“Suddenly: The American Idea Abroad and at Home, 1986 to 1990”, by George F. Will

 

 429 pages, Free Press, ISBN-13: 978-0029344354

All hail the Barnes & Noble overstock shelves, for it is where I built so much of my library with practically-new books that I picked up for a penance…like, for instance, Suddenly: The American Idea Abroad and at Home, 1986 to 1990, George Will’s fourth collection of columns that does much to clarify the times: Glasnost, Gorbachev, Reagan, Bush Sr., the Bork nomination, education, drugs, science, the Election of 1988, the fall of the Berlin Wall and baseball (always baseball with this guy). As this still-incomplete list shows, Will had no shortage of consequential topics to write about during this time, the foremost among them being the event that provided the title of this volume: the sudden collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, the event most of us thought we’d never live to see. Will informs, educates and makes valid points, sometimes even criticizing allies (and praising opponents), refusing to twist facts, invent statistics or slander the faith and patriotism of those that dissent. Thinking people will both agree and disagree with Will, depending on the column. Still, you can learn something from his crisply informative writing.