The Picnic: A Rush for Freedom and the Collapse of Communism - Couverture souple

Longo, Matthew

 
9781324086321: The Picnic: A Rush for Freedom and the Collapse of Communism
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 1324086327 ISBN 13 : 9781324086321
Editeur : W. W. Norton & Company, 2024

Synopsis

In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists organized a picnic on the border of Hungary and Austria. But this was not an ordinary picnic--it was located on the dangerous militarized frontier known as the Iron Curtain. Tacit permission from the highest state authorities could be revoked at any moment. On wisps of rumor, thousands of East German "vacationers" packed Hungarian campgrounds, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The Pan-European Picnic set the stage for the greatest border breach in Cold War history: hundreds crossed from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West.

Drawing on dozens of original interviews--including Hungarian activists and border guards, East German refugees, Stasi secret police, and the last Communist prime minister of Hungary--Matthew Longo tells a gripping and revelatory tale of the unraveling of the Iron Curtain and the birth of a new world order. Just a few months after the Picnic, the Berlin Wall fell, and the freedom for which the activists and refugees had abandoned their homes, risked imprisonment, sacrificed jobs, family, and friends, was suddenly available to everyone. But were they really free? And why, three decades since the Iron Curtain was torn down, have so many sought once again to build walls?

Cinematically told, The Picnic recovers a time when it seemed possible for the world to change. With insight and panache, Longo explores the opportunities taken--and the opportunities we failed to take--in that pivotal moment.

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À propos de l?auteur

Matthew Longo is assistant professor of political science at Leiden University and award-winning author of The Politics of Borders: Sovereignty, Security, and the Citizen after 9/11. A native New Yorker, he lives in the Netherlands.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
W. W. Norton & Company
Date d'édition
2024
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
1324086327
ISBN 13 
9781324086321
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
320
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

Friedensallee 273
Hamburg
22763
Allemagne

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9781847927798: The Picnic: The true story of the greatest border breach in Cold War history

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  1847927793 ISBN 13 :  9781847927798
Editeur : Bodley Head, 2024
Couverture rigide