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16 - 1989 as a year of great significance

from Part III - Moments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Nicole Rebec  and
Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Edited by
J. R. McNeill  and
Kenneth Pomeranz
J. R. McNeill
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Kenneth Pomeranz
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Summary

This chapter considers each kind of special year 1989, focusing especially on the hinge year and movement year categories, which seem the most compelling. If 1989 divides the world into a time before and a time after, then it does so because it saw the end of Communist Party rule in Eastern and Central Europe. The chapter offers a brief account of Chinese events that highlights contrasts. A key contrast between the Chinese protests and those in other Communist Party-run countries in 1989 has to do with patriotism. Despite major political transformations in Latin America, fear of brewing economic crises in the region dominated policy discussions. While in many parts of the world people actively ushered in a new era of democratic and neoliberal economic reform measures, massive pushbacks against similar measures in countries like Venezuela complicate one of the more dominant memories of 1989 as a year of successful, nonviolent people power.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 376 - 398
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

Ash, Timothy Garton. “1989!” New York Review of Books, November 5, 2009.Google Scholar
Axworthy, Michael. Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic. Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Barmé, Geremie and Jaivin, Linda, eds. New Ghosts, Old Dreams: Chinese Rebel Voices. New York: Crown, 1992.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Craig. Neither Gods Nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Caryl, Christian. Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century. New York: Basic Books, 2013.Google Scholar
Chirot, Daniel, ed. The Crisis of Communism and the Decline of the Left: The Revolutions of 1989. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Day, Angela. Red Light to Starboard: Recalling the Exxon Valdez Oil Disaster. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Elliot, Michael, ed. TIME 1989: The Year that Defines Today’s World. New York: Time Books, 2009.Google Scholar
Gwertzman, Bernard and Kaufman, Michael T., eds. The Collapse of Communism. New York: Times Books, 1990.Google Scholar
Han, Minzhu, ed. Cries for Democracy. Princeton University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Hinton, Carma and Gordon, Richard, directors. The Gate of Heavenly Peace (film). Long Bow Group, 1995.Google Scholar
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Lim, Louisa. The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited. Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Michnik, Adam. Letters From Freedom: Post-Cold War Realities and Perspectives. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth J. and Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N., eds. Popular Protest and Poltiical Culture in Modern China. 2nd edn. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Picou, J. Steven, Gill, Duane A., and Cohen, Maurie J., eds. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: Readings on a Modern Social Problem. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co., 2008.Google Scholar
Rushdie, Salman. Joseph Anton: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2012.Google Scholar
Smith, Peter H. Democracy in Latin America: Political Change in Comparative Perspective. Oxford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Suny, Ronald. The Soviet Experiment: Russia, The U.S.S.R. and the Successor States. 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Tismaneanu, Vladimir and Antohi, Sorin, eds. Between Past and Future: The Revolutions of 1989 and Their Aftermath. Budapest: Central European University, 2000.Google Scholar
Worden, Nigel. The Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Apartheid, Democracy. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2011.Google Scholar
Wiener, Jon. How We Forgot the Cold War. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013.Google Scholar

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