Author Elyse Graham will discuss her new book, Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II, the true untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war to defeat the Nazis. 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. Graham is a historian, professor at Stony Brook University, and the author of three books: You Talkin’ to Me?; A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet; and The Republic of Games.

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