At the start of World War II, the United States found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and turned to academia for recruits to fill its ranks. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts.
Drawing on her new book, Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II, historian Elyse Graham tells the story of a small but connected group of these humanities scholars. Among them are Joseph Curtiss, a literature professor who hunted down German spies and turned them into double agents; Sherman Kent, a smart-mouthed history professor who rose to become the head of analysis for all of Europe and Africa; and Adele Kibre, an archivist who was sent to Stockholm to acquire documents for the OSS. Along with other unlikely spies, they helped to beat the Nazis and lay the foundations of modern intelligence—as well as transform American higher education when they returned after the war.
Copies of Book and Dagger (Ecco) are available for purchase.
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