This important book reassesses a defining historical, political and ideological moment in contemporary history: the 1989 revolutions in central and eastern Europe. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, the authors reconsider such crucial themes as the broader historical significance of the 1989 events, the complex interaction between external and internal factors in the origins and outcomes of the revolutions, the impact of the 'Gorbachev phenomenon', the West and the end of the Cold War, the political and socio-economic determinants of the revolutionary processes in Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, and the competing academic, cultural and ideological perceptions of the year 1989 as communism gave way to post-communist pluralism in the 1990s and beyond. Concluding that the contentious term 'revolution' is indeed apt for the momentous developments in eastern Europe in 1989, this book will be essential reading for undergraduates, postgraduates and specialists alike.

Timeline - Eastern Europe, 1945-91Leaders of East European and Soviet communist parties, 1945-91 East European communist parties and their post-communist successors 1.The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe: origins, processes, outcomes - Kevin McDermott and Matthew Stibbe I. The historical longue durée2. Echoes and precedents: 1989 in historical perspective - Robin OkeyII. The Gorbachev factor3. The multifaceted external Soviet role in processes towards unanticipated revolutions - Mary Buckley4. 'When your neighbour changes his wallpaper': the 'Gorbachev factor' and the collapse of the German Democratic Republic- Peter GriederIII. The East European revolutions: internal and external perspectives5. The demise of communism in Poland: a staged evolution or failed revolution? - Tom Junes6. The international context of Hungarian transition, 1989: the view from Budapest - Lászl? Borhi7. Creating security from below: peace movements in East and West Germany in the 1980s - Holger Nehring8. The demise of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, 1987-89: a socio-economic perspective - Michal Pullmann9. Discourse and power: the FSN and the mythologisation of the Romanian revolution - Kevin Adamson and Sergiu Florean10. A revolution in two stages: the curiosity of the Bulgarian case - Elena SimeonovaIV. Then and now: continuity and change in the academic and cultural perceptions of the communist era and its aftermath11. A hopeless case of optimism? Jürgen Kuczynski and the end of the GDR - Matthew Stibbe12. Meanings of 1989: right-wing discourses in post-communist Poland - Artur Lipinski13. From the 'thirst for change' and 'hunger for truth' to a 'revolution that hardly happened': public protests and reconstructions of the past in Bulgaria in the 1990s - Nikolai Vukov14 Afterword: the discursive constitution of revolution and revolution envy - James KrapflSelect bibliography Index