The Magic Lantern : The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague

Rating:
Summary: The Right Person, At The Right Time, At the Right Place
Review: Few people can be as lucky as Timothy Garton Ash. I've read his book "We The People" which I believe to be the same with this book. The book is divided into chapters concerning the "refolutions" (as Ash calls them) in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. In the last 2 chapters, Ash makes a very good analysis and comparison of these 4 revolutions. If you would like to get a comprehensive idea about how these revolutions in these 4 states came out, then this book is absolutely for you. The book has certain details which cannot be found in any other book.

Rating:
Summary: The Right Person, At The Right Time, At the Right Place
Review: Few people can be as lucky as Timothy Garton Ash. I've read his book "We The People" which I believe to be the same with this book. The book is divided into chapters concerning the "refolutions" (as Ash calls them) in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. In the last 2 chapters, Ash makes a very good analysis and comparison of these 4 revolutions. If you would like to get a comprehensive idea about how these revolutions in these 4 states came out, then this book is absolutely for you. The book has certain details which cannot be found in any other book.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: This is a behind the scenes look at some of the most inspiring movements of our generation. You cannot read the pages of this book and not feel the importance of the moment and the power of the ideas. This book gives you a better understand of the climate at the time of the fall of the eastern block and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

Rating:
Summary: One-fourth of an interesting book
Review: Timothy Garton - Ash is a professional journalist who had the fortune to play historian as the Cold War ended. As a writer who had access to the anti-communist leaders in East Europe in 1989 - 1990, he provides an inside glimpse in exactly how the revolutions took place in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and East Germany.
1989 was a magical, wonderful year. Ash's discussion of the event is similarly engrossing.

Rating:
Summary: a snapshot of a magical time
Review: Timothy Garton - Ash is a professional journalist who had the fortune to play historian as the Cold War ended. As a writer who had access to the anti-communist leaders in East Europe in 1989 - 1990, he provides an inside glimpse in exactly how the revolutions took place in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and East Germany.
1989 was a magical, wonderful year. Ash's discussion of the event is similarly engrossing.

Rating:
Summary: One-fourth of an interesting book
Review: Timothy Garton Ash should have stuck with Prague. While he may have witnessed the fall of Communism in four countries, he only had the "inside story" in Czechoslovakia. His reports on Poland, Budapest and East Germany seem rather superficial. I read this book in its 1999 British edition, titled "We the People." Perhaps this 1993 edition is slightly different, but the one I read was full of metaphors and references I didn't get. If you're interested in this underresearched period of history, I'd recommend reading this book -- at your library. I don't know if it's worth a purchase.