Gale Stokes (1933–2012)

A tight and engaging read - a strong narrative of the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Stokes is adept at selecting words that help recreate the excitement that were so much a part of the late 80s. I wouldn't say that is adds a great deal of factual information to the literature on the topic, but it is a wonderful narrative appropriate for people with many different levels of expertise on the topic.

You frequently feel the author's excitement at the events being described.

2604 The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, by Gale Stokes (read 11 May 1994) This is by a history professor at Rice and it is very well-done as it tells of the amazing collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. Some words gave me goose-pimples: "By midnight hundreds of thousands of ecstatic people were pouring through the Wall and a delirious celebration, joined in by both Ossies and Wessies, as the East and West Germans refer to each other, engulfed the show more entire city." There are similar words on the Czechoslovak revolution. What glorious days--those days in late 1989! A great book, relating ecstatic events. show less

I read this for my eastern European history class. this is a collection of primary source documents about the history of that region. There are little blurbs explaining each section of this book and I think they do a good job of laying out the history. This isn't a book I would read for fun but if you really love eastern European history this will definitely be a good book for understanding the politics of the region.

8