Lecture Series: Elyse Graham – Book and Dagger – How Scholars and Librarians became the unlikely Spies of WWII

Elyse Graham – Book and Dagger – How Scholars and Librarians became the unlikely Spies of WWII

Elyse Graham will discuss the untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war.

At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts.

Elyse Graham is an American writer and historian, author of 4 books and teaches at Stony Brook University.