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

by Timothy Garton Ash (Author) "One day in April 1989 I found myself in the Dimitrov coal-mine at Bytom, in Upper Silesia..." (more)
Key Phrases: East Germany, Magic Lantern, Wenceslas Square (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A wonderful combination of first-class reporting, brilliant political analysis and reflection." -- The New York Times Book Review

"[Garton Ash's] own involvement in these events, intellectual and emotional, is of such intensity that he can speak...from the inside as well as from the outside. Yet the sense of historic dimension...is never lost. And the quality of the writing places it clearly in the category of good literature." -- George Kennan

The Magic Lantern is one of those rare books that define a historic moment, written by a brilliant witness who was also a participant in epochal events. Whether covering Poland's first free parliamentary elections -- in which Solidarity found itself in the position of trying to limit the scope of its victory -- or sitting in at the meetings of an unlikely coalition of bohemian intellectuals and Catholic clerics orchestrating the liberation of Czechoslovakia, Garton Ash writes with enormous sympathy and power.

In this book -- now with a new Afterword by the author -- Garton Ash creates a stunningly evocative portrait of the revolutions that swept Communism from Eastern Europe in 1989 and whose after-effects will resonate for years to come.

"Along with the historian's long view, Gatton Ash has an eye and an ear for the telling detail." -- Washington Past Book World -- Review

Review
"[Garton Ash's] own involvement in these events, intellectual and emotional, is of such intensity that he can speak...from the inside as well as from the outside. Yet the sense of historic dimension...is never lost. And the quality of the writing places it clearly in the category of good literature." -- George Kennan

The Magic Lantern is one of those rare books that define a historic moment, written by a brilliant witness who was also a participant in epochal events. Whether covering Poland's first free parliamentary elections -- in which Solidarity found itself in the position of trying to limit the scope of its victory -- or sitting in at the meetings of an unlikely coalition of bohemian intellectuals and Catholic clerics orchestrating the liberation of Czechoslovakia, Garton Ash writes with enormous sympathy and power.

In this book -- now with a new Afterword by the author -- Garton Ash creates a stunningly evocative portrait of the revolutions that swept Communism from Eastern Europe in 1989 and whose after-effects will resonate for years to come.

"Along with the historian's long view, Gatton Ash has an eye and an ear for the telling detail." -- Washington Past Book World

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (August 31, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679740481
• ISBN-13: 978-0679740483
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,498 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent snapshot of events of 1989 and 1990 in E. Eur., July 1, 1999

By A Customer

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book, January 29, 2006

By	M. Schoerner (South Pasadena, Ca USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Right Person, At The Right Time, At the Right Place, June 18, 2000

By	Aykut (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

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.