Customer Reviews

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

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Ash, through his incomparable access to the leaders of the resistance movements in Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, and Berlin, provides a very well rendered and beautifully detailed account of his observations in those cities, and he seems to have been in all the right places at all the rights time. He also includes a very insightfull and well informed interpretation of the long range inplications of what he observed. It must be remembered, as he points out himself, that what he saw was only a tiny portion of all that went on, and the observations of many other people who were on the scene have to be put together to form the whole picture.

I decided to read this after finishing Tina Rosenberg's THE HAUNTED LAND and Slavenka Drakulic's CAFE EUROPA. Both of these books cite THE MAGIC LANTERN, and I see why. Timothy Garton Ash's reportage is personal, immediate, and fascinating. As I write, these events took place more than sixteen years ago, yet the book puts you right there. It's a good, lively introduction to these largely bloodless revolutions and well worth reading. The chapters on Prague and Warsaw are highlights.

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.

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.

An often eye-witness account of the democratic revolutions of 1989 in Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

The writing is a little uneven but it provides an excellent inside account of exceptional historic events. Ash left me with a very strong sense of the contingent and uncertain nature of the revolutions. Miscommunications, errors, spur-of-the-moment statements, all combined to move events forward much, much more quickly than any of the participants expected.

Yet these succeeded in being peaceful revolutions, driven by a deliberate choice by their leaders to take and hold the moral high ground. There was a corresponding inner collapse by the existing authorities, who really had nothing to which they themselves were committed or could fight to defend.

I found this an inspiring tonic after reading Richard Evans' grim "The Third Reich in Power". Ash has left me feeling much more optimistic about human nature!

Ash was not in Prague until ten days after the revolution started on November 17th 1989 with the 'student massacre.' He really missed the most exciting days of the revolution on the streets. However, he has always been a good name-dropper and in touch with dissendent leaders in Prague despite what they may say about him. This book gives the reader access to some of their (the dissidents) thoughts during the 1990s which are often forgotten today. His section on Prague is fairly good but the other "revolutions" were superficial in coverage. Unlike other books by Ash, this one seems to be a quick and hasty preparation to strike while the fire of revolution was hot in the media spotlight. It is worth reading to learn a perspective on the people of 1989 in Central Europe.

A good snapshot of the mood during 1989 and how events in the four featured countries were connected. Also, thoughtful insights as to how to view this book, especially this edition, which is re-printed many years later. Ash's theory as to what, if any, learnings are to come out of how each government went about their transformation is especially relevant given the status of those same governments today. Not always the easiest read, nor the best on the subject, but a good companion for further investigations.

It was a very informative book, especially considering the author could write it from the point of view that he did. The only major downside, which I will point out is a downside on my part and not his, is that I sometimes would get a little confused when he mentioned too many foreign names.
Nonetheless, it was an excellently written book.

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.

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.