A fascinating, authoritative history of the most enduring symbol of the Cold War—now with a new and updated epilogue for the 30th anniversary of the fall of the wall.

“An excellent history. . . . This book tells the story of…how the Berlin Wall was built, and how it then suddenly, and strangely, ceased to exist. It’s a story we think we know...but as Frederick Taylor demonstrates in this new history, it’s also a story with odd twists and hidden secrets.”—Washington Post Book World

In the morning of August 13, 1961, the residents of East Berlin found themselves cut off from family, friends, and jobs in the West by a tangle of barbed wire that ruthlessly split a city of four million in two. Within days the barbed-wire entanglement would undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis: it became an imposing 103-mile-long wall guarded by three hundred watchtowers. A physical manifestation of the struggle between Soviet Communism and American capitalism that stood for nearly thirty years, the Berlin Wall was the high-risk fault line between East and West on which rested the fate of all humanity.

In this captivating work, sure to be the definitive history on the subject, Frederick Taylor weaves together official history, archival materials, and personal accounts to tell the complete story of the Wall's rise and fall.