Those of you with an hour to spare should listen to Stephen Budiansky talk about his new book, Her Majesty’s Spymaster on C-Span/BookTV. The speech is available online here and you can listen using Real player. (EDIT: Link updated)
The book is about Sir Francis Walsingham, the first spymaster in Elizabethan England and the father of modern espionage tactics. He served as Queen Elizabeth I’s principle secretary and used his position to spy against Spain and France. To use my own words, the man is like the Machiavelli of intelligence. Budiansky shows how Walsingham introduced espionage to Britain using torture, double agents, assasinations, networking, rumor spreading, and more. Check it out.

Comments to this entry
lane
September 20, 2005
5:37 am
Curzon
September 20, 2005
5:41 am
It's back up now; "this link is working.":http://www.booktv.org/history/index.asp?schedid=377&segid=6114
lane
September 20, 2005
5:50 am
Stygius
September 20, 2005
7:37 pm
Younghusband
September 22, 2005
2:05 am