The Collapse [electronic resource] : The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall
Sarotte, Mary Elise2014
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On the night of November 9, 1989, massive crowds surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that caught the world by surprise: East Germans could now move freely to the West. The Wall — infamous symbol of divided Cold War Europe — seemed to be falling. But the opening of the gates that night was not planned by the East German ruling regime — nor was it the result of a bargain between either Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It was an accident. In The Collapse, prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte reveals how a perfect storm of decisions made by daring underground revolutionaries, disgruntled Stasi officers, and dictatorial party bosses sparked an unexpected series of events culminating in the chaotic fall of the Wall. With a novelist's eye for character and detail, she brings to vivid life a story that sweeps across Budapest, Prague, Dresden, and Leipzig and up to the armed checkpoints in Berlin. We meet the revolutionaries Roland Jahn, Aram Radomski, and Siggi Schefke, risking it all to smuggle the truth across the Iron Curtain; the hapless Politburo member GüSchabowski, mistakenly suggesting that the Wall is open to a press conference full of foreign journalists, including NBC's Tom Brokaw; and Stasi officer Harald Jär, holding the fort at the crucial border crossing that night. Soon, Brokaw starts broadcasting live from Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, where the crowds are exulting in the euphoria of newfound freedom — and the dictators are plotting to restore control. Drawing on new archival sources and dozens of interviews, The Collapse offers the definitive account of the night that brought down the Berlin Wall.
Main title:
The Collapse [electronic resource] : The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall / Mary Elise Sarotte
Author:
Sarotte, Mary Elise, Author
Imprint:
[Place of publication not identified] : Basic Books, 2014
Collation:
1 online resource (1 text file)
System details:
Mode of access: Internet
Biography/History:
Mary E. Sarotte is a Visiting Professor in the departments of History and Government at Harvard University and was previously Professor of International Relations and History at the University of Southern California. A former White House Fellow and Humboldt Scholar, Sarotte has worked as a journalist for Time, Die Zeit, and the Economist, and appears as a political commentator on the BBC, CNN International, and Sky News. She is the author of three previous books, including 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe, which was a Financial Times book of the year and which won both the Shulman Prize for best book on Communist foreign policy and the Ferrell Prize for the best book on US foreign policy. Sarotte holds an AB from Harvard and a doctorate in history from Yale.
ISBN:
9780465056903
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
2797127
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