Timothy Garton Ash about his latest book and draws conclusions based on recent events, what went wrong in the history of Europe that it is involved again.
In his new book Homelands – A Personal History of Europe, renowned historian Timothy Garton Ash traces the highlights of European history since 1945 using his own notes and memoirs. Having met some of the region’s most prominent figures – in some cases long before they came to power – and witnessed events that shook the world and were later recognised as turning points, Garton Ash’s experience is certainly rich.
Garton Ash, through his book, invited the audience to reflect on how we understand European history after the end of the Second World War. He offered a new or revised framework for analysing events after 1945, not only on the continent but also around the world.
Garton Ash argues that it is hardly possible to say that there were no wars and conflicts at all, as violence continued behind the Iron Curtain and elsewhere during the process of decolonisation.
Eastern Europe, he argues, saw the end of war only in 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which marked the beginning of what Garton Ash calls “post-wall” Europe.
A Europe whole and free, a Europe moving towards perpetual peace.
Garton Ash sharply contrasts this ideal with today, when war is an actual and terrifying reality in Europe. Garton Ash sought to show readers, particularly young Europeans, the danger of what Europe could become if we do not recognise the mistakes of the past and do not understand the decisions of the present.
A historical narrative is not needed to illustrate this, as we see before our eyes in Ukraine the horrifying result of the arrogance of a “post-wall” Europe, a concept which, in his view, led to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
But how did Europe get to this state? According to Garton Ash, the decisive year was 2008, when the global financial crisis erupted and the situation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The continent’s leaders began to weaken the mechanisms of democracy, and the trajectory of post-wall Europe became rife with crises.
He criticised hubris in general and cited specific examples where this hubris created the illusion that actions and developments undertaken by states and politicians would not backfire and that projects would continue to function in good faith with positive momentum. He criticised his own previous belief that, for example, the creation and maintenance of the European Union was essentially “mission accomplished”.
The mistake, in Garton Ash’s view, is that Europe took the way events had unfolded over the previous twenty to thirty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and assumed that this positive and shocking event, rather than a miraculous aberration, would set the course for the rest of time and that things would continue in a positive way simply because that is what happened at the time.
