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Review Quotes:
Praise for
The American School of Spies
"Talty's fast-paced tale of Nazi antiquity theft during World War II is animated by a cast of colorful characters: an unlikely alliance of soldiers and patrician classicists (turned undercover agents) who came together to save some of the world's greatest artworks."
--The New York Times
"A must read . . . . This compelling book highlights the extraordinary wartime efforts of American and Greek archaeologists and classicists to save the art and artifacts of Greece from the Nazis. A true page-turner,
The American School of Spies tells this fascinating untold story while bringing the time period to life. Reading at times more like a novel than a work of nonfiction, this well-written volume recounts the incredible lengths the unsung heroes of the war went to in order to preserve the cultural heritage of Greece."
--National Herald
"Talty's in-depth account reads like a real-life Indiana Jones story, focusing on the efforts of classicists and archaeologists to save the ancient Greek artifacts from Hitler."
--New York Post
"Stephan Talty's The American School of Spies is a timely peek into the covert machinations that took place behind enemy lines to ensure that the large battles and bombings that we remember were carried out successfully.... This dramatic and engaging story is told with pared back prose and economy. It is a fast-paced journey with many gems and a glorious cast of characters that seem as fantastical as the treasures they fought to protect. As for the archaeological treasures themselves: they were hidden where we should have suspected."
--Cipher Brief
"This is the achievement of Talty's book: to rescue men and women from diplomatic oblivion and tell a story of war from a revealing, unexpected angle. A fast-paced tale of heroic scholar-spies."
--Kirkus
"Entertaining . . . . [A] tribute to the spirit of the Greek people and the allies that came to its aid as darkness fell across Europe."
--The Irish Independent
"Stephan Talty's artfully written
The American School of Spies offers up one of the great previously untold stories of World War II with shrewdly plotted drama and immense narrative flair. It has everything that kept me turning the pages: compelling characters, nail-biting suspense, and I learned a lot about archaeology and Greek art in the process. Just when you think you know where this story is going, it grabs you with a surprising conclusion. I was riveted.
--Howard Blum, New York Times bestselling author of In The Enemy's House and The Spy Who Knew Too Much
"A cloak-and-dagger WWII tale that reads like an Indiana Jones saga, but the story is painfully real. Talty pulls back the curtain on the intricacies of real life espionage, dropping you into the middle of war-torn Greece and a race against time to save the world's greatest antiquities from the clutches of the Nazis. This gripping account, set in the shadow of the ancient Acropolis, will leave you breathless."
-- Christine Kuehn, New York Times bestselling author of Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
"A paean to the men and women who saved the Acropolis and the treasures of Greek civilization from fascist destruction. Gorgeously written as a fast-paced thriller,
The American School of Spies is an urgent reminder of how collective action saved the west and that courage is often found in the most unlikely of places. In this lively true account, a ragtag team of archeologists, a long-forgotten army of Greek Americans, and an American socialite all put themselves behind enemy lines at the height of WWII, fighting in the shadows to save the honor, the history, and the humanity of the Greek people."
--Michelle Young, award-winning author of The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland
"Stephen Talty does it again with an engrossing tale of dedication and resistance. Talty sweeps us along with the tweedy American aristocrats and gritty refugees turned secret operatives, in their fight to save some of the world's most important relics - and Greece itself. With rich insights into the intricacies of spycraft, this is a great read."
--Gregory A. Freeman, author of The Forgotten 500
Biographical Note:
Stephan Talty is the
New York Times bestselling author of
The Black Hand,
The Good Assassin,
Agent Garbo, and
A Captain's Duty, and most recently
Koresh. His books have been made into two films, the Oscar-winning
Captain Phillips and
Only the Brave. He's written for publications including the
New York Times Magazine,
GQ, and
Playboy.
Publisher Marketing:
From the New York Times bestselling author, the incredible true story of the American archaeologists and classicists who went undercover as OSS spies during World War II to fight the Nazis and protect the world's most precious relics
In 1942, as head of the newly formed OSS, Wild Bill Donovan deployed spies across Europe and around the world to try to thwart the Nazis. In Greece, Nazis weren't just taking over territory; they were seizing and threatening to destroy some of the world's most important and valuable historical monuments and artifacts. So, Donovan tapped a young Ivy League-trained archaeologist named Rodney Young to assemble and lead a team of spies to collect intel.
Young set about recruiting the most unlikely of spies--academics, classicists, epigraphers, and other specialists and scholars--who would come to be kown as "the Greek Desk." These men and women, along with their Greek allies, went undercover and tried desperately to protect some of the world's most significant treasures. The archaeologists hid priceless artifacts in ancient caves, bank vaults, and even underneath the city of Athens itself. They created fakes to give over to the Nazis to appease their lust for these remarkable works. Ultimately, when it became clear the cat-and- mouse game on its own wasn't going to save Athens, they brought in an army of Greek American soldiers to beat back the Nazi regime and save their homeland.
Review Citations:
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Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2026 (EAN 9798217044719, Hardcover)
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