Charlottesville Words

Two Reading and Book-signing Events

at New Dominion Bookshop

Wednesday, May 7 at Noon

Frederick Hitz, Why Spy: Espionage in an Age of Uncertainty

Thursday, May 8 at 5:30 pm

Arthur Herman, Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age

Frederick Hitz, Why Spy: Espionage in an Age of Uncertainty: What motivates someone to risk his or her life in the shadowy, often dangerous world of espionage? What are the needs and opportunities for spying amid the “war on terrorism”? And how can the United States recruit spies to inform its struggle with Islamic fundamentalists’ acts of anti-Western jihad?

Drawing on over twenty-five years of experience, Frederick P. Hitz, a former inspector general of the Central Intelligence Agency, guides the reader through the byzantine structure of the U.S. intelligence community (which agency handles what?), traces the careers and pitfalls of such infamous spies as Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames, and explains how the United States must meet the challenges set forth in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. He also describes the transformation of the CIA after the end of the cold war — from 1991 to the present — and outlines a vision for the future of U.S. spying in the twenty-first century.

A fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of international espionage and intelligence, Why Spy? is a must-read not only for fans of Tom Clancy and John le Carré, but for anyone concerned about the security of the United States in a post-cold war, post-9/11 world.

“A useful primer on the new (and greater) challenges to intelligence collection and analysis so different from those of the Cold War. Hitz outlines why the classic motives for recruitment of spies have weakened — even as we become more dependent on good intelligence in coping with the threat of terrorism. As a onetime inspector general at the CIA, he presents his own view regarding the restraints he feels should be imposed on intelligence operations.”

— James R. Schlesinger, former Director of Central Intelligence and Secretary of Defense and of Energy

Frederick P. Hitz, also author of The Great Game: The Myths and Reality of Espionage, was inspector general of the CIA from 1990 to 1998. He also has been a lecturer at Princeton University. He currently teaches at the University of Virginia’s School of Law and Department of Politics.

Arthur Herman, Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age: Although Mohandas Gandhi and Winston Churchill met only once, their paths were set on a collision course from the 1890s through the darkest hours of World War Two. In the end, after decades of struggle and failure, their forty year rivalry sealed the fate of India and the British Empire. Now, bestselling historian Arthur Herman has written a fascinating and meticulously researched new history and the first book to detail the unexplored relationship between these iconic personalities.

Born five years and several thousand miles apart, Gandhi and Churchill couldn’t seem more different— Churchill as a member of one of Britain’s most glamorous and aristocratic families, Gandhi a part of a pious middle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet Gandhi & Churchill reveals how both men were more alike than different, and went on to became bitter enemies over the future of India. In this scrupulously investigated work, Herman illustrates how their titanic contest of wills would decide the fate of nations, continents, peoples, and ultimately an empire. Gandhi & Churchill sets the struggle for Indian independence against the backdrop of the most traumatic episodes of the twentieth century, from the outbreak of the Great War to the end of World War Two, and illustrates how each radically transformed the other—and transformed the lives of these two heroic personalities. The book is illuminated with dozens of photographs and maps, illustrating the swath of power and destruction these men oversaw, and how their power and influence changed the face of the globe.

“Arthur Herman offers a balanced and elegant account which captures both Churchill’s generosity of spirit and Gandhi’s greatness of soul. While recognizing their faults, he shows what motivated them and made them great — with impressive research that in Churchill’s words leaves “no stone unturned, no cutlet uncooked.” The last two chapters, and the author’s Conclusion, are alone worth the price of what must become the standard work on the subject.” — Richard M. Langworth, Editor, Finest Hour, The Churchill Centre

Arthur Herman is the bestselling author of How the Scots Invented the Modern World as well as The Idea of Decline in Western History and To Rule the Waves. He has been a professor of history at Georgetown University, George Mason University, and the University of the South. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Filed under: authors, books, charlottesville, virginia | Tagged: Arthur Herman, Churchill, Frederick Hitz, Gandhi, New Dominion Bookshop, Why Spy