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Books – Authored

A Question of Standing: The History of the CIA (Oxford: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).

The Nazi Spy Ring in America: Hitler’s Agents, the FBI, and the Case that Stirred a Nation (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2020).

Ring of Spies: How MI5 and the FBI Brought Down the Nazis in America (Cheltenham: The History Press, 2020).

We Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).

The American Left: Its Impact on Politics and Society since 1900 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013).

In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western Intelligence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

The FBI: A History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007).

The CIA and American Democracy, 3rd ed. (New Haven. CT: Yale University Press, 2003 [1989]).

Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002).

Peace Now! American Society and the Ending of the Vietnam War (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999).

Changing Differences: Women and the Shaping of American Foreign Policy, 1917-1994 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995).

Violence and Reform in American History (New York: New Viewpoints, 1978).

American Espionage: From Secret Service to CIA (New York: Free Press, 1977).

Books – Edited

With Andrew Lownie, North American Spies: New Revisionist Essays (London: Lume, 2020 [1992]).

With David Stafford, American-British-Canadian Intelligence Relations, 1939-2000 (London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2000).

With Christopher Andrew, Eternal Vigilance? 50 Years of the CIA (London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1997).

Eagle Against Empire: American Opposition to European Imperialism, 1914-1982 (Aix-en-Provence: Publications Université de Provence for European Association for American Studies, 1983).  

With Bruce Collins, The Growth of Federal Power in American History (Edinburgh and DeKalb, IL: Scottish Academic Press and Northern Illinois University Press, 1983).

Other – Since 2015

“The Inside Story of the CIA v Russia – from cold war conspiracy to ‘black’ propaganda in Ukraine” Insights, The Conversation, 25 August 2022: https://theconversation.com/the-inside-story-of-the-cia-v-russia-from-cold-war-conspiracy-to-black-propaganda-in-ukraine-188550

“Allan Pinkerton: Informed Scot or Scottish Informer?” Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, Vol 42, No. 2 (2022): 197-216.

With R. Gerald Hughes, “Timely Memoirs and the ‘British Invasion’: Two Trends in the Historiography of the CIA,” Journal of Intelligence History (23 March 2022 online): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16161262.2022.2051920

“A Forgotten Scandal: How the Nazi Spy Case Affected American Neutrality and German Diplomatic Opinion,” Passport: The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Review (September 2020). Pp. 45-48.

“Leon Turrou: The Greatest Detective of Them All?” Strand Magazine, 10 September 2020: https://strandmag.com/leon-turrou-the-greatest-detective-of-them-all/

“Leon Turrou and the Nazi Spy Ring in America,” The Historian, 82/2 (2020). Pp. 138-55. 

 “Nazispionnen in Washington, 1937”, Geschiedenis Magazine, 55/5 ((July/August 2020): 20-24.

 “What Burleson and Orwell Overlooked: Private Security Provision in the United States and the United Kingdom,” in David Churchill, Dolores Janiewski and Pieter Leloup, eds., Private Security and Modern States: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2020). Pp. 214-31.

“Learning the Scholar’s Craft: A Journey with Enid Jones, John Hope Franklin, Sir Denis Brogan, Sidney Fine, and Oscar Handlin,” H-DIPLO, Essay 221, 29 April 2020: https://hdiplo.org/to/E221

"American Espionage: Lessons from the Past," The Brown Journal of World Affairs, 26/1 (Fall/Winter 2019): 93-106. http://bjwa.brown.edu/26-1/american-espionage-lessons-from-history/

“The Sensitivity of SIGINT: Sir Alfred Ewing’s Lecture on Room 40 in 1927,” Journal of Intelligence History, 17/1 (2018). Pp. 18-29. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/D6ssbrVHDtJWZ8rbjFrs/full

“Forcing Out Unwanted FBI Directors: A Brief, Messy History”, Vox, 23 May 2017. https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/5/23/15680508/firing-fbi-directors-comey-trump-hoover-sessions

"Hector Davis: A Liberal at War," History, 102/350 (April 2017): 242-58.

"Verraden," Geschiedenis Magazine (January/February 2017): 45-49.

“A brief history of the FBI’s meddling in US politics”, Vox, 5 November 2016. http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/11/5/13533838/history-fbi-meddling-politics-comey

"Antecedents and Memory as Factors in the Creation of the CIA," Diplomatic History, 40/1 (January 2016): 140-54.

"State Surveillance is More Ethical than Private-Sector Intrusions," Wired (January/February 2016): 97.

"Inter-Allied Commando Intelligence and Security Training in Gwynedd: The Coates Memoir," Intelligence and National Security, 30/4 (August 2015): 545-59

"The Death of a Myth: How Socialism and the Left Succeeded in America," Reviews in American History, 43 (June 2015): 281-87.

Other – selected pre-2015

"Jessie Jordan: A Rejected Scot who Spied for Germany and Hastened America's Flight from Neutrality," The Historian, 76/4 (Winter 2014): 766-83

“Eine Frage der Etikette – und Stratagie: Die gegen Deutschland gerichtete Spionage zeugt von amerianischer Unreife”, Internationale Politike, 69/5 (September/October 2014): 74-77

“Allies Have Always Spied on Each Other”, New York Times, 25 October 2013: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/10/24/if-were-spying-are-we-still-allies/allies-have-always-spied-on-each-other

“A Critique of the Surveillance Flap”, e-International Relations, 30 June 2013. http://www.e-ir.info/2013/06/30/a-critique-of-the-surveillance-flap/

“The top 10 classic spy novels”. Guardian, 26 June 2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/26/classic-spy-novels-top-10

“Presidential and Prime Ministerial Women in the Americas: A List with Interpretations,” History of Women in the Americas, 1/1 (2013). Pp. 1-16. http://journals.sas.ac.uk/hwa/article/view/1688/15657

“The End of an Exclusive Special Intelligence Relationship: British-American Intelligence Co-operation Before, During and After the 1960s,” Intelligence and National Security, 27/5 (October 2012). Pp. 706-720.

“Angleton’s Self-Validating Fallacy”, Diplomatic History, 34 (September 2010). Pp. 761-64.


 “Changes in the Nomenclature of the American Left,” Journal of American Studies, 44/1 (February 2010). Pp. 83-100.

“Organised Labour and the Social Foundations of American Diplomacy, 1898-1920.” In Andrew Johnstone and Helen Laville, eds., The U.S. Public and American Foreign Policy (London: Routledge, 2010). Pp. 59-72.

“The Antiwar Activists.” In Mitchell K. Hall, ed., Vietnam War Era: People and Perspectives (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2009). Pp. 61-78

 “Bureaucracy or Censorship? An Experience with the FBI,” Passport: The Newsletter of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 39 (September 2008). P. 47.



“Rise, Fall and Regeneration: From CIA to EU,” Intelligence and National Security, 24/1 (February 2008). Pp. 103-118.



“Commentary: Loch Johnson’s Oral History Interview with William Colby, and Johnson’s Introduction to that Interview,” in R. Gerald Hughes, Peter Jackson and Len Scott, eds., Exploring Intelligence Archives: Enquiries into the Secret State (New York: Routledge, 2008). Pp. 270-73.



 “The Historiography of the FBI,” in Loch Johnson, ed., A Handbook of Intelligence (New York: Routledge, 2006). Pp. 39-51.



“The Idea of a European FBI,” in Loch Johnson, ed., Strategic Intelligence, 5 vols. Vol. 4: Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism (New York: Praeger, 2006). Pp. 73-96.



“Europol and the FBI: Scope for Mutual Learning,” Euobserver, 25 September 2006



“Murder by Index Card: William Colby and the American Tradition of Atrocity Denial,” Diplomatic History, 28 (November 2004). Pp. 805-809.



“Wiseman, Sir George Eden (1885-1962),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), vol. 59. Pp. 850-51.



“Women and Antiwar Activism,” in Robert J. McMahon, ed., Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War, 3rd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003). Pp. 460-66.



“Man of the People? JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Reviews in American History, 30 (September 2002). Pp. 486-91.



“William Colby (1920-1996),” in American National Biography, Supplement 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). Pp. 117-118.



 “The Role of British Intelligence in the Mythologies Underpinning the OSS and Early CIA,” Intelligence and National Security, 15 (Summer 2000). Pp. 5-19.  

 “Dorothy Detzer,” in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., AMERICAN NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), VI. Pp. 492-494.

“Why Was the CIA Established in 1947?” Intelligence and National Security, 12 (January 1997). Pp. 21-40.

As project manager, with Philip Cullis, Lawrence Smith, Tom Velek and Patrick Mescall. “The Use of Computers in Teaching American History”, History, 81 (January 1996). Pp. 55-64.

“Massachusetts Labor, Henry Cabot Lodge, and the Abortion of Empire,” in Serge Ricard and Hélène Christol, eds., Anglo-Saxonism in U.S. Foreign Policy: The Diplomacy of Imperialism, 1899-1919 (Aix: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1991) Pp. 25-47.

"Lord Lothian: Ambassador 'To a People'," in John Turner, ed., The Larger Idea: Lord Lothian and the Problem of National Sovereignty (London: Historians' Press, 1988) Pp. 77-92.

 "The CIA and the Demise of Anti-Anti-Americanism: Some Evidence and Reflections," in Rob Kroes and Maarten van Rossem, eds., Anti-Americanism in Europe, European Contributions to American Studies, vol. 11 (Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1986) Pp. 121-136

“The Teaching of United States History in British Institutions of Higher Learning," in Lewis Hanke, ed., Guide to the Study of United States History Outside the U.S., 1945-1980, 5 vols. (White Plains, N.Y.: Kraus International for American Historical Association, 1985), II. Pp.305-62

“The Socio-Educational Composition of the CIA Elite: A Statistical Note,” Journal of American Studies, 19 (December, 1985). Pp.421-424.

"American Neo-Conservatism and Foreign Policy," in Rob Kroes, ed., Neo-conservatism: Its Emergence in the USA and Europe, European Contributions to American Studies, vol. 7 (Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1984). Pp.63-80.

"Ethnic and Occupational Influences on American Diplomacy, 1898-1973: Was there a 'Women's Foreign Policy'?" in G. Rystad, ed., Congress and American Foreign Policy, Lund Studies in International History (Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen: Scandinavian Universities Press, 1981). Pp.49-62, 137-38.

"Theories of American Labour Violence," Journal of American Studies, 13 (August, 1979). Pp.233-248.

"Soziale Folgen der Industrialisierung, Imperialismus und der Weltkrieg 1890-1920," in W.P. Adams, ed., Die Vereinigten Staaten (Vol. 30 in Fischer Verlag world history series, Frankfurt am Main, 1977). Pp.235-82.

"W. Somerset Maugham: Anglo-American Agent in Revolutionary Russia," American Quarterly, 28 (Spring, 1976). Pp.90-106.

"Massachusetts Labour and the League of Nations Controversy," Irish Historical Studies, 19 (September, 1975). Pp.90-106.

"George Bernard Shaw and the United States of America," New Edinburgh Review, 29 (April, 1975). Pp. 32-34.

"The Montreal Spy Ring of 1898 and the Origins of 'Domestic' Surveillance in the United States," The Canadian Review of American Studies, 5 (Fall, 1974). Pp.119-34.

"Violence in American History: Plug Uglies in the Progressive Era," Perspectives in American History, 8 (1974). Pp. 465-583.

"Profit over Class: A Study in American Industrial Espionage," Journal of American Studies, 6 (December, 1972). Pp. 233-48.