Our fascination with spies, both real and fictional, seems endless. But when and where did the history of espionage begin, and how has the craft of spying evolved over the centuries? Spies in History is a collection of portraits featuring some of the most famous spies, as well as lesser-known and more surprising figures. Among them are Rahab, the Canaanite woman from the Bible who aided the Israelites before their assault on Jericho; Thomas Phelippes, a brilliant cryptanalyst and master handler of secret agents during the Elizabethan era; and Noël Coward, the renowned playwright and singer who used his celebrity status to influence American public and political opinion in support of Britain during World War II. In this volume, historians, scholars, and writers from around the world examine intelligence operations and espionage from the ancient world through the Cold War and into the era of Putin, Trump, and Xi Jinping. AUTHORS: Paul Lay, senior editor at Engelsberg Ideas and contributor to The Times, The Telegraph, and Literary Review. British historian and academic. He has been professor of early modern British history at the University of Leeds since 2012. Jessica Frazier is a lecturer at Oxford University and the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. She explores philosophical themes of ontology, selfhood and flourishing across cultures. She is the founding editor of the Journal of Hindu Studies, contributes to British media, and her books include Hindu Worldviews: Theories of Self, Ritual and Divinity; Categorisation in Indian Philosophy: Thinking Inside the Box and Reality, Religion, and Passion: Indian and Western Approaches in Hans-Georg Gadamer and Rupa Gosvami.
