Lighting the Night: Revolution in Eastern Europe: A Personal Look at the People and Passions Behind the Collapse of Communism - Hardcover

Echikson, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0283999934 ISBN 13: 9780283999932

Publisher: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1990

Synopsis

For five years, journalist William Echikson has reported from Eastern Europe, travelling from Poland in the north to Yugoslavia in the south, documenting the daily struggle against the Communist system. Here he profiles the people he knows who brought about the collapse, from Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa to Miklos Haraszti and George Konrad. He also tells of the ordinary people, who stared down tanks in Budapest and danced on the Berlin Wall. He examines the deeper reasons behind the changes, and the struggles that still lie ahead.

About this title

From Library Journal

Echikson was The Christian Science Monitor 's correspondent in Eastern Europe during the mid- to late-1980s; this book is drawn from that reporting. It is an effort to do what so many journalists do--that is, to use personal encounters as a fabric on which to stitch broader social observations. He first provides thumbnail histories (such as "The Landscape"), then deals with social strata and groups who were political actors in 1989-90. In both cases, deft portraits of the named and unnamed energize Echikson's prose. He does much less well when he tries to be a social scientist; recounting personal tales does not suffice for analysis of processes affecting nation-states. While better than Elie Abel's The Shattered Bloc ( LJ 5/1/90) on many accounts, this volume is still no match for a serious study such as James Brown's Surge to Freedom (Duke Univ. Pr. 1988), whose update is expected for the spring of 1991.
-Daniel Nelson, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- In this well-written, insightful work, Echikson analyzes the revolutions in Eastern Europe, taking into account the similarities and differences in each society that influenced its respective country's road to democratization. The book is divided into a narrative of the events in each country, followed by chapters on the roles of various segments of its society--the students, the intellectuals, the military, the Communist bureaucrats, the Jews--in influencing the outcome. It concludes with a review of the causes and effects of the revolution, highlighting the roles of Soviet glasnost , the democratic movements, and the economic problems in fomenting the unrest as well as charting some of the movement's less desirable consequences. Weaving various strands into a seamless whole, Echikson provides easy and informative reading.
- Richard Lisker, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sidgwick & Jackson
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0283999934
• ISBN 13: 9780283999932
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 295