History of the Present : Essays, Sketches, and Dispatches from Europe in the 1990s

Rating:
Summary: Largely informative
Review: Despite its rather pretentious title, this is a very informative collection of essays on Central and Eastern Europe during the 1990s. Garton Ash has a particularly intimate knowledge of Germany, Poland and the Czech lands, both past and present. His training as a historian and his practical journalistic work in the region make him eminently qualified to write a 'history' of the region's recent past. The only flaws in this book are the several chapters that deal with the former Yugoslavia, as this is an area about which the author knows less (he doesn't speak any of the local languages) and his work suffers for it. The main problem is that he only began visiting the former Yugoslav lands after 1995, and depends on secondary and second-hand sources for his knowledge of wartime events from 1990 to 1995. Thus, he lacks the first-hand experience of the local circumstances that make his observations of Germany, Poland or the former Czechoslovakia so acute. (To his credit, and in contrast to most foreign correspondents, Garton Ash does quite candidly admit that he was playing the war tourist in his trips to Bosnia.) Nevertheless, these shortcomings are compensated by other parts of the book; particularly interesting is the chapter on the Ruthenians - that typical Eastern European stateless nation. Garton Ash is also at his best when discussing the future prospects of a united Europe and the role of Germany in this new continental political order.

Rating:
Summary: A survey of a critical decade
Review: I seized upon this book with eager expectation, as I had thoroughly enjoyed the author's essays in New York Review of Books. I was not disappointed as Garton Ash manages to maintain an overview and grasp of the whole, though some of the essays are short and almost ephemeral. His major point I agree with: Europe made a serious error in the early 90's by turning its back on the new democracies to the East, and going after greater integration of the West. The cost was disastrous in the Balkans - a war which might have been averted. Worse, European foreign policy was shown to be a complete sham, as the US (again) had to lead the countries of Europe to end genocide and terror within its confines. The book focusses on Poland, (former) East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, with forays into the Balkans (mainly former Yugoslavia. There is even a mid-90s meeting with the current President Kostunica of Serbia, when he was leading a small dissident party in protest against Milosovic. The author chronicles the end of Central Europe and the shift of 'the West' to the borders of Belorus and the Ukraine. The ending note is optimistic that Europe can overcome centuries of internecine warfare, and become peaceful and forward-looking. The irony that former communists now democratically lead most of the nations they once oppressed is not lost - 'creative amnesia' is celebrated in these pages. He disagrees with Huntington's clash of civilizations idea (that future conflict will be based on old religious modes of culture) by pointing out how Ruthenians (for example) straddle the Huntington divide. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: For Europhiles
Review: This is a wonderful book of sketches written "on the ground" in Europe in the 1990s. The author is a well-known journalist/intellectual who introduced the West to the Solidarity movement in Poland, and wrote the classic first-hand account of the Revolutions of 1989. This latest release is an engrossing collection of short academic-type essays and societal observations mainly of Central and Eastern Europe. Ash is a master of suscinct, on-the-mark and poignant observations. He draws his readers in and forces them to question the West's attitude toward the postcommunist states, and realize the truth of life in those countries. For anyone interested in this region, or the eastern expansion of the EU and of the idea of "Europe".

Rating:
Summary: For Europhiles
Review: This is a wonderful book of sketches written "on the ground" in Europe in the 1990s. The author is a well-known journalist/intellectual who introduced the West to the Solidarity movement in Poland, and wrote the classic first-hand account of the Revolutions of 1989. This latest release is an engrossing collection of short academic-type essays and societal observations mainly of Central and Eastern Europe. Ash is a master of suscinct, on-the-mark and poignant observations. He draws his readers in and forces them to question the West's attitude toward the postcommunist states, and realize the truth of life in those countries. For anyone interested in this region, or the eastern expansion of the EU and of the idea of "Europe".