(Bloomsbury) The creation of the Berlin Wall came as a shock to the western world and opened a new episode in the Cold War. Now that archive material has been released much of those days leading up to the building of the wall in 1961 has been released. F

(Bloomsbury)

The creation of the Berlin Wall came as a shock to the western world and opened a new episode in the Cold War.

Now that archive material has been released much of those days leading up to the building of the wall in 1961 has been released.

Frederick Taylor in The Berlin Wall has made extensive use of the material now available: from the planning and execution of a barrier which cut across the society of Berlin.

Taylor does not restrict himself to just the phyical side of building the wall, but looks at the bravery and determination of those who desired to escape.

He examines, too, the politics of the time and the effect it made on East-West relations.

As we know, it came down eventually creating, it was hoped, yet another new episode in European history.