Velvet Revolutions : An Oral History of Czech Society

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.

The Velvet Revolution in November 1989 brought about the collapse of the authoritarian communist regime in what was then Czechoslovakia. It also marks the beginning of the country''s journey towards democracy. This book examines what the values in so-called real socialism were, as well as how citizens'' values changed after the 1989 collapse. In Velvet Revolutions, Miroslav Vanek and Pavel Mücke analyze and interpret 300 interviews on citizens'' experience of freedom and its absence, the value of work, family and friends, education, relations to public sphere and politics, the experience of free time, and perception of foreigners and foreign countries. The interviewees are drawn from a wide range of professions, including manual workers, service workers, farmers, members of the armed forces, managers, and marketing personnel. All of the interviewees were at working age during the last twenty years of the communist regime and during the post-revolutionary transformation. From this rich foundation, the book builds a multi-layered view of Czech history before 1989 and during the subsequent period of democratic transformation.