This book raises awareness of an important issue, but I don't think it's quite as important or controversial as the title "Spy Schools" suggests. Golden points out that the tradition of openness in US universities makes them susceptible to spying from both US and foreign intelligence agencies. As Inspector Renault exclaimed in Casablanca, "I'm shocked, shocked!" It's not exactly news that spy agencies sometimes use faculty and students to gain intelligence or even recruit them. It's also no secret that universities sometimes work on important projects for the military-industrial complex (remember ARPANET?).

At the same time, Golden doesn't quite convince the reader that there's a crisis. Far from provoking a crisis of academic freedom or stifling speech on campuses, any intelligence efforts on most universities is an afterthought or invisible, affecting only a handful of individuals. Obviously, some departments are more likely to deal with classified information than others so their mileage might vary.

Golden does raise an important point about security standards. Universities tend to be more open and lax, so there's a risk that faculty and students working on government projects might not take the same precautions as government officials.

The main points of this book could probably have made for an effective long-form magazine article, but I don't know if it really merits a book.

This book explores how the US clandestine agencies (as well as those of other countries) exploit American universities. It's an interesting topic and the book is well-researched, but I found it overall to be dry and not engaging. Would have worked better as a documentary or long article for me.

Intriguing. Thought-provoking. Eye opening. Forces even the skeptical reader to ask, "What if...?"