FILE, THE(ISBN=9780679777854)

　　TIMOTHY GARTON ASH is the author of seven previous books of political writing and the "history of the present," which have charted the transformation of Europe over the last quarter century. They include "The Polish Revolution," "The Uses of Adversity," "The Magic Lantern," "The File, "and" History of the Present." He is currently director of the European Studies Centre at St. Antony's College, Oxford, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His essays appear regularly in "The New York Review of Books" and he writes a column in the "Guardian" that is syndicated across Europe and the Americas