{"id":810,"date":"2026-08-09T06:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=810"},"modified":"2026-08-09T06:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:33:24","slug":"no-the-demolition-of-the-berlin-wall-was-not-the-end-of-socialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=810","title":{"rendered":"No, the Demolition of the Berlin Wall Was Not the End of Socialism"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<div>\n<article>\n<header>\n<div>\n<ul><li>World<\/li><li>Books &amp; the Arts<\/li><li>November 10, 2014<\/li><\/ul><h1>No, the Demolition of the Berlin Wall Was Not the End of Socialism<\/h1><h1>No, the Demolition of the Berlin Wall Was Not the End of Socialism<\/h1><h2><p>\u201cSocialism is inseparable from democracy,\u201d <em>The Nation<\/em> wrote in its 1989 editorial.<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=806\">Do Epics Need Heroes?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<time>November 10, 2014<\/time>\n<div>\n<p><em>The deconstruction, if you will, of the Berlin Wall twenty-five years ago this week perversely led to the erection of a similarly oppressive barrier, now to critical thinking rather than to the free movement of persons and goods, which has long been begging for deconstruction in turn: the trope, I mean\u2014and it is no more than a trope\u2014that the end of the Berlin Wall, a creature barely more than a quarter-century old, caused or vaguely heralded the end of socialism, a tradition of political thought and action stretching back roughly two centuries with antecedents at least a millennium or two older than that. <em>This <\/em><\/em>Nation<em> <em>editorial from late 1989, especially its concluding paragraph, is a bracing reminder of who exactly benefits from the proliferation of the idea that history ended the year before the editor of Back Issues was born.<\/em><\/em>\n<p><em>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-809\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/91a6ec46c71d3aa4817687f084007b85-1-377x1024.jpg\" width=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/91a6ec46c71d3aa4817687f084007b85-1-377x1024.jpg 377w, https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/91a6ec46c71d3aa4817687f084007b85-1-110x300.jpg 110w, https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/91a6ec46c71d3aa4817687f084007b85-1.jpg 447w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 377px) 100vw, 377px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/em>\n<p><em>* * *<\/em>\n<p><em><em>Curious about how we covered something? E-mail me at <span>[email\u00a0protected]<\/span>. Subscribers to <\/em><\/em>The Nation<em><em> can access our fully searchable digital archive, which contains thousands of historic articles, essays and reviews, letters to the editor and editorials dating back to July 6, 1865.<\/em><\/em>\n<\/p><\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=804\">Todd Blanche Wants to Finish What \u201cDobbs\u201d Started<\/a><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<footer>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\n                Submit a correction\n            \n<\/li>\n<li>\n\n                Send a letter to the editor\n            \n<\/li>\n<li>\n\n                Reprints &amp; permissions\n            \n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<p><span> Richard Kreitner<svg>\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>Richard Kreitner is a contributing writer and the author of <em>Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America\u2019s Imperfect Union<\/em>. His writings are at richardkreitner.com.<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=802\">Trump\u2019s Deregulation of Head Start Would Lead to Bigger Class Sizes, Lower Quality<\/a><\/p><br\/><p><span> Back Issues<\/span>Guided tours through the archive of America\u2019s oldest weekly.\r\n<\/p><br\/>\n<\/div>\n<input\/>\n<input\/>\n<\/footer>\n<\/article>\n\n\n\nAd Policy\n<!-- <a class=\"inifiniteLoader\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/new_infi_loader.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a> -->\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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