Why does the secret agent never seem to die? Why in fact has the secret agent not only
survived the Cold War - which critics and pundits surmised would be the death of James Bond and
of the genre more generally - but grown in popularity? Secret Agents attempts to answer these
questions as it investigates the political and cultural ramifications of the continued
popularity and increasing diversity of the secret agent across television film and popular
culture. The volume opens with a foreword by Tony Bennett and proceeds to investigate programs
figures and films such as Alias Austin Powers Spy Kids the «new» Bond Girl Flint Mission
Impossible Jason Bourne and concludes with an afterword by Toby Miller. Chapters throughout
question what it means for this popular icon to have far wider currency and meaning than merely
that of James Bond as the white male savior of capital and democracy.
