06/22/2026
Book Club on July 27th - here’s the next book on our agenda, come join us at Panera (Central and Hillside) at 2:00 pm.
“BOOK AND DAGGER” - The untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war
At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work as part of a new WWII intelligence effort—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions.