Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy

At the peak of her career as a world-famous dancer/singer/entertainer, Joesphine Baker risked her life and health as a secret informant for the Allies. African American Baker made Paris her home in the 1920s. The personal and career freedom she experienced for over a decade engendered Baker’s loyalty to her adopted country, and her wartime service further endeared her to the French public.

Lewis is a military historian, and he writes from that perspective. He provides the broader context for Baker’s service, including the Vichy government, British and US intelligence, De Gaulle’s Free French forces, and the North African campaign. Since I knew little about World War II in North Africa before I picked up this book, I appreciated show more Lewis’s broad approach. Other readers may dislike the frequent shifts in focus away from Baker. The end notes and bibliography include archival sources in France, the UK, and the US, and primary sources that include memoirs written by Baker and her closest associates during the war years. This book needed better copy editing and/or proofreading. I noticed many spelling errors that the most basic spellcheck software should catch. show less

nonfiction, declassified, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture, biography, espionage, France, friendship, US-history, Hitler, German-SS, WW2, resistance-efforts, resilience, celebrities, shunned, wealthy*****

The beautiful and talented lady of African, Irish and Native American descent was disrespected in her own country, embraced by her adopted country, and a heroine in so many ways. Who she really was dictated the manner in which she chose to serve. No saint, and definitely flawed, but generous to a fault and able to keep state secrets (some not declassified until 2020) until her death in 1975. This fascinating book, which is not presented in a linear timeline, (mainly) presents her show more service as an unfinanced clandestine agent for the French Resistance even when in serious peril medically. Much of the impeccably diligent research is duly reported. It is of note that she was awarded both the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour with the rosette of the Resistance, (two of France’s highest military honors) and buried with military honors.
I requested and received an e-book copy from Public Affairs, a division of Hachette Book Group via NetGalley. Thank you! show less

nonfiction/history - WW2 French/British/American espionage in Allied resistance to Axis forces, including some very significant contributions by Josephine Baker (the most astronomically famous/successful Black woman entertainer of her time), 1939-1945.

Interesting but not very accessible or easy to read, and not as revealing of Baker's adventures as one might hope, instead providing more details about her fellow spies (who broke with convention and actually wrote books about their deeds).

I liked this (just the 10 years' worth of effort that must have gone into the research makes it worth a read) but I would have gotten more out of it if it had focused more on JB (perhaps not really possible due to a lack of surviving primary sources). My show more brain had to keep switching gears between the parts that talked about her and all the parts that talked about the tactics and strategizing of putting together the various moving pieces of the spy networks, and trying to keep all the pseudonyms for different spies straight, and sometimes having to stop and reread sentences because of strange, unclear phrasing and odd sentence structure. So it also took me longer to plod through this than expected, but I do think it's a part of history that should definitely be told so I'm glad the author has labored over discovering the truth to the best that could be determined from the various classified/unclassified sources this time. show less

Josephine Baker, known as an entertainer primarily through singing jazz and dancing, moved to France in the Roaring '20s. Now she has an opportunity to do something for her adopted country of France by becoming a British spy. The author's meticulous research shines throughout the book and in the endnotes showing the sources consulted. I enjoyed the insights into the North African front of the war during the time Josephine was hospitalized in Casablanca and operations were conducted from her hospital room. The book's weaknesses are in the areas of readability and in proofreading/editing.

The story itself is fascinating.you can’t fail with Josephine Baker as one of your lead characters. Unfortunately, much of the information is either still unavailable, or of a twisting, amorphous character.it is not the author’s fault, he does the best he can with what is available, but I was left wondering about some of Josephine’s comrades in arms.

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Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy by Damien Lewis is a mini-biography about Josephine Baker. The book is mainly concerned with the star’s career as a secret agent for France during World War II.

Josephine Baker was the foremost star before World War II. She was known throughout Europe, and especially France, for her beauty, music, and dancing. In fact, Josephine Baker was the highest-paid performer at the time.

I did know that Ms. Baker was a famous star, and I also knew she was a spy for the Allies during that time. Her stardom and travel schedule were a perfect cover. I did not know, however, to what extent her contributions helped the war show more effort.

Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy by Damien Lewis is meticulously researched while telling a fascinating story. The book is well written, the narrative flows, as well as easy to read.

The author tells of Ms. Baker’s tremendous courage, facing certain death almost every day. This was a time when the death penalty for spies was to be beheaded with an axe while looking up so you could see it coming.
Human’s inhumanity to one another never ceases to surprise me.

With Ms. Baker, we meet several of her fellow secret agents, whom she forged a lifelong friendship with, and trusted them implicitly. There’s love and lost, but above all, defeating the Nazis was the most important goal.

The author makes it clear that Ms. Baker, an American who became a French citizen, was well aware that segregationist America. As a headliner, she was even refused rooms in New York City hotels with her white husband.

Josephine Baker was a staunch supporter of freedom and equality. The fact that she was willing to put aside her strong feelings about segregation in order to help the Allies shows of the quality of her character.

This is a very informative read about an astounding woman living a life of a legend. This is certainly a captivating story of a very unlikely World War II heroine. show less

Excellent and intriguing read.