Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: VG. Jacket: Worn with some wear along the edges. Page Condition: Good. Markings: No markings. Binding condition: Good.
In the spring of 1968, Czechoslovakia stood at the precipice of transformation — a bold experiment in democratic socialism known as the Prague Spring that dared to challenge the iron grip of Soviet orthodoxy. H. Gordon Skilling's definitive account chronicles the dramatic arc of this political awakening, from the reformist surge under Alexander Dubček to its violent suppression by Warsaw Pact forces in August 1968, reconstructing with meticulous detail the hopes, debates, and internal party struggles that defined one of the Cold War era's most compelling episodes. Skilling, one of the foremost Western scholars of Communist politics, presents a rigorous and authoritative analysis grounded in exhaustive primary research, illuminating the tension between liberalisation and authoritarian control that lay at the heart of Eastern European communism. The work stands as a landmark in the historiography of Soviet-bloc politics, dissecting the structural contradictions of a system that could not survive its own attempts at reform. For anyone seeking to understand how ideas of freedom collide with the machinery of power, this remains an essential and unsettling read.
Author: H. Gordon Skilling
Format: Hardback
Published: 1976, Princeton University Press
Genre: European history
Condition remarks:
Condition: VG. Jacket: Worn with some wear along the edges. Page Condition: Good. Markings: No markings. Binding condition: Good.
In the spring of 1968, Czechoslovakia stood at the precipice of transformation — a bold experiment in democratic socialism known as the Prague Spring that dared to challenge the iron grip of Soviet orthodoxy. H. Gordon Skilling's definitive account chronicles the dramatic arc of this political awakening, from the reformist surge under Alexander Dubček to its violent suppression by Warsaw Pact forces in August 1968, reconstructing with meticulous detail the hopes, debates, and internal party struggles that defined one of the Cold War era's most compelling episodes. Skilling, one of the foremost Western scholars of Communist politics, presents a rigorous and authoritative analysis grounded in exhaustive primary research, illuminating the tension between liberalisation and authoritarian control that lay at the heart of Eastern European communism. The work stands as a landmark in the historiography of Soviet-bloc politics, dissecting the structural contradictions of a system that could not survive its own attempts at reform. For anyone seeking to understand how ideas of freedom collide with the machinery of power, this remains an essential and unsettling read.