Voices in a Revolution: The Collapse of East German Communism

by Melvin J. Lasky

Overview

Afeatured article in Die Zeit, the leading German weekly, begins with "Melvin, du hast gewonnen"--Mel, you have won! In his extraordinary account of the final days of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) we see the reckoning of a regime, and also the vindication of a life-long devotee of European democracy. It is unlikely that any comparable memoir will be written, since Lasky's career spanned the entire history of wartime and postwar Germany, especially in divided and Wall-torn Berlin.Voices in a Revolution, now in paperback, offers an in-depth portrayal of the Communist police state before the breakdown, followed by a blow-by-blow account of the drama of breakdown and regime transformation. Characters in the everyday cultural world of Germany come alive as harbingers and heralds of the end of the old and the necessity of the new.Lasky understands the role of accident as well as of necessity. The West Germans had all but abandoned the slogan of One People, One Nation when they were faced with the immense task of supervising just such a reintegration. The work ends with the awakening conscience at the very point that the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. This is a memorable work--one likely to sear the conscience of lovers of freedom and analysts of tyranny alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351299824
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/29/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	124
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Melvin J. Lasky

Table of Contents

1: Before the Breakdown; 2: Inside the Police State; 3: The Ornithology of Revolution; 4: Reiner Kunze & the Unlovely Years; 5: Wolf Biermann & His Guitar; 6: An Anatomy of a Wayward Intelligentsia; 7: A Lost Nation?; 8: Güinter Grass & a Hollow Tin Drum; 9: Janka, or Difficulties with the Truth; 10: Coda

Editorial Reviews

Lasky's work is intensely personal, related mainly to his intellectual and political conflicts over four decades as an outspoken "Cold Warrior." Highly anecdotal, the book sparkles with polemics and sketches of East German personalities, providing incisive psychological insights on communism's collaborators and apologists… Lasky's book is good to read.” —R. J. Mitchell, Choice "This is a splendid book, one-sided and polemical and even unfair, but it is eminently readable and worth reading.... He takes on everybody from left to right and treats the reader to rough and strong stuff; and if Lasky's emotions occasionally break through, still the argument and the illustrative quotations are all sound and true." – Peter Coulmas, West-German Radio "Melvin Lasky carries the name of 'cold warrior' like a badge of honor... This reckoning with past errors and present confusions on 'the German question' is full of sarcasm and biting detailbut beyond all the ridicule lies an analysis of why intellectuals go wrong..." – Peter Carstens, Frankfurter Allgemaine Zeitung Melvin J. Lasky (1920-2004) "An informed and informative study of the history of German Communism and the disposition of the Germany republic with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Voices In A Revolution is a scholarly and invaluable addition to academic library 20th Century European History reference collections." – Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher