The year 1989 marked a turning point in world history, a watershed year of unprecedented drama and political significance. No matter how one looks at those events-as the fall of communism, the democratization of Eastern Europe, or the end of the cold war-it is important to understand how the world travelled the distance of time, space, and ideology to arrive at the Berlin Wall and tear it down. David Mason provides that understanding in a concise synthesis of history, politics, economics, sociology, literature, philosophy, and popular, as well as traditional, culture. He shows how all these...