The Year that Changed the World
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Product Description
'Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' This declamation by president Ronald Reagan when visiting Berlin in 1987 is widely cited as the clarion call that brought the Cold War to an end. The West had won, so this version of events goes, because the West had stood firm. American and Western European resoluteness had brought an evil empire to its knees. Michael Meyer, in this extraordinarily compelling account of the revolutions that roiled Eastern Europe in 1989, begs to differ. Drawing together breathtakingly vivid, on-the-ground accounts of the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the stealth opening of the Hungarian border, the Velvet Revolution in Prague, and the collapse of the infamous wall in Berlin, Meyer shows that western intransigence was only one of the many factors that provoked such world-shaking change. More important, Meyer contends, were the stands taken by individuals in the thick of the struggle, leaders such as poet and playwright Vaclav Havel in Prague; Lech Walesa; the quiet and determined reform prime minister in Budapest, Miklos Nemeth; and the man who realized his empire was already lost and decided, with courage and intelligence, to let it go in peace, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Michael Meyer captures these heady days in all their rich drama and unpredictability, providing a thrilling chronicle of perhaps the most important year of the 20th century.
About the Author
Michael Meyer is currently Director of Communications for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Between 1988 and 1992,he was Newsweeks Bureau Chief for Germany, Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He has worked at the Washington Post and has won a numberof international journalism awards. He is the author of Alexander Compex. He lives in New York.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having visited Berlin in 1988, I thought, along with a lot of others, that the Wall would last a few more decades. I remember being transfixed by the images and reports of revolution throughout the eastern bloc during the autumn of 1989. Who, of my generation, could possibly forget the images of people dancing on the wall, or the reports of the trial and demise of Ceaucescu?
Michael Meyer's style is easy to read, and explains the events unfolding rapidly in Hungary, Poland, the DDR and Czechoslovakia, along with the acquiescence of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Meyer puts together the story of the events, starting with the realization in Hungary that the communist system was bankrupt and had to change, relating his own experiences (as Newsweek's correspondent in Germany and Eastern Europe) and interviews with many of the key players at the time and since then.
A fantastic historical reconstruction; easy to read and hard to put down.
Michael Meyer's style is easy to read, and explains the events unfolding rapidly in Hungary, Poland, the DDR and Czechoslovakia, along with the acquiescence of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Meyer puts together the story of the events, starting with the realization in Hungary that the communist system was bankrupt and had to change, relating his own experiences (as Newsweek's correspondent in Germany and Eastern Europe) and interviews with many of the key players at the time and since then.
A fantastic historical reconstruction; easy to read and hard to put down.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is good for giving readers an overview of the events that happened in 1989 behind the Iron Curtain and how they eventually lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's a fantastic book for fact junkies but anyone after the atmosphere among the people at the time will be disappointed. After all, this book is written by a Westerner. Consequently he is seeing East Germany with Western eyes and judging things, people and actions by Western standards. In that respect the book 'The Iron Curtain Kid' impressed me more by painting a more vivid picture of how and what people thought and felt. However, I liked that this book here is also looking at other communist states at the time, rather than just East Germany. Personally, I wasn't too keen on the writing style, It reminded me of reading a newspaper article and I would have preferred a little bit more passion. But I guess that's a very subjective point to make. An ok read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I totally agree with the last reviewer.
I started to read this book yesterday and am already half-way through it. Such speed is rare for me.
It is written with a journalist's eye and insight into the real events. Meyer seemed to be rushing from country to country at the time, so gathers hundreds of interviews with the key players.
The book conveys superbly the radomn nature of the collapse, and also how it was top-down and from the inside-out. An empire giving away its own power is quite a unique event. It's easy to make sense of it in retrospect, but at the time it was extraordinary and nobody, not even its protagonists, could keep pace with it.
It's very interesting for me to read about events from an American perspective, and strange to find that many of Meyer's fellow Americans felt Reagen and Bush were responsible for regime change, whereas in fact Bush (the original one) was initially quite cold to Gorbachev and suspicious of change. Meyer believes this misreading of history partly led to the foreign policy of Bush Mark 2.
Appart from anything else, it's a great narrative. At times perhaps Meyer goers over the top with embellishing dramatic scenes (probably unneccessary because the drama is already there) but only a stuffy historian would criticise the book for this.
I started to read this book yesterday and am already half-way through it. Such speed is rare for me.
It is written with a journalist's eye and insight into the real events. Meyer seemed to be rushing from country to country at the time, so gathers hundreds of interviews with the key players.
The book conveys superbly the radomn nature of the collapse, and also how it was top-down and from the inside-out. An empire giving away its own power is quite a unique event. It's easy to make sense of it in retrospect, but at the time it was extraordinary and nobody, not even its protagonists, could keep pace with it.
It's very interesting for me to read about events from an American perspective, and strange to find that many of Meyer's fellow Americans felt Reagen and Bush were responsible for regime change, whereas in fact Bush (the original one) was initially quite cold to Gorbachev and suspicious of change. Meyer believes this misreading of history partly led to the foreign policy of Bush Mark 2.
Appart from anything else, it's a great narrative. At times perhaps Meyer goers over the top with embellishing dramatic scenes (probably unneccessary because the drama is already there) but only a stuffy historian would criticise the book for this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Miklos Nemeth, The real hero of the events of 1989
When I left Berlin after my second visit there in the summer of 1988 I never thought the wall would be gone a little over a year later. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. Mark Pearson
1989: One of the best modern history books I have ever read
I raced through this book. The style is first class, the English is excellent, my only irritation being the American spelling which I always find distracting. Read more
Published 16 months ago by D. J. Woodward
Mr Nemeth tore down this wall
Like a great movie, after I finished this book I went back and read it again.
Michael Meyer's clear, "I was there" prose is a pleasure to read. Read more
Michael Meyer's clear, "I was there" prose is a pleasure to read. Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2009 by R. Freeman
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