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Historians of the early twentieth century often focus on the surveillance of anarchist, communist, and anti-colonial movements, overlooking the resource-intensive policing of the women's suffrage movement as a significant expansion of the state's surveillance activities. Bridging that gap in the historical record, Watching Women draws on recently declassified Home Office documents to present a fuller picture of the British domestic surveillance practices. The book maps the history of state surveillance of the British women's suffrage movement and its leaders, explaining how militant activists used various forms of writing – novels, short stories, journalism, and memoirs – to represent and resist state surveillance. These genres in the book enable specific, strategic responses to the state's repression of suffrage militancy. The book explores the aftermath of suffrage surveillance by tracing the diverging activist careers of two prominent suffragettes, Sylvia Pankhurst and Mary Allen, during and after World War I, as they continued their engagement with the state's surveillance apparatuses. In doing so, Watching Women illuminates histories of the suffrage campaign through women's experiences of navigating surveillance.

A'savvy study'(Publishers Weekly) and a fascinating exploration of the roles many spy novelists played during World War II and the influence of intelligence work on their writing.World War II deception operations created elaborate fictions and subterfuges to prevent the enemy from apprehending the true targets and objectives of Allied forces. These operations shortened the war considerably and saved countless lives—and they were often invented, proposed, and sometimes executed by creative minds that would come to be known worldwide for their spy novels.In Counterfeit Spies: How World War II Intelligence Operations Shaped Cold War Spy Fiction, Oliver Buckton reveals the involvement of writers in wartime deceptions and shows how those operations would later impact their work. He also examines how the details, personnel, and methods of the GARBO network, Operation Mincemeat, Philby's treason, Operation Bodyguard, and more were translated from real life into spy fiction by these authors, necessitated by the Official Secrets Act which prevented writers from revealing their experiences in memoirs or other nonfiction works. Featuring Ian Fleming, Dennis Wheatley, Graham Greene, Helen MacInnes, John Bingham, and John le Carré, Counterfeit Spies is a captivating examination of the brilliant novelists who took wartime espionage and deception to another level with their enduring works that continue to entertain and fascinate readers today.

“Reveals the extent of MI5's methodical and implacable investigation into the lives of such people as the writer George Orwell.” —UK HistorianDuring the 1930s, the British intelligence agencies became increasingly concerned about Communist influence in the country. They reacted by spying on thousands of ordinary British citizens. Amongst them were many artists and writers who, in tune with “the spirit of the times,” had become sympathetic to left-wing causes, most notably the Spanish Civil War. Telephones were bugged, post opened, homes searched and people encouraged to report suspicious behavior—all reminiscent of the East German Stasi.This book has been written in the light of previously secret files, now available in The National Archives, which indicate the extent of the surveillance and the consequences for those being watched. It focuses on a significant number of writers and artists who were either members of the Communist Party of Great Britain or were suspected of being “fellow travelers.” They include: George Orwell, Stephen Spender, Olivia Manning, Storm Jameson, W.H. Auden, Sylvia Townsend Warner, J.B. Priestley, Doris Lessing, Julian Trevelyan, Randall Swingler, Paul Hogarth, Clive Branson, and James Boswell.The Secret War Against the Arts is a unique account of a dramatic period of modern history, from the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War to the Hungarian uprising in 1956, revealing how MI5 was systematic, unrelenting and uncompromising in its pursuit of artists and writers throughout the period, while failing to see the much more disturbing treachery of others—Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, for example.“A lively and thought-provoking book.” —Penniless Press

Britain's domestic intelligence agencies maintained secret records on many left-wing writers after the First World War. Drawing on recently declassified material from 1930 to 1960, this revealing study examines how leading figures in Britain's literary scene fell under MI5 and Special Branch surveillance, and the surprising extent to which writers became willing participants in the world of covert intelligence and propaganda. Chapters devoted to W. H. Auden and his associates, theatre pioneers Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood, George Orwell and others describe methods used by MI5 to gather information through and about the cultural world. The book also investigates how these covert agencies assessed the political influence of such writers, providing scholars and students of twentieth-century British literature with an unprecedented account of clandestine operations in popular culture.

The Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) was founded in 1974 in response to Director of Central Intelligence James Schlesinger's desire to create within the CIA an organization that could'think through the functions of intelligence and bring the best intellects available to bear on intelligence problems.'The center, comprising professional historians and experienced practitioners, attempts to document lessons learned from past activities, to explore the needs and expectations of intelligence consumers, and to stimulate serious debate about current and future intelligence challenges. This book examines the numerous books and monographs addressing historical, operational, doctrinal and theoretical aspects of the intelligence profession and its relation to modern media.