This is more for the Bay Area folks than anyone else.

From my old friend and professor Bill Fredlund, at the UCSC-affiliated Institute for the Study of Western Civilization:

History of Espionage

Taught by Bruce Thompson, Ph.D.

Join us this summer for a fascinating look into the world of secret intelligence. This course will exhamine how intelligence agencies have operated in crucial phases of modern history, beginning with the Elizabethan era. How they collected and assessed information, employed agents, planted moles, cultivated defectors and the extent to which those efforts had significant consequences.

We will also follow the trajectory of spies, moles and intelligence officers in modern popular culture, from the heroic playboys of John Buchan and Ian Fleming to the disillusioned heroes of Alan Furst and John le Carre.

Class begins Thursday, June 28, Ends August 30, 2007. Tuition: $300.

Call the Institute at 408-864-4060 to enroll.

I took Bill’s legendary Making of the Western Mind series for three years straight. As for his friend Bruce Thompson, I’ve taken two summer classes from him: one about the history of the Cold War and another about the long, complex relationship between France and the United States.

Elizabethan spies. I just can’t wait. Can you?