Nineteen eighty-nine marked the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid, and the "Beijing Spring" protests in Tiananmen Square. This engaging reader focuses on critical questions like "Why was the world caught by surprise by these events?" and "Why did the revolutions in Eastern Europe and in South Africa end in jubilation, while the protests in China ended in tragedy?" The original essay and the rich collection of documents in this volume explore both the long-term trends an the immediate causes that led to this series of events in 1989 that changed the world forever.