Between Past and Future: The Revolution of 1989 and Their Aftermath [Paperback]

Sorin Antohi (Editor), Vladimir Tismaneanu (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9639116718 | ISBN-13: 978-9639116719 | Publication Date: February 2000

The tenth anniversary of the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe is the basis for this text which reflects upon the past ten years and what lies ahead for the future. An international group of academics and public intellectuals, including former dissidents and active politicians, engage in an exchange on the antecedents, causes, contexts, meanings and legacies of the 1989 revolutions. The contributors address various issues including liberal democracy and its enemies; modernity and discontent; economic reforms and their social impact; ethnicity; nationalism and religion; geopolitics; electoral systems and political power; European integration; and the demise of Yugoslavia.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The past is gone but the future is not yet clear. The title of this important collection puts the post-communist predicament well. There is a sense in which East Central Europe is still suspended in mid-air: between the high moral expectations of 1989 and the realities of a new century, between deep historical conflicts and hopes of a European Union, between a framework of democracy and the threats which make it vulnerable. Sorin Antohi and Vladimir Tismaneanu have assembled a distinguished cast of committed analysts to help us understand the risks of a great transformation. -- Lord Dahrendorf, Jan 2000

Product Details

• Paperback: 414 pages
• Publisher: Central European Univ Pr (February 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9639116718
• ISBN-13: 978-9639116719
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,638,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons of the First Post-Communist Decade, July 10, 2000

By 

Dragos Petrescu (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Past and Future: The Revolution of 1989 and Their Aftermath (Paperback)

Ten years after the revolutions of 1989 and the unexpected collapse of communist regimes in East-Central Europe, a conference was held at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary from 26 to 29 March 1999. The conference brought together scholars and critical intellectuals from both East and West, all of them interested in the meanings and legacies of the 1989 revolutions. The book Between Past and Future: The Revolutions of 1989 and Their Aftermath, edited by Sorin Antohi and Vladimir Tismaneanu and published by Central European University Press resulted from the excellent papers presented at that conference which, it may be argued, was the conference dedicated to the revolutions of 1989 and the first decade that followed. The names of the authors present in the volume reveal not only the high level of the debates, but also the scholarly interest in the events that put an end to a divided Europe. The book is organized on four major sections/topics and a concluding chapter: (1) "Meanings of 1989: Present Significance of the Past," which contains studies and essays authored by Agnes Heller, Jacques Rupnik, Karol Soltan, Jeffrey C. Isaac, and Sorin Antohi; (2) "Winners and Losers in the Great Transformation," with contributions by Adam Michnik, Martin Palous, Valerie Bunce, and Vladimir Tismaneanu; (3) "Vulnerabilities of the New Democracies," with contributions by Katherine Verdery, Gail Kligman and Susan Gal, Kazimierz Z. Poznanski, Istvan Rev, Miklos Haraszti, and Ivan Vejvoda and (4) "The New Europe: Prospects for Cooperation and Conflict" with contributions by Karen Dawisha, Bartlomiej Kaminski, Ilya Prizel, Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Irena Grudzinska Gross. The final section, "Past, Present, Future," is a concluding essay by Timothy Garton Ash. Considering the relative high number of contributions to the volume, a comprehensive analysis of each study/essay cannot be made. However, it is important to stress that the variety of the arguments, ideas, and demonstrations provided by the contributors reveals the theoretical richness and originality of the scholarship focusing on the 1989 revolutions. Those interested in the collapse of communism and the 1989 revolutions will find different approaches to the 1989 events and the subsequent transitions to a real democracy. Unfortunately, there is not a unique, valid explanation for what happened in East-Central Europe in 1989. As Garton Ash rhetorically put it, "Ten years on, what do we know?" His answer, "we know more about the consequences" contains the elements that make of 1989 a fascinating object of research. Although we now know a great deal about 1989, those events are still mysterious and captivating. The contributors to the present volume have succeeded in convincing us that the fascination of 1989 remains intact.