The Revolutions of 1989

14 March 2016, 6.00-8.30pm
Book launch of The Revolutions of 1989 edited by Wolfgang Mueller, Michael Gehler and Arnold Suppan with a discussion with the editors and HE Martin Eichtinger, Austrian Ambassador to the UK.

Only a few people foresaw the sudden and momentous events of 1989: within months the seemingly unshakable communist regimes of Eastern Europe were washed away and with them the postwar international order. This book gives an overview of the national revolutions and external reactions. It contains chapters on the revolutions in all major countries of the former communist bloc as well as on the responses of all major international players.

The first part examines the revolutionary events - from above and from low - in Eastern Europe as well as China and their backgrounds. The second part deals with Soviet and Western perceptions and responses. The third part focuses on the aftermath of the revolutions, on societal transformations, the acceptance of the new Central European democracies to NATO and the EU, and on the memory of 1989.