Welcome to the world of the spy - a world that most of us associate with popular fiction and film but the true story of which is more fascinating, surprising, and important than you could possibly imagine. These 24 thrilling lectures are your chance to take an unforgettable tour of the millennia-long history and enduring legacy of this top-secret subject. Filled with stories that are both marvelous and mysterious, and insights that will change the way you think about some of world history's most defining events, these lectures let you peer inside a subject whose truths most people are unaware of. You'll delve into distinct periods of history that were shaped by espionage and that, in turn, shaped how spies and covert organizations executed their missions. And you'll discover the covert organizations responsible for both acquiring information from the other side and protecting their information from being stolen, including MI6, the CIA, and Mossad. You'll also meet the individual men and women who served as spies, including Sir Francis Walsingham, who built the institutional bases for intelligence services in Elizabethan England; and Mata Hari, the “femme fatale” who secured information for French and German intelligence through means of seduction. These lectures never shy away from asking tough questions about espionage, including the psychological motives behind spies, and the ethics of cyber warfare and corporate espionage.
