Twenty years after the revolutions of 1989 brought down communism in Eastern Europe, a fresh crop of books attempts to unpack this epic story. The story these books tell is more of a civil war within the elite than of a revolt from below.
Engel's collection conveys the local color of a quaint Beijing that is now lost to history and reveals much about the gregarious character and social skills of the man who became the 41st U.S. president.
