The File: A Personal History Paperback - 1998
by Timothy Garton Ash
A journalist renowned for his coverage of the downfall of communism in Eastern Europe produces a gripping personal account of state surveillance and individual betrayal in Cold War Germany.
First line
I SIT DOWN AT A SMALL PLASTIC-WOOD TABLE IN FRAU Schulz's cramped room in the Federal Authority for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic: the ministry of the files.
From the jacket flap
"Eloquent, aware and scrupulous . . . a rich and instructive examination of the Cold War past." --The New York Times
In 1978 a romantic young Englishman took up residence in Berlin to see what that divided city could teach him about tyranny and freedom. Fifteen years later Timothy Garton Ash--who was by then famous for his reportage of the downfall of communism in Central Europe--returned. This time he had come to look at a file that bore the code-name "Romeo." The file had been compiled by the Stasi, the East German secret police, with the assistance of dozens of informers. And it contained a meticulous record of Garton Ash's earlier life in Berlin.
In this memoir, Garton Ash describes what it was like to rediscover his younger self through the eyes of the Stasi, and then to go on to confront those who actually informed against him to the secret police. Moving from document to remembrance, from the offices of British intelligence to the living rooms of retired Stasi officers, The File is a personal narrative as gripping, as disquieting, and as morally provocative as any fiction by George Orwell or Graham Greene. And it is all true.
"In this painstaking, powerful unmasking of evil, the wretched face of tyranny is revealed." --Philadelphia Inquirer
Details
- Title The File: A Personal History
- Author Timothy Garton Ash
- Binding Paperback
- Edition [ Edition: first
- Pages 272
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Vintage, New York
- Date September 29, 1998
- ISBN 9780679777854 / 0679777857
- Weight 0.47 lbs (0.21 kg)
- Dimensions 8.02 x 5.28 x 0.61 in (20.37 x 13.41 x 1.55 cm)
-
Themes
- Cultural Region: Germany
- Library of Congress subjects Germany (East), Internal security - Germany (East)
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 98026444
- Dewey Decimal Code 947
Media reviews
Citations
- New York Times, 12/13/1998, Page 36
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