Frederick Taylor follows the wall from its construction in August 1961 right through to its toppling in 1989 in this well-researched and intelligently structured book, and along the way balances the geopolitical contexts that surrounded its ever controversial existence with smaller, more personal stories of the countless individuals whose lives came to be dominated by the unlovely edifice. Taylor's style is lucid and forthright, even if the sheer weight of detail is overwhelming in places. Tellingly, he always manages to engage with the simple human question of whatever possessed modern man, emerging from the bloodiest half century that had ever occurred, to forge such an iconic symbol of division and dispossession.