Join us for an engaging evening featuring a book talk and Q&A with guest speaker Peter C. Grace
Event Details
The King's Centre for the Study of Intelligence is delighted to host a special event to celebrate the publication of Peter Grace's new book. The event will feature a 90-minute book talk and Q&A with the author moderated by Celia Parker-Vincent.
About the Book Talk
Arriving at CIA in late 1950, Sherman Kent admitted he was unprepared for the task of estimative intelligence and suffered (and continued to suffer for his whole career) from imposter syndrome. Just weeks before he began his long career at CIA, George Marshall had instructed the Agency he wanted 7-10 days warning of the imminence of hostilities and an indication of which bases the nuclear missiles would be fired from 12-48 hours before an attack. The stakes for Sherman Kent, William Langer and the assembled scholars at the Office of National Estimates were very high indeed.
Peter Grace will talk about his new book: The Intelligence Intellectuals. Social Scientists and the Making of the CIA (Georgetown University Press), with particular reference to the professors who came to CIA in 1950 who set about creating a civilian strategic intelligence discipline. What did they understand about the promise of social science for intelligence analysis, and how confident were they they could turn CIA's reputation around after a series of well publicised "intelligence failures"? David Engerman claims The Intelligence Intellectuals is "essential reading", Richard Aldrich says it is "arrestingly well researched and rich in biographical detail", and James Wirtz has called it a "brilliant history (which) addresses the issues and personalities which shaped the creation of the CIA".