BA (Hons) and MA in Modern History, University of Oxford; Free University, West Berlin and Humboldt University, East Berlin. Regular contributor to Guardian, New York Review of Books and other journals. Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Author of many books including: The Polish Revolution: Solidarity; The Uses of Adversity; The Magic Lantern; In Europe's Name; The File: A Personal History; History of the Present; Free World; and, most recently, Facts are Subversive: Political Writing from a Decade Without a Name. Recipient of awards including: Somerset Maugham Award; Premio Ischia; Prix Européen de l'Essai; George Orwell Prize.