Kristie Macrakis
{{Short description|American author and professor (1958–2022)}}
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| name = Kristie Macrakis
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1958|03|11}}
| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|11|14|1958|03|11}}
| death_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
| resting_place = Cambridge
| occupation = Professor
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Kristie Irene Macrakis (March 11, 1958 – November 14, 2022) was an American historian of science, author and professor in the School of History, Technology and Society at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She was the author or editor of five books and was widely known for her work at the intersection of history of espionage and history of science and technology.Kate Tuttle. "Kristie Macrakis explores secret messages, invisible ink." The Boston Globe, April 19, 2014.{{cite book|last1=Fuller|first1=Amy|title=Contemporary Authors|date=2011|publisher=Gale|location=Detroit, MI|isbn=978-1414460871|edition=Vol. 305}}
Biography
Macrakis received her PhD in the history of science at Harvard University. After teaching at Harvard University for a year as a lecturer, Macrakis spent a year in Berlin on an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Chancellor's Scholar for Future Leaders, before taking up a position at Michigan State University where she advanced from Assistant to Full Professor, before taking up a Full Professor position at Georgia Tech.
Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies (2014) and Seduced by Secrets (2008) were her single authored books. Nigel Jones wrote in The Spectator that Prisoners, Lovers and Spies is "beguilingly informative and sweeping survey of hidden communication."{{cite news|last1=Jones|first1=Nigel|title=From slaves' rectums to porn vids, there are few places people haven't tried to conceal secret messages|url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/9263561/prisoners-lovers-and-spies-by-kristie-macrakis-review|publisher=The Spectator|date=July 19, 2014}}Kirkus Reviews named it one of the best nonfiction books of 2014 and called it "lively...engaging" and "An engrossing study of unseen writing and the picaresque misadventures of those who employ it."{{cite web|title=Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kristie-macrakis/prisoners-lovers-spies/}}
Seduced by Secrets was hailed as the "best book" on the Ministry for State Security by Benjamin Fischer in the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence,{{cite journal|last1=Fischer|first1=Benjamin|title=The GDR's Exceptional Spies|journal=International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence|date=2008|volume=22|issue=1|pages=165–174|doi=10.1080/08850600802487034}} while Joseph Goulden, of the Washington Times, gave it "a five cloak-and-dagger rating. Good reading for the specialist and the layman alike."{{cite news|last1=Goulden|first1=Joseph|title=How did Cold War-era spies get the goods?|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/15/how-cold-war-spies-got-the-goods/|publisher=The Washington Times|date=June 15, 2008}}
Macrakis was also the author of numerous articles, both scholarly and popular. While a graduate student at Harvard she found that the Rockefeller Foundation funded science in Nazi Germany; that work was covered in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 29 October 1986). Her most widely read popular magazine article is "The Case of Agent Gorbachev," published in American Scientist.{{cite web|last1=Macrakis|first1=Kristie|title=The Case of Agent Gorbachev|url=http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/the-case-of-agent-gorbachev|website=americanscientist.org|publisher=American Scientist|accessdate=2 September 2015}}
Following a brief illness, Macrakis died on November 14, 2022, at the age of 64.{{Cite web |title=Kristie Irene Macrakis's Obituary (2022) |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/kristie-macrakis-obituary?id=37796016 |access-date=2022-11-21 |website=Legacy.com}}{{Cite web |title=Celebrating Kristie Macrakis |url=https://hsoc.gatech.edu/news/item/663329/celebrating-kristie-macrakis |access-date=2022-11-21 |website=Georgia Tech School of History and Sociology |language=en}}
Books authored
- Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993 {{ISBN|978-0195070101}}{{Cite journal | jstor=2169100|last1 = Proctor|first1 = Robert N.| title=Reviewed work: Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany, Kristie Macrakis| journal=The American Historical Review| volume=100| issue=2| pages=545–546| year=1995| doi=10.2307/2169100 }}{{Cite journal | jstor=1431739|last1 = Johnson|first1 = Jeffrey Allan| title=Reviewed work: Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany, Kristie Macrakis| journal=German Studies Review| volume=19| issue=1| pages=175–176| year=1996| doi=10.2307/1431739 }}{{Cite journal | jstor=27630533|last1 = Hammerstein|first1 = Notker| title=Reviewed work: Surviving the Swastika. Scientific Research in Nazi Germany, Kristie Macrakis| journal=Historische Zeitschrift| volume=261| issue=3| pages=978–979| year=1995}}{{Cite journal | jstor=235350|last1 = Ash|first1 = Mitchell G.| title=Reviewed work: Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany, Kristie Macrakis| journal=Isis| volume=85| issue=4| pages=727–729| year=1994| doi=10.1086/357049}}{{Cite journal | jstor=206641|last1 = Hunt|first1 = Richard M.| title=Reviewed work: Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany, Kristie Macrakis| journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History| volume=26| issue=2| pages=313–315| year=1995| doi=10.2307/206641 }}
- Science under Socialism: East Germany in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999 (with Dieter Hoffmann). {{ISBN|978-0674794771}}{{Cite journal | jstor=2697357|last1 = Bentley|first1 = Raymond| title=Reviewed work: Science under Socialism: East Germany in Comparative Perspective, Kristie Macrakis, Dieter Hoffmann| journal=Slavic Review| volume=59| issue=3| pages=649–651| year=2000| doi=10.2307/2697357 }}{{Cite journal | jstor=27857888|title = Behind das Iron Curtain| journal=American Scientist| volume=87| issue=4| pages=379–380|last1 = Gurshtein|first1 = Alexander| year=1999}}{{Cite journal | jstor=1432126|last1 = Neander|first1 = Joachim| title=Reviewed work: Naturwissenschaft und Technik in der DDR, Dieter Hoffmann, Kristie Macrakis| journal=German Studies Review| volume=22| issue=2| pages=347–348| year=1999| doi=10.2307/1432126 }}
- Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0521887472}}{{Cite journal | jstor=20699411|last1 = Legvold|first1 = Robert| title=Reviewed work: Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World, KRISTIE MACRAKIS| journal=Foreign Affairs| volume=87| issue=6| pages=172| year=2008}}{{Cite journal | jstor=23883121|last1 = Theoharis|first1 = Athan| title=Reviewed work: Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World, Kristie Macrakis| journal=The American Historical Review| volume=114| issue=4| pages=1181–1182| year=2009| doi=10.1086/ahr.114.4.1181}}{{Cite journal | jstor=40574830|last1 = Davidson-Schmich|first1 = Louise K.| title=Reviewed work: Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasis Spy-Tech World, Kristie Macrakis| journal=German Studies Review| volume=32| issue=2| pages=436–437| year=2009}}{{Cite journal | jstor=40600999|last1 = Sarotte|first1 = Mary Elise| title=Reviewed work: Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World, Kristie Macrakis| journal=Central European History| volume=42| issue=4| pages=794–795| year=2009| doi=10.1017/s0008938909991300}}{{Cite journal | jstor=40345768|last1 = Laprise|first1 = John| title=Reviewed work: Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World, Kristie Macrakis| journal=Technology and Culture| volume=50| issue=3| pages=723–725| year=2009| doi=10.1353/tech.0.0290}}
- East German Foreign Intelligence: Myth, Reality and Controversy. New York, London: Routledge, 2009 (with Thomas Wegener Friis). {{ISBN|978-0415664592}}
- Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies: The Story of Invisible Ink from Herodotus to al-Qaeda. New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2014. {{ISBN|978-0300179255}}
- Espionage. Essential Knowledge Series. Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, 2022. {{ISBN|9780262545020}}
- Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach: America's Techno-Spy Empire. United States: Georgetown University Press, 2023. {{ISBN|9781647123239}}
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- [https://iac.gatech.edu/news/item/663329/celebrating-kristie-macrakis Celebrating Kristie Macrakis]
- [https://networks.h-net.org/group/discussions/20037085/h-diplorjissf-roundtable-15-50-macrakis-nothing-beyond-our-reach H-Diplo|RJISSF "Roundtable 15-50 on Macrakis, Nothing is Beyond Our Reach" June 28, 2024]
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