In Citizen Spy, Michael Kackman investigates how media depictions of the slick, smart,
and resolute spy have been embedded in the American imagination. Looking at secret agents
on television and the relationships among networks, producers, government bureaus, and the
viewing public in the 1950s and 1960s, Kackman explores how Americans see themselves in
times of political and cultural crisis. During the first decade of the Cold War, Hollywood
developed such shows as "I Led 3 Lives" and "Behind Closed Doors" with the approval of
federal intelligence agencies, even basing episodes on actual case files. These .documentary
melodramas. were, Kackman argues, vehicles for the fledgling television industry to proclaim
its loyalty to the government, and they came stocked with appeals to patriotism and anti-
Communist vigilance.

As the rigid cultural logic of the Red Scare began to collapse, spy shows became more
playful, self-referential, and even critical of the ideals professed in their own scripts.
From parodies such as "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and "Get Smart" to the more complicated
global and political situations of "I Spy" and "Mission: Impossible," Kackman situates
espionage television within the tumultuous culture of the civil rights and women.s movements
and the war in Vietnam. Yet, even as spy shows introduced African-American and female
characters, they continued to reinforce racial and sexual stereotypes.

Bringing these concerns to the political and cultural landscape of the twenty-first century,
Kackman asserts that the roles of race and gender in national identity have become acutely
contentious. Increasingly exclusive definitions of legitimate citizenship, heroism, and
dissent have been evident through popular accounts of the Iraq war. Moving beyond a snapshot
of television history, Citizen Spy provides a contemporary lens to analyze the nature.and
implications.of American nationalism in practice.

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