Classical spies
Subtitle: American archaeologists with the OSS in World War II Greece
By: Susan Heuck Allen
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Ann Arbor
Language: eng
Number of pages: 430
ISBN-13: 9780472117697; 9780472027668
Subjects: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology; Spies; United States; Secret service; World War, 1939-1945; Archaeologists; United States. Office of Strategic Services; HISTORY / Military / World War II; Espionage; History
Description: "Classical Spies will be a lasting contribution to the discipline and will stimulate further research. Susan Heuck Allen presents to a wide readership a topic of interest that is important and has been neglected." -William M. Calder III, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Classical Spies is the first insiders' account of the operations of the American intelligence service in World War II Greece. Initiated by archaeologists in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, the network drew on scholars' personal contacts and knowledge of languages and terrain. While modern readers might think Indiana Jones is just a fantasy character, Classical Spies discloses events where even Indy would feel at home: burying Athenian dig records in an Egyptian tomb, activating prep-school connections to establish spies code-named Vulture and Chickadee, and organizing parachute drops.Susan Heuck Allen reveals remarkable details about a remarkable group of individuals. Often mistaken for mild-mannered professors and scholars, such archaeologists as Princeton's Rodney Young, Cincinnati's Jack Caskey and Carl Blegen, Yale's Jerry Sperling and Dorothy Cox, and Bryn Mawr's Virginia Grace proved their mettle as effective spies in an intriguing game of cat and mouse with their Nazi counterparts. Relying on interviews with individuals sharing their stories for the first time, previously unpublished secret documents, private diaries and letters, and personal photographs, Classical Spies offers an exciting and personal perspective on the history of World War II"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.