PDF Enemies Within Communists the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain Richard DavenportHines 9780007516698 Books
Download As PDF : Enemies Within Communists the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain Richard DavenportHines 9780007516698 Books
What pushed Blunt, Burgess, Cairncross, Maclean and Philby into Soviet hands?
With access to recently released papers and other neglected documents, this sharp analysis of the intelligence world examines how and why these men and others betrayed their country and what this cost Britain and its allies.
Enemies Within is a new history of the influence of Moscow on Britain told through the stories of those who chose to spy for the Soviet Union. It also challenges entrenched assumptions about abused trust, corruption and Establishment cover-ups that began with the Cambridge Five and the disappearance of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean on the night boat to Saint-Malo in 1951.
In a book that is as intellectually thrilling as it is entertaining and illuminating, Richard Davenport-Hines traces the bonds between individuals, networks and organisations over generations to offer a study of character, both individual and institutional. At its core lie the operative traits of boarding schools, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Intelligence Division, Foreign Office, MI5, MI6 and Moscow Centre.
Davenport-Hines tells many stories of espionage, counter-espionage and treachery. With its vast scope, ambition and scholarship, Enemies Within charts how the undermining of authority, the rejection of expertise and the suspicion of educational advantages began, and how these have transformed the social and political temper of modern Britain.
PDF Enemies Within Communists the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain Richard DavenportHines 9780007516698 Books
"Somewhat of a muddled telling of the history of spying, mostly by the Soviets over the last century and mostly within England. Muddled in the sense the narrative is sometimes hard to follow.
The author holds strong opinions, not all of which are supported by evidence. He definitely writes from an English point of view and is sympathetic to many of the spies and alleged spies, especially those entrapped by perceived sexual misdeeds (alcohol abuse was a much bigger problem). He is not warm to America.
While the Cambridge Spy Ring is the central part of this book, other lesser known episodes of spying are covered. Here the sensationalist actions of an irresponsible media, the overreaction by populist politicians, the mistaken actions of numerous "mole" hunters, the unfounded blame placed by critics on cultural and class elites, are all made part of Richard Davenport-Hines' uneven assessment.
As a small point, I was struck that this was the first book on Soviet espionage that I have read that did not give the middle name of the CIA's counter-intelligence chief, James Jesus Angleton. Here he is simply plain old (and crazy) James Angleton."
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Enemies Within Communists the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain Richard DavenportHines 9780007516698 Books Reviews :
Enemies Within Communists the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain Richard DavenportHines 9780007516698 Books Reviews
- Somewhat of a muddled telling of the history of spying, mostly by the Soviets over the last century and mostly within England. Muddled in the sense the narrative is sometimes hard to follow.
The author holds strong opinions, not all of which are supported by evidence. He definitely writes from an English point of view and is sympathetic to many of the spies and alleged spies, especially those entrapped by perceived sexual misdeeds (alcohol abuse was a much bigger problem). He is not warm to America.
While the Cambridge Spy Ring is the central part of this book, other lesser known episodes of spying are covered. Here the sensationalist actions of an irresponsible media, the overreaction by populist politicians, the mistaken actions of numerous "mole" hunters, the unfounded blame placed by critics on cultural and class elites, are all made part of Richard Davenport-Hines' uneven assessment.
As a small point, I was struck that this was the first book on Soviet espionage that I have read that did not give the middle name of the CIA's counter-intelligence chief, James Jesus Angleton. Here he is simply plain old (and crazy) James Angleton. - Students of the efforts to undermine faith in America's electoral process and democratic institutions by Vladimir Putin and his pseudo-populist friends will find much to interest them in this impressive and provocative book. The author argues against the widespread belief that the so-called Cambridge spies (Burgess, Maclean, and Philby, et. al.) in the 'forties and 'fifties were upper class degenerates who operated and were protected within the shelter of an antiquated and hidebound Establishment. Instead, the author traces the treachery of these spies to the institutions within which they were raised and worked, schools and government agencies dominated, not by upper class bias, "but [by male] gender exclusivity that created the enabling conditions for espionage" in Britain's Foreign Office and intelligence services. The public exposure of these spies beginning in 1951 and the reaction of the British press to these traitors, Davenport-Hynes believes, launched a wave of anti-elite and anti-intellectual fervor that infects Britain to this day "The wrecking of the Establishment [by the Cambridge spies] was a gift to the Kremlin." (457) Food for thought for American readers at a time when many of our major institutions and policies are being challenged at the highest levels of government. The book is incredibly well-researched and the author has an unfailing eye for the right anecdote and telling quote. However, he often becomes prolix and too detailed do we really need to know that when the atomic spy Klaus Fuchs met his Soviet handler that she arrived at the rendezvous "on a bicycle with a wicker child's seat cushioned by a cheerful green pillow embellished with pictures of daisies?" (342) Finally, one error seems to have escaped the author's encyclopedic eye Peter Rhodes, an American who became a communist at Oxford University in the late 'thirties, is mistakenly identified as a Rhodes scholar at Oriel College (212 & 262) when he appears to have held a less exalted graduate fellowship at that college.
- I went into Davenport-Hines’ Enemies Within Communists, Cambridge Spies, and the Making of Modern Britain with my eyes open. I had gotten halfway though his Gothic A History. I won’t go into that book’s issues, but I understood the possibility of like features. Mostly I was interested in the Cambridge Five. Specifically, Blunt and Philby. I imagined D-H’s mammoth work would provide more info than I probably wanted—after all, they’re even mentioned prominently in the subtitle. This suspicion proved true, but somewhat disappointing.
Davenport-Hines has a rather large premise. One that casts its shadow long. He states with a truthfulness I daren’t dispute that the England’s security services until very recently were almost entirely staffed in positions of authority by men. These men got along with each other just swell. They’d go off to the club, enjoy a few dozen snifters apiece, and mostly keep it quiet when a compatriot started aggressively quoting Marx or Lenin and attempted to uncouthly recruit them as the bill arrived. Because the office environment was composed almost entirely of males, a high premium was placed on the values of loyalty, discretion, and avoiding public embarrassment at all possible costs. This gender dominance according to D-H allowed those inclined spying for Russia within the Foreign Office, MI5 & MI6 to escape detection and even allowed them to continue their seditious trade after they were detected. Whenever a spy was discovered and halted, though, the male patriarchy typically attempted to avoid public scandal in the form of a trial. This blueprint of passive passivity worked sufficiently well until Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean decided to take an extended “holiday†to the Soviet Union. Had women been staffed in positions of prominence, almost certainly none of the recruitment, spying, and cover-ups would’ve proceeded as they had. Yes, I can say this is the first history book I’ve read where it felt that the MeToo movement provided more than a little inspiration for its across the board revisionism.
The problem with baldly asserting what men are “likeâ€, then claiming that were women to fill more of their roles things would be different—because ostensibly they’re “unlike†their male counterparts—leads to, well, touchy issues. One might neatly jump from men are loyal, discrete, and non-confrontational, over to women are disloyal, indiscrete, and truculent. D-H clearly means that placing women in positions of influence and power from the 30s on would’ve changed the time-line as to how things ultimately unfolded; but this is a simple truism, not really an informative theory. The exclusion of women from almost all positions of power is a deep fault in itself. Attributing negative qualities to an entire gender often means attributing different negative qualities to the other as well. Another unfortunate feature of Enemies Within is D-H’s persistent debunking of past flabby explanations as to why some Brits spied for the communist cause. D-H writes repeatedly that upper classism had absolutely nothing to do with why the Martin Hari crowd decided to betray their country. To prove it, D-H goes through each spy’s parents’ employment history. Actually, he extends this to non-spies, as well. With the list of folk treated in this five hundred plus page work you’ll soon feel like your reading a nonstop resumé. Now, sure, I could point out that the Cambridge Five all went to University and that confers an inherent degree of prestige whether the person in question went to Eaton or not, or whether his dad cleaned toilets for a living. Sure, I could state in very bad faith that women actually outnumbered the men in the security services—albeit in mostly secretarial slots. Sure, I could point out that the Soviets had numerous female field officers and the “male†qualities of loyalty and discretion were as present in their actions on behalf of the Politburo as it could possibly wish. And, sure, I could gripe that the Big Five aren’t touched on significantly until almost two hundred pages in. But I can’t take away from D-H the incredible amount of information he provides to any reader of Enemies Within. Even if it in the end all buttresses an extremely faulty theory that isn’t really much of one to begin with.
BTW Once you do get to it, the stuff on Burgess, Philby, and Blunt are well worth the price of admission.
