Female Intelligence : Women and Espionage in the First World War / Tammy M. Proctor.
2003
D639.S7 P76 2003
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Title
Female Intelligence : Women and Espionage in the First World War / Tammy M. Proctor.
Author
ISBN
9780814771457
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2003]
Copyright
©2003
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Item Number
10.18574/nyu/9780814771457.001.0001 doi
Call Number
D639.S7 P76 2003
Dewey Decimal Classification
940.48641082
Summary
When the Germans invaded her small Belgian village in 1914, Marthe Cnockaert's home was burned and her family separated. After getting a job at a German hospital, and winning the Iron Cross for her service to the Reich, she was approached by a neighbor and invited to become an intelligence agent for the British. Not without trepidation, Cnockaert embarked on a career as a spy, providing information and engaging in sabotage before her capture and imprisonment in 1916. After the war, she was paid and decorated by a grateful British government for her service.Cnockaert's is only one of the surprising and gripping stories that comprise Female Intelligence. This is the first history of the female spies who served Britain during World War I, focusing on both the powerful cultural images of these women and the realities, challenges, and contradictions of intelligence service. Between the founding of modern British intelligence organizations in 1909 and the demobilization of 1919, more than 6,000 women served the British government in either civil or military occupations as members of the intelligence community. These women performed a variety of services, and they represented an astonishing diversity of nationality, age, and class. From Aphra Behn, who spied for the British government in the seventeenth century, to the most well known example, Mata Hari, female spies have a long history, existing in juxtaposition to the folkloric notion of women as chatty, gossipy, and indiscreet. Using personal accounts, letters, official documents and newspaper reports, Female Intelligence interrogates different, and apparently contradictory, constructions of gender in the competing spheres of espionage activity.
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Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Preface
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Timeline
Introduction
1 Intelligence before the Great War
2 DORA's Women and the Enemy within Britain
3 Women behind the Scenes
4 Soldiers without Uniforms
5 Spies Who Knew How to Die
6 Intimate Traffic with the Enemy
Conclusion "Perpetual Concubinage to Your King and Country"
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Contents
Preface
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Timeline
Introduction
1 Intelligence before the Great War
2 DORA's Women and the Enemy within Britain
3 Women behind the Scenes
4 Soldiers without Uniforms
5 Spies Who Knew How to Die
6 Intimate Traffic with the Enemy
Conclusion "Perpetual Concubinage to Your King and Country"
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author