One thing that caught my eye in your review of Adam Michnik’s In Search of Lost Meaning: The New Eastern Europe (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2011) is your surprise that he still sees himself as a dissident (“Flagging Up the Past,” June 18, 2011). That is, “someone who is a little ill at ease with the materialism of post-communist capitalism, and deeply out of sympathy with the vengeful historical triumphalism of the national-patriotic camp.” Which is perhaps the main reason why you see the book’s main weakness in its “apocalyptic tone.” Well, good for Michnik, a Polish dissident of note. It appears that dissidents of the same ilk are regrouping in Eastern Europe. What you seem to forget is that many of them were not only against communism as it came to pass, but also against the capitalist alternative. Indeed, the best among them were for a socialism that truly deserves that name. Although that alternative is long defunct, the dissidents of old still have much to offer. With some luck they will attract a few readers, as well.