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Start giftingSecret Empire
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Learn more"In this exciting, meticulously researched spy story, Taubman takes readers behind the closed doors of the Eisenhower administration to tell about the small group of Cold Warriors whose technological innovations-including the U2 spy plane and Corona, the country's first spy satellite-revolutionized espionage and intelligence gathering." —Publishers Weekly
"New York Times editor Taubman exudes admiration for the contrarian thinking and enterprise that brought into being the U-2, the SR-71, and the Corona series of surveillance satellites." —Booklist
During the early and most dangerous years of the cold war, a handful of Americans, led by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, revolutionized spying and warfare. In great secrecy and beyond the prying eyes of Congress and the press, they built exotic new machines that opened up the Soviet Union to surveillance and protected the United States from surprise nuclear attack. Secret Empire is the dramatic story of these men and their inventions, told in full for the first time.
Philip Taubman is a lecturer at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation. Before joining CISAC, Mr. Taubman worked at the New York Times as a reporter and editor for nearly thirty years, specializing in national security issues, including intelligence and defense policies and operations. He is author of The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb and Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage. Taubman is married to Felicity Barringer, who also works for the Times. They have two sons, Michael and Gregory.
Michael Prichard has played several thousand characters during his career. While he has been seen performing over one hundred of them in theater and film, Michael is primarily heard, having recorded well over five hundred full-length books. During his career as a one-man repertory company, he has recorded many series with running characters-including the complete Travis McGee adventures by John D. MacDonald and the complete Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout-as well as series by such masters as Mark Twain, John Cheever, and John Updike. His numerous awards and accolades include an Audie Award for Tears in the Darkness by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman and several AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for At All Costs by Sam Moses and In Nixon's Web by L. Patrick Gray III. Named a Top Ten Golden Voice by SmartMoney magazine, he holds an M.F.A. in theater from the University of Southern California. Michael appears regularly on the professional stage, including as a member of Ray Bradbury's Pandemonium Theatre Company, performing such great roles as Captain Beatty in Fahrenheit 451, which became the second-longest-running production in the Los Angeles area. Bradbury himself dubbed Michael "the finest Beatty in history."