Description

The Iron Curtain divided the continent of Europe north to south with the Berlin Wall as its most visible infamous manifestation Since the Cold War ended and these borders came down Europe has transformed itself New generations have grown up freed from the tensions and restrictions of the past But what do the Curtain and the Wall mean today What has happened to the people and places they divided What have they left in their wake
In a major new book Timothy Phillips travels the route of the Iron Curtain from deep inside the Arctic Circle to the meeting point of Armenia Azerbaijan and Turkey He explores the borderlands where the clash of civilisations was at its most intense between 1945 and 1989 and where the worlds most powerful ideologies became tangible in reinforced concrete and barbed wire He looks at the new Europe that emerged from the ruins The people he meets bear vivid witness to times of change There are those who look back on the Cold War with nostalgia and affection Others despise it unable to forgive the hard and sometimes lost decades that their families friends and nations endured These old fault lines have much to tell us about Europe now and about our societies current disputes over borders and about belonging and the meaning of progress
The Curtain and the Wall transports the reader across 5000 kilometres of Europe and through eight decades to show how one of the defining stories of the 20th century continues to shape our world today