Lynne Olson presents “Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler.”

5:00 p.m. Reception | 6:00 p.m. Discussion | 7:00 p.m. Book Signing

The Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, with generous support from the Strake Foundation, is delighted to host New York Times best-selling author Lynne Olson for a presentation on her latest book highlighting one of the most fascinating and unheralded heroes of World War II.

Madame Fourcade’s Secret War tells the dramatic, little-known story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, who headed the largest and most influential spy network in occupied France during World War II. Her group’s name was Alliance, but the Gestapo dubbed it Noah’s Ark because its agents used the names of animals as their aliases. The name Marie-Madeleine chose for herself was Hedgehog: unthreatening in appearance, yet a tough little animal that, as a friend of hers put it, “even a lion would hesitate to bite.”

No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence, including providing American and British military commanders with a 55-foot-long map of the beaches and roads on which the Allies would land on D-Day, showing every German gun emplacement, fortification, and beach obstacle along the Normandy coast. In a dramatic account of the war that split France in two and forced its people to live side by side with their hated German occupiers, Lynne Olson tells the riveting story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself.

Brought to you by the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy with generous support from the Strake Foundation, the reception and presentation are free and open to the public but please register to attend.

Can't join us at the Museum? Watch the conversation as it's happening via livestream.com.

For more information or to register, call 504-528-1944 x 412.

About the Author: Lynne Olson is a New York Times best-selling author of eight books of history, most of which deal in some way with World War II and Britain’s crucial role in that conflict, including Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War; Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939–1941; and Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour.