Victor Sebestyen: Revolution 1989 - The Fall of the Soviet Empire

Hardcover: 451 pages
Publisher: Pantheon Books 2009

For millions of people the year 1989 became synonymous with freedom as the turbulent year brought about Europe-wide revolution and the capitulation of the Soviet empire. Sebestyen's book is a quick-read, lively journalistic account of a few of the key events. 

"[Gorbachev's] dissertation for entry to the university was on the subject ' Stalin is our battle glory, Stalin is the Flight of our youth'." p. 115

Second Opinion: Tibor Fischer / Telegraph

¶ 12/25/2009 04:59:00 ip.

Paul Johnson: Modern Times - A History of the World from the 1920s to the 1990s

Paperback: 876 pages
Publisher: Phoenix Giant 1996

"Indeed the historian of the modern world is sometimes tempted to reach the depressing conclusion that progress is destructive to certitude." p. 699

To be honest, I was expecting a lot more text on the good stuff of modern times, like jazz, rock 'n roll, motorcycles or globalization... Nevertheless, Modern Times is an important book. Johnson's interpretation of the past century draws up nietzschean nightmare - a vision of strong men, obsessed with the "will to power", embarking on disastrous experiments with the humankind. Indeed, the chapter on the Bandung generation (stating from page 466) is the first to discuss anything else than war and destruction... And that chapter too ends with a sordid note on the plight of the Third World dictatorships and coups and genocide... 

Second Opinion: Dan Geddes / The Satirist

¶ 12/24/2009 07:12:00 ip.