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THE PICNIC

Matthew Longo

A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain by Matthew Longo

The gripping story of a collective passion for freedom that shook the world.
In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists organized a picnic on the border of Hungary and Austria. But this was not an ordinary picnicit was located on the dangerous militarized frontier known as the Iron Curtain. Tacit permission from the highest state authorities could be revoked at any moment. On wisps of rumor, thousands of East German "vacationers" packed Hungarian campgrounds, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents.

The Pan-European Picnic set the stage for the greatest border breach in Cold War history: hundreds crossed from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Unionthe so-called end of historyall would flow from those dramatic hours. Drawing on exclusive interviews, Matthew Longo gives an invaluable account of historical change, and the disillusionment that followed, as emotionally powerful as it is revealing.

Matthew Longo is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Leiden University (Netherlands) and the author of THE POLITICS OF BORDERS: Sovereignty, Security, and the Citizen after 9/11 (Cambridge, 2018), winner of the Charles Taylor Book Award from the American Political Science Association. He received his PhD with distinction from Yale University in 2014 and was awarded the American Political Science Association's Leo Strauss Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Political Philosophy. His work has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, Democratization, The Nation, the Boston Review, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times; his research has been featured in the Washington Post and on National Public Radio
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Published 2023-11-14 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

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Published 2023-11-07 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

Full of insight and empathy. intimate and compelling, The Picnic is beautifully written and ingeniously plotted. Like all the best books about the past, it brings the present compellingly to life.

THE PICNIC: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain, by Matthew Longo. (Norton, $28.95.) Longo's engaging account of the fall of the Soviet empire focuses on ordinary protesters like the organizers of a picnic attended by hundreds on the border between Austria and Hungary in 1989.

gripping .refreshingly fast-paced . For anyone interested in the collapse of communism this book's account of how Hungary reshaped European history should be required reading.

stunning... heart-wrenching... impressive... This captivating narrative brings an underreported Cold War turning point into focus.

A terrific work of history that also becomes a meditation on what freedom means and how tyrannies fall. Read more...

Extensively documented, well written, and thoughtful in its consideration of what freedom means, this book is an informative and engaging history of the event, its origins, and the aftermath. A much-needed reminder of the inexhaustibility of the human quest for personal and collective freedom.

Matthew Longo has an essay in the current issue of Los Angeles Review of Books on the notion of "Ostalgie", or nostalgia for life before the transition to democracy in East Germany (or more generally, the former Eastern Bloc). Read more...

author's article related to the politics of borders and border control Read more...

a vivid, fast-paced narrative. [that] never lacks verve Read more...

A fascinating reconstruction of the extraordinary moment in 1989 when the spontaneous actions and inactions of a few individuals made history swing wide open on its hinges... With the gifts of a fine documentarian, Longo makes that great moment of collective hopes newly vivid, and the extent to which those hopes remain unfulfilled freshly urgent.

The most brilliant history allows an experience either forgotten or missed to feel close and vividas if we were there. Longo's writing reanimates the heady days of freedom of 1989 and reflects on what was missed in that extraordinary year."

Matthew Longo was a guest on the award-winning podcast Cold War Conversations Read more...

Longo's engrossing and dramatic book adds a new, captivating chapter to the history of the Cold War. Read more...

THE PICNIC got a tip of the hat in Nelson DeMille's latest newsletter: "I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of Cold War history."

A gem of a book, filled with timely and compelling insights into the power of ordinary people and the limitations of authoritarianism.

UK: Bodley Head ; Hungarian: Rubicon

A compelling, poignant, beautifully textured retelling of the collapse of communism in Central Europe through the personal ordeals, trepidations, longings, and disenchantments of its participants -- culminating in a heartfelt rethinking of the meaning of 1989 for the world today.