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Adobe DRM
Product Details
Scribner, September 2009
eBook, 272 pages
ISBN-10: 1439100497
ISBN-13: 9781439100493
Description
A riveting, eyewitness account of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War from the Newsweek Bureau Chief in that region at the time.
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, many still believe it was the words of President Ronald Regan, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!,” that brought the Cold War to an end. Michael Meyer disagrees, and in this extraordinarily compelling account, explains why.
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 how American intransigence contributed little to achieving such world-shaking change. In his reporting from the frontlines of the revolution in Eastern Europe between 1988 and 1992, he interviewed a wide range of local leaders, including Václav Havel and Lech Walesa. Meyer’s descriptions of the way their brave stands were decisive in bringing democracy to Eastern Europe provide a crucial refutation of a misunderstanding of history that has been deliberately employed to help push the United States into the intractable conflicts it faces today.
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1. Journalist Michael Meyer Discusses The Year That Changed ...02:5048611289001
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"I thoroughly enjoyed The Year That Changed the World. It is a gripping, colorful account of the rush of events that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet empire. It is also a convincing reappraisal of where credit lies and what lessons should be drawn for U.S. leadership."
-- JAMES HOGE, FOREIGN AFFAIRS
" A coolheaded reconsideration of the revolutionary fervor that tore down the Iron Curtain in 1989...Meyer skillfully g rasps the crux of these events and ably conveys their remarkable significance. Meyer 'liberates' the record with sagacity, precision and remarkable clarity."
-- KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)
"The twentieth century ended with a bang in 1989 and Michael Meyer has vividly captured the drama, import and energy of that fascinating year....This is a riveting, rollicking read with many surprises along the way."
-- FAREED ZAKARIA, AUTHOR OF THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD
"Some people write about history; Meyer lived it. A fascinating picture filled with vivid images and bold color ... a major contribution to Cold War history."
-- Dallas Morning News
"Riveting account that recalls John Reed's classic on the Bolshevik revolution, Ten Days that Shook the World."
-- Irish Times
"A really exciting history. Highly recommended."
-- Ken Follett
"History, exciting? Only Michael Meyer could take a story about the fall of the Berlin Wall, and make it so thrilling, I could not put it down. The Year That Changed the World is absolutely phenomenal."
-- KickAssBooks
"Vivid and surprising account, showing -- as personal testimonies do -- the accidental and contingent underbelly of world-historical events."
-- New Yorker
"Michael Meyer witnessed the acceleration of these astonishing developments from the epicenter of change...an affable guide to that giddy, fraught, and ultimately logical year of 1989."
-- Elizabeth Pond, Christian Science Monitor
"Excellent."
-- Scott Simon, NPR
"Wonderful."
-- Daniel Johnson, Standpoint
"Some of the most haunting non-fiction you will ever read ...a thrilling chronicle of perhaps the most important year of the 20th century."
-- Booklist
"First-hand reporting in a high-drama, vividly told, five-act narrative."
-- Newsweek
"A gripping colorful account, it is also a convincing reappraisal of where credit lies and what lessons should be drawn for U.S. leadership."
-- James Hoge, Foreign Affairs
"Meyer places the spotlight on what happened while lacing in accessibly deep, if not Hegelian, historical explanation. Excellent, incisive nonfiction."
-- L.A. Times
"A tremendous, riveting book. Reads like a novel."
-- TheCommentary
"History so much closer to the way it looked to those who lived it."
-- Vienna Review
"Journalism informed by wise vision."
-- David Calleo, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
"A cool-headed reconsideration of the revolutionary fervor that tore down the Iron Curtain in 1989. Meyer 'liberates' the record with sagacity, precision and remarkable clarity."
-- Kirkus Reviews
"A terrific book."
-- Lewis Lapham, Bloomberg
"An excellent history."
-- Washington Times
"A fresh look at what happened on Nov. 9, 1989."
-- Alvaro Vargas Llosa
"We must not forget the lessons of the Berlin Wall. Michael Meyer is right: things might have been different."
-- The New Criterion
Moldova.org, December 17, 2009
...would culminate in the toppling of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's regime and his execution several days later. Michael Meyer, who was "Newsweek's" bureau chief for Germany, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans at the time, was the last ...
Radio Free Europe, December 16, 2009
...would culminate in the toppling of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's regime and his execution several days later. Michael Meyer, who was "Newsweek's" bureau chief for Germany, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans at the time, was the last ...
Deseret Morning News, November 4, 2009
...defining moments. Furthermore, East Germany was much less backward than the Soviet Union. As a recent book by Michael Meyer — "The Year That Changed the World" — suggests, what eventually sprung many East Germans into action was not so ...
