Seduced by Secrets

More fascinating than fiction, Seduced by Secrets takes the reader inside the real world of one of the most effective and feared spy agencies in history. The book reveals the secret technical methods and sources of the Stasi (East German Ministry for State Security) as it stole secrets from abroad and developed gadgets at home. Seduced by Secrets draws on secret files from the Stasi archives to demonstrate that the Stasi overestimated the power of secrets to solve problems and created an insular spy culture more intent on securing its power than protecting national security. It recreates the Stasi’s secret world of technology through biographies of agents, defectors, and officers and by visualizing James Bond-like techniques and gadgets. In this highly original book, Kristie Macrakis adds a new dimension to our understanding of the Stasi by bringing the topic into the realm of espionage history and exiting the political domain.

Author Biography

Kristie Macrakis received her Ph.D in the History of Science from Harvard University in 1989 and then spent a post-doctoral year in Berlin, Germany. She is currently a professor of the history of science at Michigan State University. She is the author of numerous articles and books on science and politics in modern Germany, including Surviving the Swastika (Oxford, 1993) and Science Under Socialism (Harvard, 1999). She has received grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, Fulbright, Humboldt, and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.