Conclusion

As a witness and a chronicler of these extraordinary events, what advice would you give to students to prepare for the kind of world that we're living through and that is probably emerging?

Read history, amongst other things. Know your history, don't forget it. Go there and see for yourself. That's so important, to go and see for yourself. And thirdly, follow your nose. I have this strange experience now of young, ambitious graduate students coming to see me, kids in there early twenties, and saying "Mr. Garton Ash, where should I go?" You know, "Tell me the horse who's going to be the winner." As if you could make this choice like a stockbroker choosing a good stock. That is absolutely not how I made the choice. I followed my nose. I went to Berlin, I went to Central Europe because it interested me, because there was a big question I wanted to find the answer to, because I cared passionately about it and it just happened to become the center of European history. That will be my advice to that student: care about something, then follow it to the end of the road.

Timothy Garton Ash, thank you very much for coming to Berkeley and for being the Elberg Lecturer. We greatly appreciate your insights.

See also Timothy Garton Ash's biography and Garton Ash's speech, "Is Europe Becoming Europe?"

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