Books like The devil's chessboard by David Talbot

A comprehensive nonfiction narrative tracing the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, al‑Qaida, and U.S. intelligence failures leading to the 9/11 attacks.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man reveals how U.S. officials and corporations allegedly shaped global economics to the detriment of developing nations.

A biography of Oleg Gordievsky, the Soviet double‑agent who, while working undercover in the KGB, supplied MI6 with critical intelligence that accelerated the collapse of the Cold War.

Shoshana Zuboff explains how digital data is turned into a new market form—surveillance capitalism—where corporations predict and shape behavior for profit, reshaping power, privacy, and democracy in the digital age.

Jane Mayer investigates how a network of wealthy right‑wing ideologues, led by figures like the Kochs and the Scaifes, pours billions into the U.S. political system to shape policy and expand economic inequality.

A rigorous exposé of the National Security Agency’s evolution after 9/11, detailing how its expanded electronic surveillance of American citizens has altered civil liberties and national security policy.

James Jesus Angleton, CIA spymaster and powerful unelected official, wielded hidden influence from WWII through the Cold War, overseeing MKULTRA, surveillance of Americans, and the hunt for Soviet moles, while engaging in controversial political and intelligence actions.

Drawing on extensive interviews with Ames' widow and quotes from his private letters, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer presents a brilliant narrative of the making of America's most influential and effective intelligence officer in the Middle East. The Good Spy is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird's compelling portrait of the remarkable life and death of one of the most important operatives in CIA history - a man who, had he lived, might have helped heal the rift between Arabs and the West. On April 18, 1983, a bomb exploded outside the American Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people. The attack was a geopolitical turning point. It marked the beginning of Hezbollah as a political force, but even more important, it eliminated America's most influential and effective intelligence officer in the Middle East - CIA operative Robert Ames. What set Ames apart from his peers was his extraordinary ability to form deep, meaningful connections with key Arab intelligence figures. Some operatives relied on threats and subterfuge, but Ames worked by building friendships and emphasizing shared values - never more notably than with Yasir Arafat's charismatic intelligence chief and heir apparent Ali Hassan Salameh (aka "The Red Prince"). Ames' deepening relationship with Salameh held the potential for a lasting peace. Within a few years, though, both men were killed by assassins, and America's relations with the Arab world began heading down a path that culminated in 9/11, the War on Terror, and the current fog of mistrust. Bird, who as a child lived in the Beirut Embassy and knew Ames as a neighbor when he was twelve years old, spent years researching The Good Spy. Not only does the book draw on hours of interviews with Ames' widow, and quotes from hundreds of Ames' private letters, it's woven from interviews with scores of current and former American, Israeli, and Palestinian intelligence officers as well as other players in the Middle East "Great Game." What emerges is a masterpiece-level narrative of the making of a CIA officer, a uniquely insightful history of twentieth-century conflict in the Middle East, and an absorbing hour-by-hour account of the Beirut Embassy bombing. Even more impressive, Bird draws on his reporter's skills to deliver a full dossier on the bombers and expose the shocking truth of where the attack's mastermind resides today. -- Publisher description

John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen Dulles, key figures in U.S. foreign policy and CIA leadership during the early Cold War, are examined in a joint biography.

Allen Dulles, master spymaster and former CIA director, emerges from decades of secrecy as a pivotal figure in 20th‑century U.S. intelligence, diplomacy, and presidential history.

The Venona secret US army project of the 1940's was a monumental achievement in this history of American code breaking and one of the America's most closely guarded secrets. This book exposes the greatest domestic counter-espionage operation that has ever been launched against the Soviet Union.