the CIA Tried to Convince Soviets to Defect

Al Cantello, a star of the U.S. track and field team, arranged a covert meeting between a government agent and a Ukrainian long jumper.
by Erik Ofgang via Smithsonian on August 1, 2024

How American Intelligence Was Born in the Trenches of World War I

The Great War forced the US to create a modern spying and analysis apparatus.
by Derek Leebaert via SpyTalk on March 6, 2024
Moe Berg in his baseball uniform holding a catchers glove

The Baseball Player-Turned-Spy Who Went Undercover to Assassinate the Nazis' Top Nuclear Scientist

During World War II, the OSS sent Moe Berg to Europe, where he gathered intel on Germany's efforts to build an atomic bomb.
by Zachary Clary via Smithsonian on August 31, 2023
Black and white photo of a woman's face from the nose down

The True Stories of the Women on the Front Lines of America’s Fledgling Intelligence Services

Adelaide Hawkins was on the forefront of an American experiment that would later be called central intelligence.
by Nathalia Holt via Literary Hub on September 15, 2022
Black-and-white glamour photo of Josephine Baker, smiling in her stage attire.

Josephine Baker Was the Star France Wanted—and the Spy It Needed

When the night-club sensation became a Resistance agent, the Nazis never realized what she was hiding in the spotlight.
by Lauren Michele Jackson via The New Yorker on August 8, 2022
Photograph of Rose Greenhow, right, with her daughter, Rose, at left. She was held in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington with her 8-year-old daughter, “Little Rose,” during the Civil War after repeatedly being caught spying for the Confederacy.

The Most Audacious Confederate Spies — and How They Got Away With It

These men, women and children betrayed the Union and spied for the Confederacy. They're featured in a new online exhibit from the Wall of Spies Experience.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on May 23, 2022
The physicist Klaus Fuchs standing in a group of people.

Why Scientists Become Spies

Access to information only goes so far to explain the curious link between secrets and those who tell them.
by Rivka Galchen via The New Yorker on January 5, 2022
The picture is a photo collage of three men against the background of an atomic bomb explosion. Pictured from left to right is Ed Hall, Ted Hall, and former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

One Brother Gave the Soviets the A-Bomb. The Other Got a Medal.

J. Edgar Hoover had both of them in his sights. Yet neither one was ever arrested. The untold story of how the Hall brothers beat the FBI.
by Dave Lindorff via The Nation on January 4, 2022
André Michaux walking through a landscape of botanical drawings.

The Forgotten French Scientist Who Courted Thomas Jefferson—and Got Pulled Into Scandal

A decade before Lewis and Clark, André Michaux wanted to explore the American continent. Spying for France gave him that chance.
by Shaun Assael via Smithsonian on June 22, 2021
Miniature portrait of Benjamin Tallmadge.

George Washington's Culper Spy Ring: Separating Fact from Fiction

Bill Bleyer dives into the secret Culper Spy Ring during the American Revolution while disproving many of the urban myths surrounding the characters involved.
by Bill Bleyer via Journal of the American Revolution on June 3, 2021
Grave labeled "Pauline C. Fryer, Union Spy"

'UNION SPY': The Forgotten Tale of the Presidio's Most Intriguing Grave

How a spy came to be buried in San Francisco is a forgotten tale of adventure, intrigue, and tragedy.
by Katie Dowd via SFGATE on May 16, 2021

The Intelligence Coup of the Century

For decades, the CIA read the encrypted communications of allies and adversaries.
by Greg Miller via Washington Post on February 11, 2020
Josepine Baker vaudeville cartoon

Josephine Baker: Dancer. Icon. Spy.

The Vaudeville star was at the height of her fame in Europe when WWII struck, and used her status for the allies.
by Bianca Xunise via The Nib on February 23, 2019
James Armistead.

How an Enslaved Man-Turned-Spy Helped Secure Victory at the Battle of Yorktown

James Armistead was an enslaved man who provided critical intel to the Continental Army as a double agent during the Revolutionary War.
by Thaddeus Morgan via HISTORY on April 23, 2018
John le Carre

Coming in from the Cold

On spy fiction.
by Nicholas Dames via n+1 on April 13, 2018

How One Man Helped Burn Down North Korea

The story of one of the most effective and brutal spymasters in U.S. history, and the beginning of an infamous love affair with napalm.
by Blaine Harden via Politico Magazine on October 2, 2017
Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth the First's spymaster.

Open to Inspection

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the age of surveillance.
by Lewis H. Lapham via Lapham’s Quarterly on January 1, 2016
H.A. Smith is sworn in as a first witness at a HUAC hearing.

American Hysteria

Red Scare can be read as solid history of the years it depicts—and chilling prophecy of the years to come.
by Maurice Isserman via Democracy Journal on June 18, 2025
Still from "Monuments Men" of warehouse of items confiscated by Nazis.

Secrets in the Stacks

A new book demonstrates that the skills taught and honed in the humanities are of vital importance to the defense of democracy.
by Richard Ovenden via Public Books on May 22, 2025
President John F. Kennedy's motorcade shortly before his assassination in Dallas.

What the New JFK Files Reveal About the CIA’s Secrets

A presidential lawyer and historian combed through the latest document dump so you don’t have to. Here’s what he found.
by James D. Robenalt via The Hive on March 21, 2025
Frank Wisner's photo covered with official seals.

The Making of a Cold War Spy

The life and work of Frank Wisner, one of the CIA’s founding officers, offers us a portrait of American intelligence’s excesses.
by Adam Hochschild via The Nation on March 11, 2025
An illustration of space, with two silhouettes of heads overlapping.

The Fraught U.S.-Soviet Search for Alien Life

During the Cold War, American and Soviet scientists embarked on an unprecedented quest to contact extraterrestrials.
by Sophie Pinkham via The New Yorker on February 6, 2025
Person using a magnifying glass to examine aerial photographs of naval vessels.

When America’s Top Spies Were Academics and Librarians

How scholars achieved some of the most consequential intelligence victories of the twentieth century.
by Greg Barnhisel via The New Republic on January 16, 2025
Sound waves.

Listening Devices

The veterans of Kagnew Station saw the early growth of the surveillance state. Has the passage of time given them a new understanding of their work?
by Ann Neumann via The Baffler on January 6, 2025
Man burning a picture of Abraham Lincoln.

City on Fire

The night violent anti-government conspirators sowed chaos in the heart of Manhattan.
by Betsy Golden Kellem via The Atavist on September 24, 2024
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