Journal of Intelligence History

"The studies of intelligence activity and of governmental repression in the state socialist dictatorships of the twentieth century sometimes appear as closed fields of research. Researchers in intelligence history are often focused on new, controversial empirical evidence as well as on the uncovering of secret service officers and informal collaborators. Only rarely they let themselves be inspired by other fields of research, which allows for new findings and interpretations in the adaptation of innovative methods and scholarly practices. Katherine Verdery’s analysis of the Romanian Secret Police Service, the Securitate, offers such inspiration. Ethnographer Verdery applies methods of anthropology and New Cultural History to the study of state socialist rule. Thus, she goes beyond a history of political actors and decisions that is often considered the only relevant context of intelligence and secret police activity."
Reviewed book: 
Author: 
Katherine Verdery
ISBN: 
978 6155225994
paperback
$30.95 / €26.95 / £22.95
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