Spy Fever in Britain, 1900–1915

Abstract

Historians have spilt much ink in explaining the diplomatic machinations which led to war in 1914, but rather less ink in accounting for the bitterness which the war aroused. The answer to that question probably lies outside the realm of diplomatic documents. For Britain at least, a tiny part of the answer can be found in a myth which became increasingly virulent in the decade or so before the war: the myth of the evil and ubiquitous German spy.