Havel: Unfinished Revolution

by David Gilbreath Barton

Overview

Václav Havel (1936–2011), the famous Czech dissident, intellectual, and playwright, was there when half a million people came to Wenceslas Square to demand an end to Communism in 1989. Many came to hear him call for a free Czechoslovakia, for democratic elections, and for a return to Europe. The demonstrators roared when he spoke. “Havel to the castle,” they chanted— meaning Havel for president. And a few weeks later, Havel became a most unusual president. He was sometimes misunderstood and not always popular, but by the time of his death in 2011, the world recognized Havel as one of the most prominent figures of the twentieth century. In this intimate and sweeping portrayal of Havel, David Gilbreath Barton reveals the eccentricities of the last president of Czechoslovakia, and the first president of the Czech Republic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822987420
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Series:	Russian and East European Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

David Gilbreath Barton is an award-winning journalist and associate professor of humanities at Northern New Mexico College. From 1996 to 2001, he was founding editor of The Salt Journal, a finalist in the Utne Reader’s Award for best “small magazine” in the nation. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife.

Table of Contents

Contents A Note on Spelling, Translation, and Place Names A Guide to Pronunciation Prologue Part One. Where Darkness Is Born, October 1936–November 1970 1. Growing Up and Growing Down 2. Under a Cruel Star 3. Smokey Roads and Muddy Paths 4. The August Surprise 5. A Curtain of Iron 6. Into the Woods Part Two. The Many Underworlds of Normalized Life, Fall 1970–August 1979 7. VZDOR 8. An Open Letter 9. The Solidarity of the Shaken 10. Death of a Philosopher 11. Atonement Gallery of Images Part Three. The Politics of Love, August 1979–July 1990 12. In the Dark 13. Homecoming 14. Jitka 15. The Open Door 16. The Magic Lantern Part Four. The Final Offering, July 1990–December 2011 17. The Corridors of Power 18. A Heavy Stone 19. The Final Years Acknowledgments Chronology Notes Selected Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

David Barton has written an expansive and informing portrait of Václav Havel. It is an engrossing read that captures the resilience and eloquence of a man who started as an artist, became a dissident, and eventually a statesman and great leader. The lessons here, restoring democratic ideals in a time of chaos, are more relevant and important now than ever.

Governor Bill Richardson

Barton steers his narrative with intelligence, poetry, and mirth, leaving plenty of room for Havel’s complexity.

Pasatiempo

Barton’s sprightly, readable overview of Havel’s life and work is especially incisive in thinking through Havel’s personality, particularly his shyness, self-doubt and depression and their impact on his sometimes reluctant, sometimes welcome embrace, of a live lived in public. Without judgment, Barton chronicles how Havel’s friendships and relationships molded him as a man and as a thinker.

Michelle Woods

The number of books published on Havel, his life and legacy, is proof of his relevance. It also makes it hard to develop a new angle with an approachable and readable form. David Gilbreath Barton has achieved that and gives all one needs to understand Havel’s place in the history of the Czech Republic.

Hynek Kmoníček

"Barton steers his narrative with intelligence, poetry, and mirth, leaving plenty of room for Havel’s complexity." —Pasatiempo

"Barton’s sprightly, readable overview of Havel’s life and work is especially incisive in thinking through Havel’s personality, particularly his shyness, self-doubt and depression and their impact on his sometimes reluctant, sometimes welcome embrace, of a live lived in public. Without judgment, Barton chronicles how Havel’s friendships and relationships molded him as a man and as a thinker." —Michelle Woods, author of Translating Milan Kundera

"David Barton has written an expansive and informing portrait of Václav Havel. It is an engrossing read that captures the resilience and eloquence of a man who started as an artist, became a dissident, and eventually a statesman and great leader. The lessons here, restoring democratic ideals in a time of chaos, are more relevant and important now than ever." —Governor Bill Richardson

From the Publisher