1Tue-2A-10: Spies and Spying During Three Critical Periods in the 20th Century

Class | Registration opens 7/20/26 10:00 AM

In-person: 10 weeks
Sep 15-Dec 1, 2026
11:30 AM-1:00 PM on Tue
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$120.00

1Tue-2A-10: Spies and Spying During Three Critical Periods in the 20th Century

Class | Registration opens 7/20/26 10:00 AM

Don’t look here for James Bond, Jason Bourne or Gabriel Allon! This is about the real, more dangerous, less glamorous, but more consequential activities that have had a major impact on world history. We will focus on three periods in which espionage, whether government-sanctioned or individual men and women bravely acting outside official channels, helped win the good fight.

In other words, we will explore the role of many different types of covert activities played in the historical context of the time. For example, the role of the resistance to Nazi occupation or divided Berlin before the teardown of the wall. The historic times: World War II, the Vietnam era, and the Cold War.

Over 10 weeks, we will alternate, reading a book (four novels, one non-fiction) one week, watching a film (at home) the next. We WON’T be comparing the print and film versions of the same works, but the book and film pairs will have related topics. Books will be readily available through the Minuteman Library system or as inexpensive used books. Films will be available as rental CDs, free on Kanopy, or at small rental fees from major streaming services or YouTube.

Both the books and the films are remarkably varied; so something for everyone!

This will be a guided discussion course, with some brief background lectures and/or video clips.  Books (titles in italics) and films (titles in roman) to be discussed will be:

 

Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon

Black Book (Dutch film w/subtitles)

Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre (non-fiction)

Eye of the Needle

The Tears of Autumn by Charles McCuarry

The Quiet American (2004 version)

Berlin Game by Len Deighton

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others: German w/subtitles)

Red Sparrow by Jason Andrews

The Hunt for Red October

 

Weekly preparation time will be at least several hours per book, depending on length of book and your reading speed. Films typically take around two hours.

 


  • Books and Other Resources:

     

    As listed

     
Sandy Grasfield

Sandy Grasfield: I was a middle school librarian and media specialist for thirty years. I have taught several courses at LLAIC and elsewhere, including The History and Politics of Food, The Plays and Memoirs of Lillian Hellman, and Great Photographs and Photographers of the Depression Era.

Dana and I have presented five successful courses focused on mystery novels—most recently on legal thrillers in books and film and a lecture class on the Gilded Age in American history. We also ran a

 

 

 

 

Dana Kaplan

Dana Kaplan: I had a varied career as a marketing and sales promotional writer and manager of creative teams. My focus was business-to-business. I have been an avid reader of crime/mystery fiction my whole life, beginning (of course) with Nancy Drew. I enjoy approaching these books the same way I do all fiction worth reading: for plot, narrative progression, description, character treatment, and above all, the author’s underlying themes.

In addition to the mystery classes presented with Sandy, I collaborated with Lois Novotny on a course reading and discussing culinary memoirs.