Facing Europe's ghosts after communism

2928 The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism, by Tina Rosenberg (read 16 Nov 1996) (Pulitzer Nonfiction prize in 1996) (National Book Award nonfiction prize for 1995) This is an excellent book. The author interviewed people about their past when their countries were Communist. "Lustrace" is a term I was not previously aware of, but it involves being "out-ed" as to collaboration with Communists. It has been a major problem in the Czech Republic and in East Germany. While obviously ex-Communist Europe has a host of problems, this book leads me to feel they will be surmounted, and Communism is of the past (despite it lingering on in China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam) and how nice it is to reflect that the Whitaker Chambers' feeling that Communism was the future was wrong.The author succinctly points out that Communism's major flaw is that it wants to survive and to do so it must employ tyrannical repression. ( )