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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 picnic -- it 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.Drawing on dozens of original interviews -- including Hungarian activists and border guards, East German refugees, Stasi secret police, and the last Communist prime minister of Hungary -- Matthew Longo tells a gripping and revelatory tale of the unraveling of the Iron Curtain and the birth of a new world order.
About the Author
Matthew Longo is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Leiden University. He received his PhD with distinction from Yale University in 2014 and was awarded the Leo Strauss Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Political Philosophy, given by the American Political Science Association. In addition to his book, The Politics of Borders: Sovereignty, Security, and the Citizen after 9/11 (Cambridge University Press, 2018) , his writing has appeared in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, L.A. Times and Christian Science Monitor and been featured in the Washington Post and on NPR.
