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Mark Stout's book, "World War I and the foundations of American intelligence," provides valuable insights into the achievements and shortcomings of the US intelligence community during World War I. Stout challenges the prevailing narratives that view World War I intelligence as negative and that attribute the foundations of American intelligence primarily to World War II. He argues that modern intelligence for modern warfare emerged during World War I and explores the precedents and key figures that contributed to its development. Stout's research paints a comprehensive picture of the maturing intelligence community during the war and highlights its impact on subsequent intelligence practices. [Extracted from the article]

The 9/11 and WMD controversies have encouraged new trends in CIA historiography. The writing of timely leadership memoirs means that in-house viewpoints now tend to precede outside assessment, eliminating one of intelligence historiography’s distinctive quirks. At the same time, former CIA personnel are far more willing to go on the record with journalists and scholars thus ensuring that their version of events reaches the widest possible audience. Finally, an invasion of British scholars into the field comes with the promise of objectivity conferred by distance. It is argued that, because of that distance, there has been a disposition to rely on the kind of source material that lends itself to a cultural approach to CIA history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]