Thinker, Sailor, Black Man, Spy: The Memoir of an Intelligence Warrior

New York Times bestselling author Malcolm Nance tells the swashbuckling story of his life as a modern-day spy.

For over thirty-five years, Malcolm Nance served his nation loyally, honorably, and in near-complete secrecy. As a spy, he lived the values he learned growing up in a family whose military service stretched back to the Civil War, becoming a multilingual Middle East counterterrorism intelligence expert in the US Navy.

Thinker, Sailor, Black Man, Spy follows Nance’s action-filled trajectory through international conflicts. From skyjackings and genocide to wars in Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Bosnia, Nance provided some of the most critical intelligence that safeguarded the lives of the American people.

Throughout his career, the tools of the espionage war at the NSA changed dramatically, and Nance was adept at exploiting these advanced electronic capabilities. He helped develop training for US forces to survive captivity and torture by al-Qaeda/ISIS terrorists and became noteworthy for testifying against its abuse by the CIA. When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, he joined the Ukrainian Army’s International Legion to defend their fledgling democracy.

Nance’s stellar career offers a compelling argument for the value of a culturally diverse espionage force. Both a behind-the-scenes look at America’s Signals Intelligence spy world and an eye-opening treatise on the clash between professionalism, meritocracy, and racism, Thinker, Sailor, Black Man, Spy could not be more timely.