The Prague Spring as a Laboratory

Contributions by Thomas M. Bohn Contributions by Vítezslav Sommer Contributions by Johannes Gleixner Contributions by Martin Franc Contributions by Adam Hudek Contributions by Jan Mervart Contributions by Ivan Landa Contributions by Ondřej Matějka Contributions by Peter Bugge Contributions by Marina Zavacká Contributions by Anna Bischof Contributions by Hélène Leclerc Contributions by Darina Volf Contributions by Zdeněk Nebřenský Contributions by Nora Schmidt Contributions by Pavel Kolář Contributions by Martin Schulze Wessel Edited by Martin Schulze Wessel Series edited by Vorstand des Collegium Carolinum

Book cover: The Prague Spring as a Laboratory

Extent: 312 pages

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Subjects: Slavic Studies, Social Sciences 

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(April 2019)

ISBN: 9783525355985

6.3 x 9.33 inches

Price: $63.00

In stock

The reform efforts in the Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the different influencing groups and individuals


Retrospectively, the Prague Spring appears to have been a coherent but unsuccessful experiment in finding a synthesis of Western democracy and socialism. However, this perspective ignores that different groups and individuals participated in these developments and shaped the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia with their completely varying professional, generational, national, and gender-specific experiences. What appears retrospectively as a goal-oriented reform movement or as an ‘interrupted revolution’ looked in the eyes of the protagonists rather like the situation in a laboratory, where they worked on new syntheses with uncertain results. The volume focuses on the protagonists’ ideas of politics, society, and their reform plans. Of particular interest is the question which new thoughts about the interrelation of politics, science, economics, and arts were developed in Czechoslovakia.

  • Contributions by Thomas M. Bohn
  • Contributions by Vítezslav Sommer
  • Contributions by Johannes Gleixner
  • Contributions by Martin Franc
  • Contributions by Adam Hudek
  • Contributions by Jan Mervart
  • Contributions by Ivan Landa
  • Contributions by Ondřej Matějka
  • Contributions by Peter Bugge
  • Contributions by Marina Zavacká
  • Contributions by Anna Bischof
  • Contributions by Hélène Leclerc
  • Contributions by Darina Volf
  • Contributions by Zdeněk Nebřenský
  • Contributions by Nora Schmidt
  • Contributions by Pavel Kolář
  • Contributions by Martin Schulze Wessel
  • Edited by Martin Schulze Wessel
  • Series edited by Vorstand des Collegium Carolinum