1989 Revolutionary Ideas and Ideals by Krishan Kumar

"With thoroughness and insight, Kumar scans the vast canvas of the slow and relentless implosion of the communist system, and presents his investigation with exemplary clarity and elegance. This achievement will be difficult to match, and all further trials to grasp the logic of the seminal events of 1989 would have to engage with Kumar's though-providing synthesis."
- Zygmunt Bauman, University of Leeds/Warsaw University

In 1989, from East Berlin to Budapest and Bucharest to Moscow, communism was falling. The walls were coming down and the world was being changed in ways that seemed entirely new. The conflict of ideas and ideals that began with the French Revolution of 1789 culminated in these revolutions, which raised the prospect of the "return of Europe" of East and Central European nations, the "restarting of their history," even, for som, the "end of history." What such assertions and aspirations meant, and what the larger events that inspired them mean-not just for the world-are the questions Krishan Kumar explores in 1989.

More books by Krishan Kumar

• From Post-Industrial to Post-Modern Society: Second Edition
• Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times
• Prophecy & Progress: The Sociology of Industrial & Post-Industrial Society
• Revolution: The Theory & Practice of a European Idea
• Dilemmas of Liberal Democracies: Studies in Fred Hirsch's Social Limits to Growth
• The Rise of Modern Society: Aspects of the Social & Political Development of the West
• Utopianism
• Utopias and the Millennium
• Public & Private in Thought & Practice
• The Making of English National Identity