The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall

Book talk with the author Mary Sarotte on her recent book "The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall" and discussion on 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Introduction and some commentary by Noam Chomsky

About the Speakers: 
Mary Sarotte is Dean's Professor of History at the University of Southern California and a visiting professor in both the government and history departments at Harvard. She recently published a study of the end of the Cold War entitled "The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall." Her last book, "1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe" (2009) was a "Financial Times" Book of the Year and received a number of other awards. Sarotte earned her AB at Harvard and her PhD in history at Yale. She was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and is a member of the Council.

Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political commentator and activist. Sometimes described as the "father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy. He has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is currently Professor Emeritus, and has authored over 100 books. He has been described as a prominent cultural figure, and was voted the "world's top public intellectual" in a 2005 poll.