Author tells ‘untold story’

Saturday, 05 December 2009 13:33

Michael Meyer, author of “The Year that Changed the World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall,” will discuss his new book at the New Canaan Library at 4 p.m. Sunday, December 6, in the Adrian Lamb Room as part of the “Authors on Stage” series. The series is co-sponsored by Elm Street Books.

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, many still believe it was the words of President Ronald Regan, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!,” that brought the Cold War to an end.

Michael Meyer disagrees, and in his account explains why.

He draws together on-the-ground accounts of the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the opening of the Hungarian border, the Velvet Revolution in Prague and the collapse of the infamous wall in Berlin, and shows that American intransigence was only one of many factors that provoked world change.

Meyer, a former Newsweek bureau chief for Germany, Central Europe and the Balkans between 1988 and 1992, contends that the most important events during this time occurred secretly, taken by leaders such as poet and playwright Vaclav Havel in Prague, the Baltic shipwright Lech Walesa, the reform prime minister in Budapest Miklos Nemeth and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.

Meyer is currently the communications director and chief speechwriter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Between 1988 and 1992, he was Newsweek’s bureau chief for Germany, Central Europe and the Balkans, writing more than a dozen cover stories on the break-up of communist Europe and German unification. He is the winner of two Overseas Press Club Awards and appears regularly as a commentator for MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, C-Span, NPR and other broadcast networks. He previously worked at the Washington Post and Congressional Quarterly. He is the author of the Alexander Complex, an examination of the psychology of American empire builders.

All library programs are free and open to the public. Registration is recommended by calling 203-594-5040, e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visiting newcanaanlibrary.org. Books will be available for purchase and signing.