Spies on the Sidelines


Book Description

The first book to fully explore the extraordinary covert actions NFL teams are willing to take in order to win. Spies disguised as priests. Secret surveillance of targets’ movements. Radio frequency jamming. Tapped telephones. These might sound like acts of espionage right out of the Cold War or a spy movie—but in fact came straight from the National Football League. In Spies on the Sidelines: The High-Stakes World of NFL Espionage, Kevin Bryant provides the first in-depth investigation of spying in professional football, as well as the countermeasures utilized to defend against these threats. Spanning across all teams and eras, Bryant shines a light on the shady world of NFL reconnaissance—from clandestine photography and hidden draft prospects to listening devices and stolen documents—along with the permissible, if sometimes questionable, spy techniques teams utilize day in and day out to gain an advantage over their opponents. Written by a former Special Agent with decades of experience collecting and safeguarding information for the Department of Defense, Spies on the Sidelines reveals that, behind the game-day action, professional football can be as cloak-and-dagger as American intelligence agencies. This fascinating and expansive compilation of NFL spy anecdotes exposes the extraordinary measures teams are willing to take in order to win.




Beyond States and Spies


Book Description

Scholars have long viewed intelligence as the preserve of nation states. Where the term 'private sector intelligence' is used, the focus has been overwhelmingly on government contractors. As such, a crucial aspect of intelligence power has been overlooked: the use of intelligence by corporations to navigate and influence the world. Where there has been academic scrutiny of the field, it is seen as a post-9/11 phenomenon, and that a state monopoly of intelligence has been eroded. Beyond States and Spies demonstrates - through original research - that such a monopoly never existed. Private sector intelligence is at least as old as the organised intelligence activities of the nation state. The book offers a comparative examination of private and public intelligence, and makes a compelling case for understanding the dangers posed by unregulated intelligence in private hands. Overall, this casts new light on a hitherto under investigated academic space.




Spies in the Vatican


Book Description

Ranging across two centuries of world history, Alvarez's fascinating study throws open the Vatican's doors to reveal the startling but little-known world of espionage in one of the most sacred places on earth.




American Spy


Book Description

“American Spy updates the espionage thriller with blazing originality.”—Entertainment Weekly “There has never been anything like it.”—Marlon James, GQ “So much fun . . . Like the best of John le Carré, it’s extremely tough to put down.”—NPR NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • Entertainment Weekly • Esquire • BuzzFeed • Vulture • Real Simple • Good Housekeeping • The New York Public Library What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love? It’s 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She’s brilliant, but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys’ club. Her career has stalled out, she’s overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Sankara is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving the mysterious death of her sister, whose example led Marie to this career path in the first place. Yes, even though a furious part of her suspects she’s being offered the job because of her appearance and not her talent. In the year that follows, Marie will observe Sankara, seduce him, and ultimately have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American. Inspired by true events—Thomas Sankara is known as “Africa’s Che Guevara”—American Spy knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance. This is a face of the Cold War you’ve never seen before, and it introduces a powerful new literary voice. NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD • Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize “Spy fiction plus allegory, and a splash of pan-Africanism. What could go wrong? As it happens, very little. Clever, bracing, darkly funny, and really, really good.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates “Inspired by real events, this espionage thriller ticks all the right boxes, delivering a sexually charged interrogation of both politics and race.”—Esquire “Echoing the stoic cynicism of Hurston and Ellison, and the verve of Conan Doyle, American Spy lays our complicities—political, racial, and sexual—bare. Packed with unforgettable characters, it’s a stunning book, timely as it is timeless.”—Paul Beatty, Man Booker Prizewinning author of The Sellout




For Pride, Profit, and Patriarchy


Book Description

Sports history has emerged as a popular study over the past quarter century, and scholars have fueled this interest by providing a wealth of information on baseball and its role in American culture. Despite this increasing focus on the connection between sports and societal values, football, the sport that emerged in the late nineteenth century and merged the values of winning and commercialization with the culture of higher education, has been left relatively unexplored. This gap in sports history has left many questions unanswered, including football's link to American cultural values. Gerald R. Gems has filled this gap in sports history with his latest title, For Pride, Profit, and Patriarchy: Football and the Incorporation of American Cultural Values. This intriguing resource covers a host of issues including the rise of football, football and feminism, militarism and leadership training, and multiculturalism in football. A broad and comprehensive analysis of the ways in which football addressed the cultural and ideological tensions within American society during its period of development and consolidation after the Civil War, this study is ideal for everyone from the football enthusiast to the general reader.




The Quiz Book for Spies


Book Description

Get in touch with your inner spy in this fun quiz book for agents-in-training! Most kids think they are smart, sneaky and stealthy enough to be a super-spy, and at long last, here's a book to let them prove it once and for all! Readers can determine if they have what it takes to be a super-spy -- are they smart, sneaky, stealthy? Do they like their milkshakes shaken, not stirred? Are they suited to a life of high-intrigue or should they take on their school's gossip blog? Is this a fun quiz book or is CSIS recruiting young? Our lips are sealed.




The Gentleman Spy


Book Description

He only wanted a duchess for a day--but she's determined to make it a marriage for life When his father and older brother suddenly pass away, the new Duke of Haverly is saddled with a title he never expected to bear. To thwart the plans of his scheming family, the duke impulsively marries a wallflower. After all, she's meek and mild; it should be easy to sequester her in the country and get on with his life--as a secret agent for the Crown. But his bride has other ideas. She's determined to take her place not only as his duchess but as his wife. As a duchess, she can use her position to help the lowest of society--the women forced into prostitution because they have no skills or hope. Her endeavors are not met favorably in society, nor by her husband who wishes she'd remain in the background as he ordered. Can the duke succeed in relegating her to the sidelines of his life? When his secrets are threatened with exposure, will his new wife be an asset or a liability?




The Nili Spies


Book Description

An extraordinary tale, much-neglected by historians, of courage, bravery and eventual tragedy which took place during the First World War in the Middle East. It is the story of a small group of people, of whom Sarah and Aaron Aaronsohn were the core, who were devoted to the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine, and who were convinced that it was in imminent danger of extinction from the Turks.They resolved to help the British in Egypt by collecting military intelligence. Unfortunately, as Peter Calvocoressi points out, their understanding of the British position was quite wrong...[their] miscalculations created the tragedy which this book recounts...'




A View from the Sidelines


Book Description

The great and the good, the powerful and the feared end up, to misquote Enoch Powell, "lonely, bitter and alone at home". In A View from the Sidelines, Michael Shea offers a behind-the-scenes account of his years with presidents, monarchs, captains of industry, film stars, secret agents and their hangers-on.




Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Spoonful of Spying


Book Description

Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire will whisk you away on a fabulous adventure, full of daring action and delicious cakes! Baker by day, spy by night - Alice Éclair leads an exciting double life! Inventors and artists from all nations have gathered in Paris for the World Fair. All eyes are on the aeroplane exhibition - these incredible machines will take humanity to new heights! Alice suspects that some of these inventors are in terrible danger, but no one will believe her. Surrounded by enemy spies, Alice will need to use every trick in the recipe book if she's to keep her friends safe and stop France's greatest invention from falling into the wrong hands. With a half-baked plan and a dash of daring, Alice must foil the enemy's plot before the whole thing boils over... A Spoonful of Spying is Alice's second adventure and can be read as a stand-alone novel, or enjoyed as part of the Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire series. Look out for Alice's first mission, A Recipe for Trouble! Perfect for fans of Robin Stevens' Murder Most Unladylike series and M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman's Adventures on Trains series.