Author: Jeffrey Symynkywicz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780875186078
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 188
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Book Description
A biography of Vaclav Havel, the dissident Czechoslovak playwright who spent years fighting for freedom of expression and eventually was elected president of a free and independent Czechoslovak republic.
Author: John Duberstein
Publisher: Morgan Reynolds Publishing
ISBN: 9781931798853
Category : Czech Republic
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Vaclav Havel spent most of his life as a dissident playwright in Communist-controlled Czechoslovakia. Born in 1936, Havel was a young child during World War II, as the Nazis occupied and brutalized Czechoslovakia. After the war, his country, along with the rest of Eastern Europe, fell under the control of the Soviet Union. A short period of liberalization in 1968, which came to be called the Prague Spring, was quickly ended by a brutal military crackdown. Havel's works, which were mostly protests against totalitarianism written in the form of absurdist drama, were officially banned in 1971. Frustrated by restrictions on his writing, Havel began to direct his anger toward political action. Then, in a climactic event that shocked the world, Czechoslovakia's Communist dictatorship collapsed in 1989 in what became known as the Velvet Revolution, and Havel, the country's most famous dissident, was made president. During a sometimes rocky tenure, Havel worked to bring stability to his country and presided over the peaceful division of Czechoslovakia into two democratic republics. Detailing one of the twentieth century's most unusual but dynamic political figures, this new biography of Vaclav Havel tells his intriguing and inspiring story for a new generation of readers. Book jacket.
Author: NA NA
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137079754
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 207
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Book Description
A decade ago, playwright dissident Václav Havel led an almost bloodless revolution against Czechoslovakia's hardline communist regime. In the years that followed, the country split apart into two independent Czech and Slovak states, each taking radically different paths to reform. This book examines the core issues at work in the last decade, focusing on the political, economic, and philosophical underpinnings of the reform process.
Author: Michael Zantovsky
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802192394
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 570
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Book Description
The “definitive biography” of the poet and political dissident who became the last president of Czechoslovakia—and first president of the Czech Republic (Walter Isaacson). This portrait of Vaclav Havel, iconoclast and intellectual, renowned playwright turned political dissident, president of a united then divided nation, and dedicated human rights activist, is written by his former press secretary, advisor, and longtime friend—and recounts the turbulent twentieth-century era through which he prevailed. Havel’s lifelong perspective as an outsider began with his privileged childhood in Prague and his family’s blacklisted status following the Communist coup of 1948. This feeling of being outcast fueled his career as an essayist and a dramatist writing absurdist plays as social commentary. His involvement during the Prague Spring and his leadership of Charter 77, his unflagging belief in the power of the powerless, and his galvanizing personality catapulted Havel into a pivotal role as the leader of the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Although Havel was a courageous visionary, he was also a man of great contradictions, wracked with doubt and self-criticism. But he always remained true to himself. This “smart and exciting” biography is “both inspiring and filled with lessons for our time” (Walter Isaacson). “Havel was one of the most important intellectual-troublemaking statesmen of his time—a nonconformist, determined to live in truth, who questioned the system, his countrymen and himself constantly. No one is better suited than Michael Zantovsky to describe, interpret, and analyze this moral giant . . . A brilliantly informed intellectual and political history.” —Madeleine Albright “Entertaining, intimate, and moving . . . Zantovsky’s voice—that of a natural storyteller with an eye for the memorable anecdote, a mischievous wit, an easy intelligence, and keen sense of balance and fairness—is so engaging.” —Paul Wilson, The New York Review of Books
Author: Robert C. Cottrell
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 0791082555
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 157
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Book Description
Looks at the history of the borders in the Czech Republic as a result of political, territorial, and economic disputes, and discusses the Velvet Revolution.
Author: Tim D. Whipple
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356
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Book Description
Contains primary source material.
Author: Rob McRae
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773574042
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
Under constant pressure from the regime, and frequently jailed or imprisoned for their efforts, the signatories of Charter 77 went on to lead the resistance and spearhead a revolution: the Velvet Revolution of 1989. For a time it seemed as if a philosopher-king had overturned the forces of totalitarianism, with the future of Czechoslovakia there for the making.
Author: Miroslav Vaněk
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199342725
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 265
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Book Description
This book investigates how values such as freedom, work, family, free time, and politics changed in Czech society in the two decades before and after the November 1989 Velvet Revolution. Miroslav Vanek and Pavel Mücke use public opinion polls as well as 300 interviews with Czech citizens to create a multi-layered view of Czech history before 1989 and during the subsequent period of democratic transformation.
Author: Aviezer Tucker
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 0822972131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
Winner of the Foundations of Political Theory First Book Prize Honorable Mention, 2001Theory meets practice in The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patocka to Havel, a critical study of the philosophy and political practice of the Czech dissident movement Charter 77. Aviezer Tucker examines how the political philosophy of Jan Patocka (1907-1977), founder of Charter 77, influenced the thinking and political leadership of Vaclav Havel as dissident and president. The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patocka to Havel is the first serious treatment of Havel as philosopher and Patocka as a political thinker. Through the Charter 77 dissident movement in Czechoslovakia, opponents of communism based their civil struggle for human rights on philosophic foundations, and members of the Charter 77 later led the Velvet Revolution. After Patocka's self-sacrifice in 1977, Vaclav Havel emerged a strong philosophical and political force, and he continued to apply Patocka's philosophy in order to understand the human condition under late communism and the meaning of dissidence. However, the political/philosophical orientation of the Charter 77 movement failed to provide President Havel with an adequate basis for comprehending and responding to the extraordinary political and economic problems of the postcommunist period. In his discussion of Havel's presidency and the eventual corruption of the Velvet Revolution, Tucker demonstrates that the weaknesses in Charter 77 member's understanding of modernity, which did not matter while they were dissidents, seriously harmed their ability to function in a modern democratic system. Within this context, Tucker also examines Havel's recent attempt to topple the democratic but corrupt government in 1997-1998. The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patocka to Havel will be of interest to students of philosophy and politics, scholars and students of Slavic studies, and historians, as well as anyone fascinated by the nature of dissidence.
Author: Vojtech Mastny
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 6155053693
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 786
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Book Description
This is the first book to document, analyze, and interpret the history of the Warsaw Pact based on the archives of the alliance itself. As suggested by the title, the Soviet bloc military machine that held the West in awe for most of the Cold War does not appear from the inside as formidable as outsiders often believed, nor were its strengths and weaknesses the same at different times in its surprisingly long history, extending for almost half a century. The introductory study by Mastny assesses the controversial origins of the "superfluous" alliance, its subsequent search for a purpose, its crisis and consolidation despite congenital weaknesses, as well as its unexpected demise. Most of the 193 documents included in the book were top secret and have only recently been obtained from Eastern European archives by the PHP project. The majority of the documents were translated specifically for this volume and have never appeared in English before. The introductory remarks to individual documents by co-editor Byrne explain the particular significance of each item. A chronology of the main events in the history of the Warsaw Pact, a list of its leading officials, a selective multilingual bibliography, and an analytical index add to the importance of a publication that sets the new standard as a reference work on the subject and facilitate its use by both students and general readers.
