Being asked to review a book by Adam Michnik is a tall order—to say the least. Michnik is one of the founders of the Third Polish Republic, which emerged from Poland's negotiated 1989 exit from Communism. Before 1989, he was a renowned figure in the Central and East European dissident community. In the post-Communist era he has been one of the most influential voices in Polish public life, especially in the pages of Gazeta Wyborcza (Electoral Newspaper), the daily newspaper he has edited for more than 25 years.
Through prolific advocacy and wide-ranging activism, Michnik has remained remarkably consistent in his insistence on the interconnectivity of dialogue, pluralism, and civic freedoms. More than almost any other Soviet-bloc dissident—with the possible exception of Václav Havel—Michnik has long stood out for his ability to put pen to paper and channel his own struggle into thought-provoking meditations on social and political ethics. His...