The CIA by Hugh Wilford

‘Gripping history that also informs the present’ Sunday Times

‘Fascinating . . . Wilford writes engagingly with a telling eye for colourful detail’ The Spectator

‘A spectacular achievement . . . I loved it’ Dominic Sandbrook

How the CIA became an instrument of a new covert empire both in America and overseas.

In 1947, the United States created the CIA to analyse foreign intelligence, but within a few years the Agency was engaged in other operations – bolstering pro-American governments, overthrowing nationalist leaders, and surveilling domestic dissent – before transforming during the Cold War.

Drawing on decades of research, celebrated intelligence historian Hugh Wilford shows how the Agency created a new Western empire, as successive US presidents used the covert powers of the Agency to hide overseas interventions from postcolonial foreigners and anti-imperial Americans alike. Even the CIA’s post-9/11 global hunt for terrorists was haunted by the ghosts of empires past.

Original, and gripping, The CIA tells how America adopted unaccountable power and created a new imperial order.

How the CIA became an instrument of a new covert empire both in America and overseas.

About the Author: Born and educated in the United Kingdom, Hugh Wilford taught at the University of Sheffield before moving to his current position as professor of United States History at California State University, Long Beach. A recipient of awards and fellowships on both sides of the Atlantic, he is the author of five books, including America’s Great Game: The CIA’s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East and The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America. He lives in Long Beach, California.

05 Jun 2025
 

The CIA: An Imperial History by Hugh Wilford ISBN 9781399816861