1989 in a Global Perspective

Few revolutions in the 20th century have stimulated the fantasies and imaginations of the contemporaries more than the multiple events that unfolded in or culminated around the year 1989. In the public imaginary, fundamental political and sociocultural change in many different countries around the globe is mostly associated with the end of socialist rule and the introduction of some form of democracy. But neither was 1989 the end of all communist regimes nor was the chain of events limited to what at that time was the Eastern bloc with all its peripheries. In this volume, it is briefly recalled how “1989” has unfolded around the globe. In the first chapter of this volume, Matthias Middell (Leipzig) addresses the category of global moments in its relationship to the conceptual framework of critical junctures of globalization as a useful tool for rereading global history before he comes to its application to “1989”. The subsequent first section of this volume focuses on Eastern Europe, the following deal with the perception of 1989 in different countries all over the world. The volume is concluded by a chapter by Bruce Mazlish (Boston), who reflects on the global importance of “1989” by linking such diverse events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the subsequent demise of the Soviet empire, and the events at Tiananmen Square.