British historian who coined 'refolution' to define the peaceful revolutions of 1989
Meeting Václav Havel in a Prague basement pub on 23 November 1989, he offered this prediction: 'In Poland it took ten years, in Hungary ten months, in East Germany ten weeks: perhaps in Czechoslovakia it will take ten days!'
British historian, Oxford professor of European studies, and Guardian columnist who has chronicled the contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe and the collapse of communist regimes. As an eyewitness to the revolutions of 1989 in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague, he recorded the unfolding of civil resistance in The Magic Lantern (1990) and coined the term 'refolution', a fusion of reform and revolution, to characterize the peaceful, negotiated nature of these systemic transitions. Called a 'historian of the present' by George Kennan, he has spent four decades writing on European freedom and democracy; his 2017 Charlemagne Prize and other international honours reflect work that has shaped both scholarly debate and policymaking.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1980First Western journalist to report from the Gdańsk Lenin Shipyard strike; met Lech Wałęsa
- 1986–1987Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
- 1989Witnessed the 1989 revolutions in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague; wrote The Magic Lantern (1990)
- 2000–Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
- 2004–Professor of European Studies, Oxford; Guardian international affairs columnist
- 2017Awarded the Charlemagne Prize for services to European unity
Related historical events
- 1980–1981Solidarity and Martial Law in PolandReporter at the Gdańsk shipyard strikeIn 1980, he reported on the strike at the Gdańsk Lenin Shipyard.
- 1989The Revolutions of 1989Historian who witnessed 1989 and coined the concept of 'refolution'Having witnessed the events firsthand, he characterized the combination of elite negotiation and popular pressure as 'refolution,' an interpretation that stands in contrast to Kotkin's elite implosion thesis.
Solidarity and eyewitness history in 1980s Central Europe
Garton Ash reported from Central Europe during the 1980s, combining journalism with historical writing. In 1980 he covered the strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk and met Lech Wałęsa; his book The Polish Revolution: Solidarity (1983) recounted the strike and the turbulent sixteen months that followed. It also examined the relationship between Solidarity and the communist regime, the changes the movement brought across the Soviet bloc, and the West's response. During the decade he travelled behind the Iron Curtain, speaking with dissidents and ordinary people. In The Uses of Adversity (1989), he wrote about the subterranean movements that emerged during the historic changes of the 1980s and erupted in 1989. This earlier reporting formed part of the background to his later eyewitness account of the revolutions of 1989.