An addictive read
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I bought this book a few years ago and took it away on holiday with me. After the first few pages i could not put it down. Every opportunity i had for any reading, i was at this book.
Having long been fascinated by anything concerning the DDR and a regular listener to RBI until its final closedown in 1989, i have now actually been able not only to visit places mentioned within this book such as the Stasi HQ in Berlin, but also meet people who grew up in the East.
You have to keep a very open mind when reading this book and make your own judgement, recognising that whilst the DDR had its own propaganda machine, so too did the West (and still does to this day). But the extremities which the Stasi went to and methods employed ranged from the obscure to total paranoia.
A fascinating and very addictive read.
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Stasi: an excellent book
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Do not be fooled by other reviews of this book; it is a superb and enjoyable read, and by far one of the most entertaining reads of the subject that I have read. If you type the word 'stasi' into amazons search engine(and leave it blank; i.e. do not select 'books', but leave it open to select any form of media, such as DVD, video, books, etc), then of the top six that will come up, I own and have read/watched them all; and can absolutley state that this book is indeed the best. I bought and read it four years ago and have re-read it at least 3 times. I am not going to deny that perhaps the author writes from the perspective of being on the other side of the 'wall' during the cold war; he certainly does. But facts are facts, and dressing them up in prose does not change them. If, like me, you consider yourself to be politically left wing(and I suspect the other reviewers are definatley left wing, hating anything that somehow detracts from all 'socialist experiments' such as implemintation of socialist communism in former GDR), then yes, at times this read can be a little on the side of 'right'. But as a story, a look back at
history, a presentation of the the facts and happenings of the time, its a bloody good read!
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Weak and poorly thought out
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What should have been a fascinating book is ruined by a massively simplistic, yet all-pervasive, 'USA = Great, Commies = Bad' black-and-white mentality. If you're looking for insights into Communist East Germany I would recommend Anna Funder's Stasiland and Timothy Garton Ash's The File instead: these two books, by literate and intelligent writers, are everything this book is not.
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Poorly written and a tough read
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Bought the book and expected much more. The icing on the cake was the amount of typos and mistakes throughout the book. Just shows the mark of a quality read, I suppose ... not!!! Nothing memorable in this book at all. Had I bothered to go to the library, I would have saved myself the bother of starting to read it. Look for another book on the same theme - you won't be disappointed then. Sorry mate!
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Right-wing crusader's rant
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I've just got to page 4. Already the Eastern Block is backed by the armed might of the Soviet Union, but West Germany is protected by the shield of the USA and its NATO allies. Oh, and West Germany is a modern economically powerful democracy governed by the rule of law, but the other Germany is wallowing in a morass of Government-sponsored crimes.
Written by a bloke who was adviser to Reagan's Press Secretary, do not expect an objective assessment of the role of the Stasi. Read Markus Wolf's book too, then make your own mind up.
On we go.
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