Between Past and Future

The Revolutions of 1989 and Their Aftermath
ISBN: 
978-963-9116-71-9
paperback
$35.95 / €29.95 / £25.95
Publication date: 
2000
426 pages

The tenth anniversary of the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe provides the starting point for this thought-provoking analysis. Between Past and Future reflects upon the past ten years and considers what lies ahead for the future. An international group of distinguished academics and public intellectuals, including former dissidents and active politicians, engage in a lively exchange on the antecedents, causes, contexts, meanings and legacies of the 1989 revolutions.

 At a crossroads between past and future, the contributors to this seminal volume address all the crucial issues - liberal democracy and its enemies, modernity and discontent, economic reforms and their social impact, ethnicity, nationalism and religion, geopolitics, electoral systems and political power, European integration and the tragic demise of Yugoslavia.

Based on the results of recent research on the ideologies behind one of the most dramatic systematic transformations in world history, and including contributions from some of the world’s leading experts, Between Past and Future is an essential reference book for scholars and students of all levels, policy-makers, journalists and the general reader interested in the past and future prospects of Central and Eastern Europe.

Preface and Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

I Meanings of 1989

Chapter 1: Between past and future

Chapter 2: On two models of exit from communism

Chapter 3: 1989 as rebirth

Chapter 4: 1989 and the future of democracy

Chapter 5: Habits of the mind II Winners and Losers in the Great Transformation

Chapter 6: The Resurrected independence and the demons of the velvet revolution

Chapter 7: Between idealism and realism

Chapter 8: Postsocialisms

Chapter 9:  Fighting for the public sphere III Vulnerabilities of the New Democracies

Chapter 10: Privatization as transforming persons

Chapter 11: Gendering postsocialism

Chapter 12: The morals of transition

Chapter 13: Counterrevolution

Chapter 14: The handshake tradition

Chapter 15: Politics and freedom IV The New Europe: Prospects for Cooperation and Conflict

Chapter 16: Electrocracies and the Hobbesian fishbowl of post-communist politics

Chapter 17: The Europe agreements and transition

Chapter 18: Nationalism in post-communist Russia

Chapter 19: Chinese bridges to postsocialist Europe

Chapter 20: Mickiewicz and the question of sacred territory V Past, Present, Future

Chapter 21: Conclusions

Agnes Heller, New School University, New York; Jacques Rupnik, Institute of Political Studies, Paris; Karol Soltan, University of Maryland; Adam Michnik, editor-in-chief ofGazeta Wyborcza, Poland; Martin Palouš, Charles University, Prague; Valerie Bunce, Cornell University; Kazimierz Z. Poznanski, University of Washington; Jeffrey C. Isaac, Indiana University; Katherine Verdery, University of Michigan; Gail Kligman, University of California; Susan Gal, University of Chicago; István Rév, Central European University, Budapest; Miklós Haraszti, writer, human rights activist; Ivan Vejvoda, Soros Foundation, Yugoslavia; Karen Dawisha, University of Maryland; Bartlomiej Kaminski, University of Maryland; Ilya Prizel, Johns Hopkins University; Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Indiana University; Irena Grudzińska-Gross, Ford Foundation; Timothy Garton Ash, Oxford University

"This is a book that will serve many intellectual tastes and interests, and that will certainly prove thought provoking for anyone who reads it... I recommend it to anybody who wants to witness the analythical depth and span with which the meaning of 1989 can be approached."
"The list of contributors is impressive with not a single dull chapter…; the editors are to be congratulated for making available such a stimulating and timely, if not timeless, collection."