The American School of Spies
Stephan Talty
June 2026
Penguin Random House Pub.
The American School of Spies by Stephan Talty intertwines history, spying, and WWII. It details the effort of American archaeologists and classicists who went undercover, risking their lives, to hide and protect significant works of art and culture as the Nazis were invading Greece.
Elise Cooper: Idea for the book?
Stephan Talty: The idea arrived when I came across a black and white photo showing men lowering an enormous statue into a trench beneath what looked like a museum. I dug into the story behind it, which traced the efforts of Greek classicists and archeologists to save their antiquities from the Germans. From there, I looked at other archeologists who had joined in, which led me to the Greek Desk and their adventures.
EC: Why do you think Donovan wanted to spend resources to save the Greek artifacts?
ST: He didn’t, actually. Rodney Young, the leader of the Greek Desk, helped bury the relics but it was mostly the Greeks who hid the artifacts. Donovan’s role was to create a spy agency and a commando unit to send in to fight the Nazis, who were of course the greatest threat to the relics, as Hitler was obsessed by the antiquities and wanted to either bring them to Germany or, later in the war, destroy them out of rage and bitterness. By fighting the Germans, as the Greek Desk did, they protected the statues.
EC: What was the role of archeology in the book?
AT: The archeologists I write about were a band of brothers under the uniform. British, American, Greek and even German archeologists looked past the end of the war to the protection of this incredible patrimony – the art of ancient Greece. Each did their part to rescue them from theft and vandalism.
EC: Was there a relationship between the spies and the Greek relics?
ST: Well, the spies had been working in the region for years, digging up new relics and helping to preserve the old. They grew to love the culture and the artifacts of Greece. When the war came, they transferred their skills to espionage, volunteering to save Greece from occupation and destruction.
EC: Do you think the spies successfully thwarted the Nazis?
ST: The spies were highly effective in targeting and killing Nazis, a large number of whom had stolen or pilfered Greek statuettes and other relics to bring home as souvenirs. They directed the Greek-American commando units, who attacked troop trains, battled the Germans in gunfights and stopped the soldiers from leaving Greece to fight the Americans who’d landed at D-Day.
EC: How would you describe the allied spies?
ST: They were fish out of water, classicists and scholars who had to learn a new art – espionage – very quickly. The OSS gave them only four weeks of training, not nearly enough, but they used their knowledge of the region to outsmart and outthink the enemy. They did this out of a shared love of Greece and its past, and an obligation to save what they could
EC: Is there any allied spy you greatly admire?
ST: Dorothy Cox is my favorite character in the book. She was a brilliant archeological architect and numismatist – a scholar of ancient coins – who became the point of the spear for the intelligence operation, interviewing refugees and former Greek officers to paint an accurate portrait of what was happening inside the country. Her work was invaluable, yet she was paid a secretary’s wage because she was a woman.
EC: How would you compare Rodney’s actions and motives to Hampe’s?
ST: They were both incredibly smart and driven. Rodney used brute force and the power of his personality to make things happen; Hampe used guile and charm to get results. But they both worshipped ancient Greece and both realized the tragedy that losing any of the relics would represent.
EC: What do you want readers to get out of the book?
ST: Hopefulness. In a time when Hitler and other fascists wanted to destroy or steal Greece’s patrimony, this unusual collection of scholars worked together across enemy lines to preserve it. They gave us an enormous gift.
THANK YOU!!
