American Rivals of James Bond

<p> This is a critical history of spy fiction film and television in the United States with a particular focus on the American fictional spies that rivaled (and were often influenced by) Ian Fleming's James Bond. James Fenimore Cooper's Harvey Birch based on a real-life counterpart appeared in his novel <I>The Spy</I> in 1821. While Harvey Birch's British rivals dominated spy fiction from the late 1800s until the mid-1930s American spy fiction came of age shortly thereafter. The spy boom in novels and films during the 1960s spearheaded by Bond heavily influenced the espionage genre in the United States for years to come including series like <I>The Man from U.N.C.L.E.</I> and <I>Matt Helm</I>. The author demonstrates that while American authors currently dominate the international spy fiction market James Bond has cast a very long shadow for a very long time. </p>