1989 The Year That Changed the World

Michael Meyer begs to differ. In this compelling account of the revolutions that roiled Eastern Europe in 1989, Meyer draws together 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 to show 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 Vaclav Havel in Prague, Poland's Lech Walęsa, Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth in Budapest, and, of course, Mikhail Gorbachev.