„The End and the Beginning. The Revolutions of 1989 and the Resurgence of History”, Edited by Vladimir Tismaneanu and Bogdan C. Iacob

A fresh interpretation of the contexts, meanings, and consequences of the revolutions of 1989, coupled with state of the art reassessment of the significance and consequences of the events associated with the demise of communist regimes. The book provides an analysis that takes into account the complexities of the Soviet bloc, the events’ impact upon Europe, and their re-interpretation within a larger global context. Departs from static ways of analysis (events and their significance) bringing forth approaches that deal with both pre-1989 developments and the 1989 context itself, while extensively discussing the ways of resituating 1989 in the larger context of the 20th century and of its lessons for the 21st.

Emphasizes the possibility for re-thinking and re-visiting the filters and means that scholars use to interpret such turning point. The editors perceive the present project as a challenge to existing readings on the complex set of issues and topics presupposed by a re-evaluation of 1989 as a symbol of the change and transition from authoritarianism to democracy.

Contents

Introduction: Preliminaries, Vladimir Tismaneanu, Rethinking 1989

Part One: Memories and Legacies of 1989

Gale Stokes, Purposes of the Past Agnes Heller, Twenty Years After 1989

Karol Edward Sołtan, Moderate Modernity and the Spirit of 1989

Konrad H. Jarausch, People Power? Towards a Historical Explanation of 1989

Cornel Ban, Was 1989 the End of Social Democracy?

Part Two: Moving Away from the Cold War

Mark Kramer,The Demise of the Soviet Bloc Vladislav Zubok, Gorbachev and the Road to 1989

Jeffrey Herf, Success Was Not an Orphan: The Battle of the Euromissiles in 1983 and the Events of 1989 to 1991

A. Ross Johnson, “No One is Afraid to Talk to Us Anymore”. Radio Free Europe in 1989

Part Three: Eastern Europe in 1989

Vladimir Tismaneanu and Bogdan Iacob, Communism and Nationalism before and after 1989

Nick Miller, Where Was the Serbian Havel?

Cătălin Avramescu, Communism and the Experience of Light Electrification and Legitimization in USSR and Romania before 1989

Bradley Abrams, Buying Time: Consumption and Political Legitimization in Late-Communist Czechoslovakia

Ioan T. Morar and David Morar, The Second Hat: Romanian Mass Media from Party Loudspeaker to the Voice of the Oligarchs

Part Four: Aftermaths of Extraordinary Times

Noemi Marin,Totalitarian Discourse and Ceaucescu’s Loss of Words: Memorializing Rhetoric in 1989 Romania

Marci Shore, “A Spectre is Haunting Europe…”: Dissidents, Intellectuals and a New Generation

Lavinia Stan, Memory, Justice and Democratization in Post-Communism

A. James McAdams, Transitional Justice and the Politicization of Memory in post-1989 Europe

Tom Gallagher, Incredible Voyage: Romania’s Communist Speculators Adapt and Survive After 1989

Peter Voitsekhovsky, In the Footsteps of 1989: Ukraine’s Orange Revolution as a Carnival of Anti-Politics

Conclusion: Jeffrey C. Isaac, Shades of Gray: Revisiting the Meanings of 1989

The book was printed in 2012 to CEU Press and have 600 pages.

Informations from website of Central University Press.