Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts
Apr 2012 · A&C Black
4.7star
3 reviews
Ebook
532
Pages
About this ebook
The definitive biography of the playwright who become a president: Vaclav Havel, the final president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the new Czech Republic
Vaclav Havel is revered as one of the 20th-century's great playwrights, dissidents, and honest champions of democracy.
Beginning as a playwright intimately involved in the Prague theatre scene, Havel moved steadily into activism and political dissidence, resulting in imprisonment and culminating in his remarkable election as president in the last days of Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia. He would oversee the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia into two modern democracies, and his fourteen-year tenure as president was critical to the development of peace and prosperity in the region.
But who was this man, the president who never sought political power, the playwright who stumbled into high office? In this study, John Keane reveals a Havel so far unseen, dramatising the key moments of joy, misery, triumph and tragedy on which his life has turned.
Vaclav Havel is revered as one of the 20th-century's great playwrights, dissidents, and honest champions of democracy.
Beginning as a playwright intimately involved in the Prague theatre scene, Havel moved steadily into activism and political dissidence, resulting in imprisonment and culminating in his remarkable election as president in the last days of Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia. He would oversee the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia into two modern democracies, and his fourteen-year tenure as president was critical to the development of peace and prosperity in the region.
But who was this man, the president who never sought political power, the playwright who stumbled into high office? In this study, John Keane reveals a Havel so far unseen, dramatising the key moments of joy, misery, triumph and tragedy on which his life has turned.
Ratings and reviews
4.7
3 reviews
About the author
Born in Australia, John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Westminster and the WZB (Berlin) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Founder of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, a consultant to the United Nations and a recent member of the American-based Institutions of Democracy Commission, his books include Global Civil Society? (2004), Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts (1999) and The Life and Death of Democracy.
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