OpEdNews - Page 4 of Article: FROM PRAYER TO DEMONSTRATION: The Neglected History of East German Churches in the 1980s

In the USA, however, the focus has been most strongly upon villainising the system of the former East German state.

http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24118
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This approach of simply villainising East Germany and its peoples has left me and other Modern European historians feeling that U.S. historian/ political science leadership have continued to be muddled in cold warrior-like narrations.

Said cold-war narration has been detrimental to peacemaking in the USA because the U.S. experience of people-power has been forgotten under narrations of military power and economic power.

There are almost no books in the English speaking world that correct the biases in the old and worn cold war narrations.

On the other hand, I must admit that there have been some good journal articles and on-line web reviews of the era of Revolution in East Germany, which reveal that some historians in North America do recognize that the role of church (and others working among the institution of the Church) from the 1960s onwards, in fact, had enabled democracy--and a more global & peace consciousness movement--to expand at a very fast rate by the late 1980s.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-53869119.html
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Nevertheless, book-length works are generally lacking. Only a few autobiographical works, like Dr. Mark Jantzen’s, THE WRONG SIDE OF THE WALL are the exception.

American historians and political scientists should come to Europe and interview the revolutionaries of the 1980s now—before they pass away- or American mis-narration of the end of the Cold War will continue to dominate in North America and the UK for decades to come.

This false narration will promote more wars and military posturing than our world can afford, preventing opportunities to solve real social, environmental, peace and justice issues over the next century.

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