Espionage in World History

[quark]

DS (advanced learner, mature 10yo) is very interested in learning about spies and cryptography in history. He has started googling for some spies to study and is going to give me a list in a few days' time. We'll pick maybe about 10-12 and possibly produce a presentation, or some sort of spy scrapbook, or a website...something tangible in the end.

 

I searched the archives and although I found some mention of espionage studies, I didn't find any discussions on how the study was carried out, what books were used etc.

 

I'd love thoughts on the following:

 

1. What resources would you suggest? (I've mentioned a few that I have researched below, any others?)

2. If I wanted to make this a high school level project, what additional materials, output requirements would you suggest?

3. If you have done something like this before, what did you do? How did you structure it? What was a day in the life of studying espionage like for your DC?

 

S*x and violence, unless graphic, are not a huge issue for him.

 

Some resources I thought we could use:

1. The Great Courses Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History (audio CD)

2. For the codes part, Simon Singh's The Code Book and Bletchley Park's codes lesson plans

3. Resources/ lesson plans from the International Spy Museum

4. Books like Inside Camp X, The Enemy Within, A Century of Spies

 

Thank you!

[Lucy the Valiant]

If you're in the USA, and anywhere near D.C., there's a FANTASTIC spy museum there (yes, centered on America, but very engaging and informational!).

 

We did a just-for-fun "spy camp" (1 week) w/some home school friends, and tied in some really neat science lessons from the FBI.

 

(FBI website has neat fingerprint page; we looked up fingerprinting and briefly discussed how it can be used to capture criminals. We have identical twins in the house, so that added to the convo. We also did the lemon-juice-on-white-paper coding, and read a few books about coding (at the elementary level). We had a couple of really neat books - Spy University, I think, and some general spying ones from the library. Nothing hugely fancy, but something the kids still remember with detail.)

 

(Oh, I just looked at the bottom of your post - is the International Spy Museum the one in DC? Probably. Everyone already knows all about all my "great resources," hahaha!)

[quark]

Thank you Katie and Margaret!

I found an interesting link here:

http://www.sovhistory.neu.edu/hist1389-01.html

with some structure. Might be too advanced for kiddo but at least it gives me an idea of resources, questions to ask, pacing etc.

Thanks again! Wold love to hear more suggestions if anyone has the time.

[cathmom]

Dh has the great courses. I'll ask him if its appropriate for a 10yo.

[quark]

Thank you cathmom! I'm starting to understand why he prefers studying history this way. Googling for espionage resources can be addictive! Found an interesting review/ critique of the Great Courses' Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History here.

[cathmom]

I asked dh, he said he didn't remember anything that would be inappropriate for a mature 10 yo interested in the topic.

[Martha in GA]

We just read a book that we got from the library called The Dark Game: True Spy Stories by Paul B. Janeczko. The book tells about the progression of spying starting with the rudimentary spying during the American Revolution to the spy satellites of today, highlighting certain spies during each era. My dc (ages 11 and 13) enjoyed the book.

[Miss Marple]

I've been listening to the Great Courses Espionage program for several weeks now. I think a 10 year old would be bored with it - it really relies on a good working knowledge of history to get the most out of it. I'm finding it interesting but I'm better versed in history and literature (spy literature specifically) than the average 10 year old. I would not spend the money on that particular course just yet although you might really enjoy it and be able to better discuss the subject with your son after listening to it.