AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: British Intelligence in the Second World War by F. H. Hinsley ISBN: 0-521-44304-0 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1993 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $60.00

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: The OFFICIAL History
Comment: For over thirty years after the end of World War II, the real history of Allied military intelligence remained hidden from the public and from all but the smallest handful of historians. The many thousands, who during the war were "in the know," kept these deep secrets from even their closest families.

The two darkest secrets of the Allied intelligence war against the Nazis remained concealed until the mid-1970s. These were the "doubling" of every Nazi agent in Great Britain in the "Double Cross" deception operation, and, more significantly, the cracking of the Nazi's Enigma cypher messages. These two master-strokes of espionage and intelligence were first leaked in a few memoirs in the mid-1970s (e.g., Winterbottom, Jones, Montagu, & Masterman), then released in a flood of revised war histories (e.g., Lewin, Bennett). Finally, the British commissioned the massive multi-volume series, "Official History of British Intelligence" since all previous "official histories" were, to put it bluntly, mostly rubbish in light of these revelations.

Harry Hinsley, a young scholar at Cambridge when the war began, became an Enigma code-breaker at Bletchley Park, one of those thousands who produced the decrypts and intelligence analysis that came to be known as the ULTRA Secret. Decades later, as the trickle of WWII memoirs turned into a flood of revised histories, the British Government commissioned then-Professor Hinsley to author the "official" version of these most secret operations and their impact on the war.

This abridged volume has the virtue of capturing the essence of the original 5+ volumes, now out-of-print, each originally priced at about $50. (Other volumes in the "official" series are still being released.) This abridged volume of the official history is ideal for busy professionals in military history and scholars of the intelligence business. Only the most diligent scholars will resort to the original volumes (and those will ultimately consult the sources and arcanae in the British Public Record Office archives). So, if you pretty much already know the inside stories behind these secret goings-on, Sir Harry Hinsley's abridged version is quite useful as a packable scholar's summary (for that trip to the Public Record Office?) and a guidebook for your personal historical research.

Which is another way to say this volume is too dry, detailed, and arcane for the average reader. Far more readable volumes cover the secret history of World War III for the average reader. Start with Ronald Lewin, David Kahn, Ralph Bennett, Anthony Cave Brown, Ewen Montagu, or R. V. Jones for more readable and accessible memoirs and histories. Enjoy these and then seek out Sir Harry's abridged official resource for intelligence and historical professionals.