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State And Society In Communist Czechoslovakia
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Book Synopsis State and Society in Communist Czechoslovakia by : Roman Krakovský
Download or read book State and Society in Communist Czechoslovakia written by Roman Krakovský and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across Central and Eastern Europe after World War II, the newly established communist regimes promised a drastic social revolution that would transform the world at great pace and pave the way to a socialist future. Although many aspects of this utopian project are well known--fast-paced industrialization, collectivisation and urbanisation--the regimes even sought to transform the ways in which their citizens interacted with each other and the world around them. Using a unique analytical model based on anthropology, sociology, history and extensive archival research, award-winning scholar Roman Krakovský considers the Czechoslovakian attempt to 'reinvent the world'--in this all-encompassing way. Ranging from World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall, his innovative analysis considers the impact of Stakhanovism, the impossible-to-achieve production targets intended to assert socialism's future potential; the attempt to replace Sunday's Christian attributes with socialist ones; and the profound changes brought about to the public and private spheres, including the culture of informing and the ways this was circumvented. Across a wide range of case studies Krakovský demonstrates both the far-reaching extent of the communist vision and the inherent flaws and contradications that gradually destabilised it. This in-depth perspective is vital reading for all scholars of twentieth-century history and politics.--Page [4] of cover.
Book Synopsis State and Society in Communist Czechoslovakia by : Roman Krakovsky
Download or read book State and Society in Communist Czechoslovakia written by Roman Krakovsky and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across central and eastern Europe after World War II, the newly established communist regimes promised a drastic social revolution that would transform the world at great pace and pave the way to a socialist future. Although many aspects of this utopian project are well known - such as fast-paced industrialisation, collectivisation and urbanisation - the regimes even sought to transform the ways in which their citizens interacted with each other and the world around them. Using a unique analytical model based on an amalgam of anthropology, sociology, history and extensive archival research, award-winning scholar Roman Krakovsky here considers the Czechoslovakian attempt to 'reinvent the world' - 'time' and 'space' included - in this all-encompassing way. Ranging from WWII to the fall of the Berlin Wall, his innovative analysis variously considers the impact of Stakhanovism, the impossible-to-achieve production targets intended to assert socialism's future potential; the attempt to replace Sunday's Christian attributes with socialist ones; and the profound changes brought about to the public and private spheres, including the culture of informing and the ways this was circumvented. Across a wide range of case studies Krakovsky demonstrates both the far-reaching extent of the communist vision and the inherent flaws and contradictions that gradually destabilised it. This in-depth perspective is vital reading for all scholars of twentieth century history and politics.
Book Synopsis Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia by : M. R. Myant
Download or read book Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia written by M. R. Myant and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the political, social and economic changes in Czechoslovakia in the years 1945- 1948. In 1945 the 'national revolution' established the Communist Party as the dominant force within a coalition government. The leading Communists then evolved the idea of a specific Czechoslovak road to socialism that could bypass the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. By analysing in detail the revolutionary events and the society that emerged from them, the book demonstrates that there was a real possibility of developing a distinct model of socialism containing a plurality of parties and a sizeable private sector. Such thinking, however, was effectively ended in February 1948, when the Communist Party established a monopoly of power. The fundamental causes of this change in the party's strategy are to be found, it is argued, in the international situation. The February events were of international significance as they confirmed the division of Europe into two blocs. The concluding chapter shows how important they were for the subsequent development of Czechoslovak society.
Book Synopsis The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation by : Bradley F. Abrams
Download or read book The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation written by Bradley F. Abrams and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The material effects of World War II, in combination with Eastern Europe's disappointingly undemocratic interwar history, placed radical social change on the postwar agenda across the region and shaped the debates that took place in immediate postwar Czech society. These debates adopted both a cultural form, in struggles over the meaning of the recent past and the nation's position on the East-West continuum, and a directly political form, in battles over the meaning of socialism. The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation examines the most important and politically resonant fields of historical and cultural debate in Czech society immediately after World War II. Bradley Abrams finds that communist public figures were largely successful in controlling debate over the nation's recent past--the interwar First Republic and the experiences of Munich and World War II--and over its location on the East-West continuum. This success preceded and was mirrored in the struggles over the political issue of the times: socialism. The communists engaged their political foes in the democratic socialist and Roman Catholic camps, and, surprisingly, found significant support from a major Protestant church. Abrams's careful reading of major publications re-creates a postwar mood sympathetic to radical social change, questioning the standard view of the communists' rise to power. This book not only contributes to the specific literature on Czech history, but also raises questions about the relationship between war and radical social change, about the communist takeover of the region, and about the role of intellectuals in public life.
Book Synopsis Worlds of Dissent by : Jonathan Bolton
Download or read book Worlds of Dissent written by Jonathan Bolton and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-13 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Worlds of Dissent analyzes the myths of Central European resistance popularized by Western journalists and historians, and replaces them with a picture of the struggle against state repression as the dissidents themselves understood, debated, and lived it. In the late 1970s, when Czech intellectuals, writers, and artists drafted Charter 77 and called on their government to respect human rights, they hesitated to name themselves "dissidents." Their personal and political experiences--diverse, uncertain, nameless--have been obscured by victory narratives that portray them as larger-than-life heroes who defeated Communism in Czechoslovakia. Jonathan Bolton draws on diaries, letters, personal essays, and other first-person texts to analyze Czech dissent less as a political philosophy than as an everyday experience. Bolton considers not only Václav Havel but also a range of men and women writers who have received less attention in the West--including Ludvík Vaculík, whose 1980 diary The Czech Dream Book is a compelling portrait of dissident life. Bolton recovers the stories that dissidents told about themselves, and brings their dilemmas and decisions to life for contemporary readers. Dissidents often debated, and even doubted, their own influence as they confronted incommensurable choices and the messiness of real life. Portraying dissent as a human, imperfect phenomenon, Bolton frees the dissidents from the suffocating confines of moral absolutes. Worlds of Dissent offers a rare opportunity tounderstand the texture of dissent in a closed society.
Book Synopsis Communist Czechoslovakia, 1945-89 by : Kevin McDermott
Download or read book Communist Czechoslovakia, 1945-89 written by Kevin McDermott and published by Red Globe Press. This book was released on 2015-08-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few Europeans in the twentieth century have been subject to the repeated buffetings by foreign powers, ideologically driven transformations and internal upheaval of the Czechs and the Slovaks. The period of Communist rule was complex, and those who gleefully overthrew the regime in 1989 were the very grandchildren of those who had voted for Communism with hope in the free elections of 1946. This concise account includes both political and social history, analysing half a century of Communism from at all strata of society. Kevin McDermott is equally intrigued by those in power and ordinary citizens, asking what motivates a young Czech worker-believer to join the Communist Party in the early 1950s, enrol in the People's Militia and remain in the party during the dark years of 'normalisation', yet end up welcoming the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Using Czech and Slovak archival sources and the most recent historiography, McDermott challenges the still dominant 'totalitarian' paradigm and argues that the forty year communist experience in Czechoslovakia cannot simply be dismissed as a Soviet-imposed aberration.
Book Synopsis Communism in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1960 by : Edward Taborsky
Download or read book Communism in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1960 written by Edward Taborsky and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Czechoslovakia, once considered Central Europe's model democracy, has been a Soviet satellite since 1948. The Communists now boast that "socialism" has defeated capitalism politically and has surpassed it in production, in living standards, and in social justice. How realistic is this picture of conditions in a country once oriented to the West? This question is the focus of Professor Taborsky’s book. In attempting to answer it, the author first reviews the history of the Communist Party’s rise to power and then examines in detail the economic, social, political, and cultural programs of their twelve-year regime, comparing stated plans with actual results through 1960. His final assessment of the Party’s successes and failures measures both effort and result against the human cost. Originally published in 1961. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Book Synopsis The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation by : Ladislav Holy
Download or read book The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation written by Ladislav Holy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-08-28 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Ladislav Holy precipitately left Czechoslovakia for the UK in 1968 he was already one of the leading anthropologists in Central Europe. In the following decades he made important field studies in Africa. Since 1986 he has been engaged in research in the Czech Republic, and he brings to this timely study of national identity the skills of a seasoned researcher, a cosmopolitan perspective, and the insights of an insider. Drawing on historical and literary sources as well as ethnography, he analyses Czech discourses on national identity. He argues that there were specifically 'Czech' aspects to the communist regime and to the 'velvet revolution', and paying particular attention to symbolic representations of what it means to be Czech, he explores how notions of Czech identity were involved in the debates surrounding the fall of communism, and the emergence of a new social system.
Download or read book The Czech Republic written by Rick Fawn and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2000 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the Czech Republic, tracing the practices initiated to achieve what is a strikingly difficult task - the creation of a normal, particular "European" society and nation. It seeks both to show and to interpret what the Czechs have wanted since 1989 but especially since 1993; for, as it is argued here, the Czech Republic is a new entity. The book does not hide a certain Czechophile disposition, but it is also critical of certain aspects of Czech life. The volume hopes to provide the contours of developments in the Czech Republic, to advance and substantiate certain observations, and to provide some indication of the literature available, while refraining from unduly burdening the reader with extensive referencing and parenthetical discussions.
Book Synopsis Popular Culture and Subcultures of Czech Post-Socialism by : Ondřej Daniel
Download or read book Popular Culture and Subcultures of Czech Post-Socialism written by Ondřej Daniel and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-01-06 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book draws on wide range of inspirations to provide a well-balanced picture of the popular culture and subcultures of Czech post-socialism. What were the continuities and discontinuities of the post-socialist popular culture, mentalities and society during the period of late state socialism? What were the different mechanisms of ‘creating the Other’ in popular culture and subcultures? This volume shows the diverse trajectories of the late socialist (and older national) cultural practices and the related set of values and beliefs in new transitory circumstances. Whereas many scholars emphasize the tendency to sustain in a more or less adapted form under the new circumstances, the chapters and case studies of this book demonstrate a slightly different, more nuanced development.
Download or read book Czechoslovakia written by David W Paul and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-03 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Czechoslovakia as a political entity did not come into being until 1918, but the lands comprising modern-day Czechoslovakia have a rich history reaching back many centuries. This text offers at look at the historical background, the geopolitics and Czechoslovakia’s international position, it’s government and politics, economy, education and cultur
Book Synopsis Gaming the Iron Curtain by : Jaroslav Svelch
Download or read book Gaming the Iron Curtain written by Jaroslav Svelch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-09-19 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In Gaming the Iron Curtain, Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc. Švelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, Gaming the Iron Curtain tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard.
Book Synopsis Czechoslovakia Behind the Curtain by : Thomas K. Murphy
Download or read book Czechoslovakia Behind the Curtain written by Thomas K. Murphy and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-08-23 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Cold War, the West--especially in the popular media--tended to view communism as a monolithic phenomenon, with little variation throughout the Eastern Bloc. Yet culture and geography contributed to social diversity among and within communist systems. Drawing on interviews with approximately 100 Czechs and Slovaks, the author provides new perspectives on day-to-day life in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Their recollections paint a more complex picture of the life on the other side of the Iron Curtain, from the Sputnik era reforms of the early 1960s, through the tumult of the 1968 Prague Spring and the subsequent Soviet invasion, to the Velvet Revolution, the collapse of the communist regime and the formation of democratic Czechoslovakia in 1989.
Book Synopsis Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia: 1945-1948 by : Martin R. Myant
Download or read book Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia: 1945-1948 written by Martin R. Myant and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the political, social and economic changes in Czechoslovakia in the years 1945-1948. In 1945 the 'national revolution' established the Communist Party as the dominant force within a coalition government. The leading Communists then evolved the idea of a specific, Czechoslovak road to socialism that could by-pass the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'.
Book Synopsis State and Society in Post-Socialist Economies by : J. Pickles
Download or read book State and Society in Post-Socialist Economies written by J. Pickles and published by Springer. This book was released on 2008-01-17 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: State and Society in Post-Socialist Economies focuses on the reform economies of post-socialist Europe. It looks at how various projects of communism that emerged in have been and are still being dismantled and recomposed by alternative visions, institutions and practices of capitalist market economies and democratic polities.
Book Synopsis Czechoslovakia, 1918-92 by : J. Krejcí
Download or read book Czechoslovakia, 1918-92 written by J. Krejcí and published by Springer. This book was released on 1998-08-11 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following World War 1 a unique experiment in state-building took place between two closely kindred nations in Eastern Europe; an attempt to build up a composite ethnic - Czechoslovak-nation and provide it with an adequate political framework. This book gives the reader a succinct account of this experiment by means of ethnopolitical, economic and sociological analyses. The book is divided into three parts. The first, written by Jaroslav Krejci, on ethnopolitics explains the rationale of the experiment and reviews its obstacles, successes and failures, due to both internal and external causes. The second part, by the same author, contains an outline of the economic context of ethnic as well as social aspects of the development. As far as possible, the economic structure and performance of the Czech and Slovak parts of the state are given separate attention. The third part, by Pavel Machonin, is entitled `Social Metamorphoses' and covers structural changes in the Czech and Slovak societies. Changes in class structures, stratification, mobility and living standards constitute the main items for consideration. Wherever there is relevant material available, popular opinion on particular issues and electoral results are scrutinized.
Book Synopsis Czechoslovakia in Transition by : Sharon L. Wolchik
Download or read book Czechoslovakia in Transition written by Sharon L. Wolchik and published by Burns & Oates. This book was released on 1991 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A multi-disciplinary examination of the modern political history, economic system and social institutions of Czechoslovakia, this study evaluates the successes and failures of the Marxist regime, and concludes with analysis of the reasons for, and events since, its collapse in 1989.
