An Imperial History
A celebrated British historian of US intelligence explores how the CIA was born in anti-imperialist idealism but swiftly became an instrument of a new covert empire both in America and overseas.

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024

'Gripping history that also informs the present' Sunday Times

'Lively and original' The Spectator

'A spectacular achievement' Dominic Sandbrook

'Fast-paced, absorbing, insightful' Simon Hall

'Simply superb' Kathryn Olmsted


The definitive history of how the CIA became the foremost defender of America's covert global empire

As World War II ended, the United States stood as the dominant power on the world stage. In 1947, to support its new global status, it 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 anti-imperial dissenters at home.

The Cold War was an obvious reason for this transformation - but not the only one. In The CIA, celebrated British intelligence historian Hugh Wilford draws on decades of research to show the Agency as part of a larger picture: the history of Western empire. While young CIA officers imagined themselves as British imperial agents like T. E. Lawrence, 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.


Comprehensive, original, and gripping, The CIA is the story of the birth of a new imperial order in the shadows. It offers the most complete account yet of how America adopted unaccountable power and secrecy abroad and at home.