I thought that too, but he told me that at his home a few days ago, with his wife Laura sitting next to me. He was born in 1942, and she a few years later. She rolled her eyes when he said it, but I think she found it amusing. And the photo he took in the early 60s. So he’s got away with it so far.
Well, like the good social scientist I am, I can answer that equivocally. The photo was taken by the son, not the famous father, and it was the son who thought the pinup girl looked like his own wife. Whether the father thought the pin up girl looked like his son’s wife, we are not told. I doubt it.
Inside CIA: another photo from
Sherman Kent Jnr. This time one he took of his father’s office inside CIA, presumably Langley. The pin up girl is an SAS airlines calendar, which Sherman Jnr commented he liked, because it looked like his wife Laura.
A great day in D.C. Started off with Sasha Ingber at the Spy Museum for SpyCast, a quick dash across town to lunch with some intel academics; to Georgetown’s Walsh School to talk the Intelligence Intellectuals, and dinner at the NZ Embassy with the ever-charming Chris Seed.
Just spent a night with Sherman and Laura Kent in Vermont. Sherman is the son of the most influential man in intelligence analysis, Sherman Kent of CIA. Here is Kent Snr with the “spookiest of spooks”, James Angleton. (Taken on Sherman Jnr’s living room floor.)
THIS MONDAY 30 MARCH, 2.30pm Georgetown University.
A great end to the “UK tour” at @kcsi.uk last night. My thanks to Celia Parker-Vincent for moderating and Jessi Gilchrist and Mike Goodman for organising. Also caught up with the wonderful @joemaiolo.bsky.social Nice to be back, spent a lot of time at the the Maughan Library writing this book.
TONIGHT: Wednesday 25 March, 7pm. All welcome
BOOK TALK: TOMORROW. My final talk in the UK on the Intelligence Intellectuals, how analysts dealt with imposter syndrome! All welcome. King's College London, 7pm. Register here: www.linkedin.com/safety/go?ur...
BOOK TALK: Who were the professors who went to CIA in 1950 to reboot the Agency's strategic intelligence product? How did they feel about the requirement to provide warning and long-range estimates of global trends? Find out at Georgetown on Mon March 30 at 2.30pm.
Thanks to Chris Moran for inviting me to talk to the social sciences faculty at the University of Warwick last night. Great opportunity to discuss the Intelligence Intellectuals and see Mark Phythian again.
Thanks to @camgeopolitics.bsky.social for a great evening talking about The Intelligence Intellectuals with the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar. Particular thanks to John Ranelagh, a kind and considerate host, and Corpus Christi for a lovely dinner and bed for the night.
Excited to be talking at the University of Warwick on Monday 23 March, regarding CIA’s adoption of social science into intelligence analysis in the early Cold War. #theintelligenceintellectuals warwick.ac.uk/about/strate...
Looking forward to talking at the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar in a fortnight. www.cfg.cam.ac.uk/events/dr-pe...
New on H-Sci-Med-Tech:
Check out Joy Rohde (@umich.edu)’s review of Peter C. Grace (@universityofotago.bsky.social)’s book _The Intelligence Intellectuals: Social Scientists and the Making of the CIA_ pub 2026 @ Georgetown University Press
#hstm
Review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social
We were delighted to publish this fantastic review of @petercgrace.bsky.social's "The Intelligence Intellectuals" by Monica Robbins. You can find the full review at the link below - we think it's well worth a read! doi.org/10.1080/1833...
REVIEW: Monica Robbins compares the kind of research academics do in the university with "strategic intelligence analysis [which is] is inherently messy, high-stakes, and subject to rapidly changing circumstances and incomplete information."
An excellent review by Dr. Joy Rohde of Dr. Peter Grace's recent book "The Intelligence Intellectuals: Social Scientists and the Making of the CIA" from Georgetown University Press.
People like Sherman Kent and William Langer, historians at Yale and Harvard, and Max Millikan, an MIT economist, typified “intelligence intellectuals” drafted in the 1950s to rationalize and run the CIA’s strategic-intelligence assessment after its early failures to predict major world events.
Reviewed for @wsj.com: The Intelligence Intellectuals by Peter Grace
"[C]ompelling reading for anyone who has thought about how to analyze information."
www.wsj.com/arts-culture... @aupresses.bsky.social
The Wall Street Journal says The Intelligence Intellectuals is "compelling reading for anyone who has thought about how to analyze information", "assessing trends, confronting uncertainty and predicting major future events, such as war or economic collapse." www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
As well as Strand Books in the US (who have a very good intelligence section). But selling fast! www.strandbooks.com/the-intellig...
And yes, it's available at all good booksellers, including Waterstones in the UK www.waterstones.com/book/the-int...
REVIEW IN THE CIPHER BRIEF: Linda Weissgold retired from CIA with 37 years experience. Her final position was serving as Deputy Director for Analysis, responsible for the quality of all-source intelligence analysis at the CIA. www.thecipherbrief.com/the-architec...
Thank you to everyone who took part. The three winners have been selected (via a random number generator) but for reasons of tradecraft cannot be named...
Here’s the link to Unity Books: www.unitybooks.co.nz/products/int...
Here’s the link to Paper Plus: www.paperplus.co.nz/shop/books/n...
