Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World

While Macrakis offers some intriguing new insights into MfS operations and even though I had something of a vested interest in reading her book, having worked with convicted spy James Hall in Berlin, I was disappointed with the overall scholarship, partially ruined by amateurish editing (e.g., repetitive explanations and breakouts of acronyms only two pages apart) and juvenile typing mistakes. In the space of only 20 pages we encounter, among others, the following howlers: "an Eastern European capitol," "smuggled through a laundry shoot," and the "Fifth U.S. Army Corp". This we might expect in an undergraduate paper but certainly not in anything published by the Cambridge University Press.

First, on the positive side, this book contains some excellent information, especially on the story of East Germany's attempts to acquire the means to produce computers and microchips. This is a fascinating tale of the DDR's efforts to make itself into a world-class technology leader. Unfortunately, East Germany couldn't get its hands on the tools and equipment necessary to meet that goal, at least partially because President Ronald Reagan made it almost impossible to acquire it. They went broke trying to produce technology that was already becoming obsolete.Technology was important to the Stasi and the gadgets and materials they produced to equip their spies represented a great effort on their part. The way they acquired and infiltrated the know-how necessary is fascinating.The one major flaw in this book was the organization and repetition. I felt like it didn't flow very well, as if it were several products put together as a single publication. Still, a very good book to read if you're interested in the Cold War, especially in Germany.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the East German Stasi. This is an excellent book. The author obvious spent a lot of time doing research for the book. I look forward to reading more written by her.

This book is a real disappointment.First the good bits. It gives a much better understanding of the Stasi and its priorities than one would glean from all all the horror stories in the German tabloids.But...it was written over a series of summers in Berlin backed with Fullbright money and it shows. Information and explanations are repeated between chapters, and even within chapters. If I had it explained one more time that HV-A was the foreign espionage service I was going to pull my hair out.In addition, the author is a historian albeit a professor in the history of science. Her section on invisible ink is quite confusing. She states on the same page that developing the ink with a solution too high in pH caused the ink to slowly turn yellow. Success was to be had by reducing the pH which meant that finally.... the ink slowly turned yellow. Huh?In short - the information you are looking for might be in there, but an entertaining read which flows well it is not

I wanted to like this book, but it proved impossible. This may be a text working undercover disguised as a narrative, but it does not pass successfully.The author is an historian, after all, and she has written an overly circumstantial and dry history. Anecdotes never get off the ground, chained by acronyms and leaden, rambling, disjointed, and repetitive prose. There are a handful of interesting and potentially important points, but those often were throwaways (for example the few pages on our likely under-estimation of Cuban espionage), seemingly because they didn't fit her fairly narrow focus, which was more than adequately pounded into the pavement a third of the way through. This is not a book that has any life or offers many surprises.

During the cold war the Soviet GRU and the East German Stasi had a large, persistent and effective technical collection effort targeting the west. Even after the cold war was over almost no stories or books explained what happened and why.The good news, if you are interested in the history of technical espionage in the Cold War this book has information found nowhere else. Very few authors have done the solid research found here and tackled the technical collection aspects of the Stasi.The bad news, as some other reviewers have said, "it reads like a dissertation, or, the "presentation is on the scholarly side," and even "it was a little bit dry." That's putting it politely - the author can't write and can not carry a story or narrative. As others have observed, the words leaden, rambling, disjointed, and repetitive are apt descriptions. The story veers between mind-numbing minutia, to breezy descriptions of entire critical technical sectors.One of the dilemmas historians and researchers have, is how do make your material accessible for a broader audience than your peers. If this book had been marketed as a scholarly research paper I would have rated it much differently (3-stars) than one with a glossy cover and a mass-market title.My suggestion to the author; you are a great researcher and historian. You have this field to yourself. Please find a co-author for your next book.

Excellent reading and its still going on

Amazing book. Hands down. Macrakis is very much informed on the topic, with depth and intrigue. You can't beat this book. It covers everything you could imagine about the Stasi. In fact, it may even surprise you! The East Germans had quite the spy network going, and a lot of good espionage came about as a result. Didn't save their economy mind you, but it's an interesting fresh look that talks about the Stasi unlike you've ever heard of them before. Spying at home and abroad. International industrial espionage. Kidnapping. Electronic surveillence. Quirky gadgets like those you'd expect in a James Bond film. Bra Cameras... yeah they made those. Prepare yourself for a fascinating read!

Die eine Hälfte der DDR Bevölkerung hat die andere Hälfte bespitzelt, und das gegenseitig.

Whilst two reviewers have strongly recommended this book, there's no escaping the fact it was written by an academic for academics. There is evidence of meticulous desk research, with many names and facts included. However, the narrative is arid and analytical, failing to include the back-stories, the emotional dilemmas faced by the actors or any human colour. The research appears to have been carried out only in the Stasi's files and lacks cross-references to other contemporary sources.From other accounts, I have learned about the Stasi's expertise in psychological measures and I'm not really any wiser. This book is good on the 'who' and 'what' of the Stasi and short on the 'how' and 'why'.