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19th out of 54 books
—
119 voters
The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism
The Pulitzer Prize-winning look at the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe
Paperback, 464 pages
Published
March 19th 1996
by Vintage
(first published April 25th 1995)
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A strong and off the fence opinionated view of 3 countries coming to terms with their communist past. For our menu I would recommend reading the Joke by Kundera for starter then a staunch and no quarter Orwell's 1984 for main dish followed by this book as a dish before dessert...
Then The Little Prince for dessert. To give you back hope after this heavy meal! This books deals with the past of 3 countries Poland, the Czech Republic and East Germany (part of Germany now; as info for the younger gen...more
Then The Little Prince for dessert. To give you back hope after this heavy meal! This books deals with the past of 3 countries Poland, the Czech Republic and East Germany (part of Germany now; as info for the younger gen...more
کتابی درباره آنچه که کمونیسم بر سر کشورها و مردمان بلوک شرق آورد ، مردمانی مطیع همچون اسلواک ها ، روشفکران پراگی ، رومانتیک ها و شجاعان لهستانی و ... . نویسنده خود روزنامه نگاری بوده که تجربه حضور در دیکتاتوری های آمریکای لاتین را داشته است و با دید باز و تجربه خوب به سراغ دیکتاتور های کمونیست و روشنفکرانی که در بند بوده اند می رود و سعی میکند تصویری وافعی از آن چه در سه کشور چکسلواکی ، لهستانی و آلمان شرقی پیش آمده است ارائه دهد .
کتاب ترجمه بسیار خوبی دارد و نویسنده به تصویری ترین شکل ممکن کتا...more
کتاب ترجمه بسیار خوبی دارد و نویسنده به تصویری ترین شکل ممکن کتا...more
When Communism came crashing down alongside the Iron Curtain at the turn of the 1990s, it left a changed Eastern Europe to sift through the debris. Former Soviet Bloc countries found themselves struggling to come to terms with the events of the last fifty years, and to establish new systems in the shadow of the old.
This is the conflict Tina Rosenberg portrays in "The Haunted Land." A journalistic veteran of the South American dictatorships, Rosenberg travels to Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the fo...more
This is the conflict Tina Rosenberg portrays in "The Haunted Land." A journalistic veteran of the South American dictatorships, Rosenberg travels to Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the fo...more
So. Here's the problem. This is a very excellent book about the effects of Communism on people, even a dozen years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It's exhaustively researched, the author's biases and personal feelings on the subjects are expressed in a way that you can fully take them into account, and the human stories that this book relates are moving and important to wrestle with in this modern time.
However, it is 400 pages of bad news. Humans are weak, bureaucracy is strong and destructi...more
However, it is 400 pages of bad news. Humans are weak, bureaucracy is strong and destructi...more
The Haunted Land is an insightful look into the struggles former Eastern Bloc countries faced in coming to terms with their totalitarian pasts. It reminded me a lot of Hannah Arendt's book on Adolf Eichmann and the banality of evil.
Apr 20, 2007
Mike
marked it as to-read
Shame on me. I bought this book sometime around 1995-96. The book is about Poland, East Germany and Czechoslovakia and how they are dealing with the (then) recent fall of communism. For some reason I never dove into it. Maybe it's because I was taking a lot of political science and history classes at that time. In other words...my leisure reading had nothing to do with history or politics. After reading word after word of Francis Fukuyama, Machiavelli, Marx, Hegel, Jefferson.....I just couldn't...more
A fantastic look at 3 Eastern European countries after the fall.
an incredible book that deserves another read.
I really enjoyed the personal stories embedded in this book, from generals to ordinary people. Rosenberg also did a great job of using individual stories to elucidate larger issues. The insights into how Communism/totalitarianism affected society and culture as well as politics, and how it shaped an individual's sense of self, emotional life, etc.
This book compares the experiences of four Central European countries coming to terms with their Communist pasts. Interesting, well-written, and well-researched, but I wish she had provided more analysis of the differences and similarities among the countries in question, rather than just including each as an entirely separate narrative.
The human stories told in this book are ones I had not heard before and were very inspiring. It gave me a good feel for the struggles after the wall fell and the difficulties in putting their lives back together and dealing with the past. I never tire of reading about the Stasi and all the files and secret spies and reporting etc.
The stories of the struggles of those who cooperated with the secret police (in all its various forms) under Communism are really powerful. Gives some interesting insight into what folks in former communist countries went through and how the experience may still linger in their relationships.
Reinforcing the platitude that truth is stranger than fiction. Laced with weird, weird stories of things that some European governments did for literally no better reason than to mess with people.
The various ways in which the well-intentioned can make things go wrong. How national culture does indeed influence the choices people make.
In the style of Balken Ghosts but the focus is on Czech Republic, Poland, and East Germany.
May 17, 2013
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Tina Rosenberg, the winner of a MacArthur grant, is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a former member of the Times editorial board. Her book The Haunted Land won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
More about Tina Rosenberg...
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Mar 30, 2011 07:15pm