Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

On August 13 1961, work started on erecting an eleven-foot-high concrete barrier that would ultimately cost a billion dollars and would come to serve as the physical and symbolic division between Eastern and Western Europe. Over the next twenty-eight years, thousands would attempt to scale the Berlin Wall and flee communist East Germany - and more than 100 people would perish. Checkpoint Charlie stood at the confluence of the arterial routes that ran through the heart of Berlin and was the epicentre of global conflict for nearly three decades, until the fall of the Wall in November 1989. Published to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall, and capturing the mistrust, oppression, paranoia and fear that gripped the world during the era of the Wall's existence - as well as the indomitable spirit of those many people who risked their lives to escape tyranny - Checkpoint Charlie will draw on interviews with key eyewitnesses to tell the heart-rending story of the Berlin Wall and the lives that it changed irrevocably.

About the Author :
Iain MacGregor is a graduate of modern history, and a non-fiction publisher with over twenty-five years' experience of working with authors including Simon Schama and Max Hastings. His first book, To Hell on a Bike: Riding Paris-Roubaix, The Toughest Race in Cycling, was a love letter to cycling. It was published by Bantam Press in 2015 and was shortlisted for Cycling Book of the Year at the 2016 British Sports Book Awards.

Review :
Gripping and revelatory MacGregor's intimate knowledge of the soldiers and spies who paid their dues in the forty-year undeclared war whose cockpit was Berlin, makes for some truly remarkable and gripping reading. Highly recommended MacGregor has put together a lively, evocative account of the life and death of the world's most notorious wall. In capturing the essence of the old Cold War he may just have helped us to understand a bit more about the new one Full of harrowing stories and riveting eyewitness accounts of life in the East, but what lingers in the memory is a sense of human resilience and ingenuity . . . This history is an invaluable reminder of both why the Cold War needed to be fought and why totalitarianism must always be resisted A fascinating and telling reminder of what was perhaps the most potent symbol of the Cold War . . . MacGregor's book is, as well as being a history of the Wall, an invaluable scene-setter for the status quo ante . . . thorough and engaging . . . Iain MacGregor writes with great fluency and narrative drive . . . a powerful and moving experience A rich collection of tales from cold war Berlin captures the city's mad complexities . . . Lively . . . the voices [MacGregor] has saved, and the richly researched skill of his narrative at big moments, rescue an echo of one of the many lost Berlins Excellent This remarkable book about the Berlin Wall, which has been the subject of everything from diplomatic histories to spy thrillers, is different. Based on extensive, detailed interviews with people on both sides of the wall - soldiers and civilians, communists and anti-communists, spies, intellectuals and ordinary citizens - it offers a riveting panorama of everyday life as it was actually lived at ground zero of the cold war Fascinating and original... the story not just of the Berlin Wall, but of the people on either side of it With its wealth of eyewitness stories, this book proves how understanding the last Cold War is crucial for anyone who wants to understand the new one As an aspiring student of modern history in the 1980s, the Berlin Wall and the monstrous regime at its heart, dominated my thinking. It is difficult to believe now - much like the Cold War itself - that we all thought the Wall was so immortal. As a writer of oral history, I have enjoyed MacGregor bringing the stories of the people who populated this barrier to life. We need to remember A peoples' history of the wall that is tense, exciting and moving, telling us the stories of the families the wall tore apart, the soldiers who faced one another across it, the spies and journalists who operated behind it, and the East Germans who risked everything to break through it to freedom MacGregor compellingly portrays Berlin's overarching geo-political story, and brings it alive through the personal experiences of the individuals at its heart The fall of the Berlin Wall was a seismic event in the story of the 20th century. In Checkpoint Charlie, Iain MacGregor re-creates the drama and meaning of that moment. With a gripping narrative and vivid interviews with those on all sides whose lives were directly affected by that grim symbol of the East-West divide that poisoned Europe for almost half a century, he has made an important contribution to the history of our times A wonderful approach to the history of the Cold War, tackling the complex legacy of the Berlin Wall through the men and women who lived in its shadow. Weaving together personal testimonies, this book offers a valuable insight into history as it was lived, and shines an illuminating new light on an icon of the twentieth century Checkpoint Charlie is emblematic of both the tension and romance of the pivot between a third World War and peace. Iain MacGregor captures brilliantly and comprehensively both the danger and exhilaration that I and other reporters, soldiers, and people experienced intersecting with the wall, and the fears and the eventual hope that flowed through it - a must read for anyone who wants to understand the Europe we have inherited