Customer Reviews:
Public Truth Can Overcome Political-Corporate Corruption.......2002-07-26
Living within the truth is the ultimate act of citizenship, and such living, even in the face of totalitarian repression (as in Czechoslovakia) or consumerist subversion and corporate corruption of the political and financial systems (as in the USA) can ultimately empower the powerless.
This is an *extraordinary* book that is directly relevant to the circumstances that we now find ourselves in--what Ralph Nader calls "corporate socialism," where the nominal owners of both the federal government (the voters) and the corporations (the stockholders) find themselves disenfranchised, abused, shut out, and their life savings looted by the most senior chief executive officers and politicians.
The book is slightly mis-represented, with "et al" in small print after Havel's name as the author. I was even tempted to skip the additional small essays (his leading essay constitutes 44% of the total book, with ten other essays each being roughly 6% of the book) but that would have been unwise. There is real value in the other essays.
Both Eastern Europe prior to the revolution, and the USA in particular but Western democracies in general, share a common overwhelming problem, that of the silenced majority. As both Havel here and Nader elsewhere observe, the word "progressive" is contaminated and diluted, while democracy and capitalism (or socialism) in the ideal are completely compromised by a combination of asymmetric information (keeping the people uninformed) and corporate or bureaucratic or political corruption.
Havel opens by noting that "the system has become so ossified politically that there is practically no way for ...nonconformity to be implemented within its official structures." This forces the vast majority of the public to "live within a lie," and accept, either consciously or unwittingly, the huge chasm between political freedom and economic fairness in the ideal, and what the totalitarian or hijacked capitalism models offer in reality.
Brutally stated, from the point of view of the normal wage earner, there is no difference between totalitarianism and corrupt capitalism. In page after page, Havel, poet and president, documents this truth.
Speaking specifically of the West, Havel notes that Western leaders, "despite the immense power they possess through the centralized structure of power, are often no more than blind executors of the system's own internal laws--laws they themselves never can, and never do, reflect upon." Who does that remind us of? Clue: it makes no difference which party is in power. Havel specifically relates the Czech and Eastern European experience to the West, "as a kind of warning to the West, revealing its own latent tendencies..."
Havel places most of his emphasis on reform at the individual and community level, outside of politics and economics. He is especially encouraging in speaking of how unlikely it is to predict the moment when widely differing groups can come together in truth and freedom to overcome an oppressive regime, and yet how likely it is, in today's environment, that such a change might occur.
In many ways his long essay reminded me of George Will's collection of thoughts published as "Statecraft as Soulcraft," except that Havel has found the state (either communist or capitalist) to be a failure at its most important function--the people must instead constitute an alternative polis that is initially side-by-side with the state, and ultimately displaces the state with a fresh new start. Incumbents beware, Havel finds that more often than not a clean sheet fresh start is the way to go.
As the USA confronts terrorism and a right-of-center approach to law enforcement, Havel offers a clear warning to citizens at risk of being labeled as terrorists when in fact they are only dissidents and speakers of truth. He speaks of the communist regime "ascribing terrorist aims to the 'dissident movements' and accusing them of illegal and conspiratorial methods." Shades of the present in the West, where anti-globalization activists and legitimate Arab and Muslim personalities have been tarred with the terrorist brush, held without recourse to lawyers, and generally abused in the name of an ill-defined and badly-managed counter-terrorism program.
Among his deepest thoughts, and I will stop here for the essay needs to be read by the same thoughtful people that are reading "Cicero" and "What Kind of Nation" and "Crashing the Party" and "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy", is the following: "The 'dissident movements' do not shy away from the idea of violent political overthrow because the idea seems too radical, but on the contrary, because it does not seem radical enough. For them, the problem lies far too deep to be settled through mere systemic changes, either governmental or technological." Havel, perhaps in concurrence with Lawrence Lessig and his "Future of Ideas" finds both the law and the legal code to be oppressive and abusive of the people--the recent effort to modify bankruptcy laws to reduce the protections of the people from abusive credit card companies, are but one small example--the outrageous extension of copyright and patent laws to keep innovation from the marketplace are another.
Havel anticipates the "whithering away and dying off" of traditional political parties, "to be replaced by new structures that have evolved from 'below' and are put together in a fundamentally different way." He speaks briefly of technology being out of control, and of the ultimate war now taking place, between state control and social control. He concludes that parliamentary democracies are essentially institutionalized forms of collective *irresponsibility*, and that only a moral reconstitution of society, the resurrection of core "values like as trust, openness, responsibility, solidarity, love" will show the way out of the "classic impotence of traditional democratic organizations."
The other authors are not to be missed, and provide complementary but distinct views that are helpful to sparking debate and reflection. This volume will in my opinion stand as one of the great basic texts for political science and public administration, and it has great value for courses and reflections on ethics, citizenship, sociology, and economics.
Book Description
In a book written while he was president of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel combines the same powerful eloquence, moral passion, and abiding wisdom that informed his writing as a dissident and playwright, with a candor unprecedented from one with the broad perspective and infinite responsibility of governing a country.
Havel, now president of the Czech Republic, addresses the legacy of Communism as the euphoria of the Velvet Revolution gives way to a more problematic reality. Yet even as he grapples with the challenges of political change, he affirms his belief in a politics motivated by moral responsibility; in an economy tempered by compassion; and in the central roles of art and culture in the transformation of society. Summer Meditations is not only a timely and necessary testament of events in Eastern Europe but a profound reflection upon the nature and practice of politics and a stirring call for morality, civility, and openness in public life throughout the world.
Customer Reviews:
One of my favorite books.......2005-06-17
I first picked up this book before I headed off to college 8 years ago and couldn't put it down. I now pick it up every so often to read through all the pages I underlined and highlighted for brillant thoughts. It's an inspirational book. I reference it as a must read to all the students I mentor now who have interests in government.
Tremendous!.......1999-07-01
How many politicians take the time to sit back and think about their career, the world around them, and the state of affairs in general? How many take the time to then write what they are thinking and share it with the world? Few; almost none. That is what makes Havel so special and this book so inspiring. By the time you read it many of the arguments he makes for and against certain laws or policies may be largely moot. But that isn't the point! The point of the book is to look at Havel's sense of morality and his philosophy of politics and government. Every politician should be required to read this book!
A breath of fresh air in a world of political smog and smut........1999-02-07
Havel's heart is placed on each page. His masterful ability to break down complex issues with his personal moral code inspires hope and resolve in the reader. A true world leader and example in a world of fallen leaders and stained examples. The reader leaves the book a better person. And in the final analysis, isn't this what it is all about? Havel thinks so.
Average customer rating:
- Aung San Suu Kyi
- The eloquent voice of an often forgotten but mighty land
- Indispensible
- Freedom from Fear and Other Writings
- Freedom from fear
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Freedom from Fear and Other Writings: Revised Edition
Aung San Suu Kyi
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ASIN: 0140253173 |
Customer Reviews:
Aung San Suu Kyi.......2003-09-21
The best writing I've ever read ... about striving democracy in peace... I love That Woman!!!!
The eloquent voice of an often forgotten but mighty land.......2003-09-13
I re-read this book shortly after Aung San Suu Kyi was placed, once again, under house arrest in 2003. The daughter of the man who is referred as the founding father of Burma(today called Myanmar) - Aung San - is herself a major political figure in her country. The chapter about her father - who was assassinated when the author was two years old - is an impressive, informative, and dispassionate account of Aung San's days as a student leader and his leadership of the independence movement that established modern Burma as a nation. My own father was a foreign correspondent in Burma in the late 1940s and had covered the assassination of Aung San and his colleagues. This left me since my childhood with a deep curiosity about this period of Burmese history - and Aung San's daughter's account does not leave curious readers like myself disappointed. Most of the book is devoted to the life and times of Suu Kyi herself. It includes several articles by other writers who help readers understand how a Burmese woman rises to national prominence in a country which has known but unbroken military dictatorship for decades. This book is also about Burmese culture, religion, and language, and should be on the bookshelf on anyone who has a serious interest in this curious, wretched country of tremendous unfulfilled potential.
If you have an interest in Burmese or Southeast Asian history, you might also consider reading Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace, a historical novel which I have also reviewed on this website.
Indispensible.......2003-04-19
This book was for me an opener into the evolution of Burma's political scene, and it proved to be a good one.
Whilst it takes some time to get accustomed to the many abbreviations of Burma's political parties and factions, once it is gotten used to, Freedom from Fear becomes an essential book for those interested in the becoming of Aung San Suu Kyi - daughter of Burma's national hero, the late Aung San - and her process of fighting and eventually winning the support of the country she always called home depite her international influences.
Though Freedom from Fear would be a good book to start learning about Burma's modern political history, I would suggest first reading about pre-colonial Burma to get a better grasp and understanding of the country's stand and place in Southeast Asia.
Freedom from Fear and Other Writings.......2002-05-18
This book really inspired me. And all the details information written in this book are 100% accurate and I was so suprised to read all those history things that I have learnt in my childhood in my country, Myanmar. I believe this is one of the books that every patriots of Burma should have.
Freedom from fear.......2002-02-26
this book is very good for me to build my strength
and power for fight against military dictatorship
in my country. Thank you for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
KoKoOo
Amazon.com
For more than 30 years, Czechoslovakian playwright Václav Havel courageously asserted the primacy of individual imagination and morality against his homeland's monolithic communist state. After the Velvet Revolution, his fellow citizens rewarded him with the presidency of newly democratic Czechoslovakia, yet political controversy and ill health have dogged him during his decade in power. British historian John Keane's commendably balanced biography provides a full account of the stylistically innovative, politically challenging plays that made Havel's reputation; the pioneering human rights activism expressed in the famous Charter 77 petition; his friendships and quarrels with fellow intellectuals like Milan Kundera; and his skirmishes with the authorities, beginning with a speech defending artistic freedom delivered when he was 20 and culminating in several jail sentences. Readers who prefer biographers to assume an air of lofty objectivity may be put off by Keane's blunt opinions and "cubist" narrative style, but his background as a political historian and as editor of the English-language version of Havel's seminal essay "The Power of the Powerless" gives his judgments considerable weight. Intelligent and probing, Keane's biography reveals a "post-modern president" whose struggles have lessons for triumphant capitalists as well as repentant socialists. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
This authorized biography of Havel, based on unrestricted access to him, his circle, and even his enemies, is not only the first definitive account of one of the modern world's great moral and political leaders but also a vivid panorama of the tumultuous events of his times. Havel's life, like that of his African counterpart Nelson Mandela, has been shaped and determined by the large political shifts of the twentieth century. Readers will taste the moments of joy, irony, farce, and misfortune through which he has lived, and realize that he has taught the world more about the powerful and the powerless, power-grabbing and power-sharing, than virtually anyone else on the world stage.
"Read this book for its facts, its sensitive analysis, and its fruitful speculations." -National Post
"[A]n eloquent and meditative treatment...A thoughtful review of Havel's important contribution to the development of modern Europe." -Kirkus Reviews
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book that Havel himself would probably approve.......2007-06-05
What a lot of ruffled feathers! A book this well-written must have a lot going for it to upset so many people. And, by the way, the most favorable review below, by "Erica Blair," is a piece of legerdemain by a certain author. Readers of the biography should be able to figure it out.
I think readers are upset because the book isn't what they expected. Despite its length, it isn't a standard biography with endless accretion of unnecessary detail. For large sections Havel seems absent from these pages, because Keane concentrates on describing--in vivid, smart prose--what it was like to be Czech at various points in Havel's lifetime. It's almost as if we're experiencing these times through Havel's eyes.
Quite subtly, without appearing to do so, Keane gives us what we need to know about Czech history and politics to understand what made Havel. It's all here, and a graphic and painless read, unlike the more formal histories I've read.
I agree that calling Havel's life a tragedy is a stretch. The only tragedy Keane comes up with is Havel's ultimate rejection as a politician by his fellow Czechs. But Keane himself points out that this tends to happen to all popular politicians later in their terms of office. (See the fate of Blair and Little Georgie Boy.) Havel seems to be thriving, and all the revelations about his boozing, smoking and fornicating seem to make him seem more human and detract not a bit from his reputation. His books of essays will last as long as political writing endures.
Middling.......2005-04-12
I bought this because, without any real data, I had come to think of Havel as a hero. I suppose it was primarily because a creative intellectual in position of political power gives me hope. I felt a need to justify my position, and I believe the book fulfilled that purpose. However, I, too, would have preferred more biography. The treatment of Olga's death was jarring, included as it was in a paragraph about Havel's movie-star girlfriend/wife. Too, the final chapter on death was a bit of a stretch; too full of literary ambition and not enough detail. I had to search for Havel's website to discover that, in fact, he is alive and active.
The section on the Velvet Revolution was particularly engaging, though it seemed that Keane jumped around the timeline a bit much.
Erudite meditation on power, would've like more bio though.........2001-10-24
I was recently in Prague and having read a Havel play (and being a fan of Kundera and Klima) I felt like I needed to know more about the man Havel is. Fortunately I am also interested in the machinations of power structures and how humans spin their webs. This was the main theme of this book, and Havel was it's main character. The chapter about Havel in jail was riveting, but I must say, throughout the book, I would have like more detail regarding the important stories that add dimension to his life, so I would say I should have read something else. Still, Keane's intelligence and insight connect Havel's life with the historical context from which he arises very well. I would say that this it the books greatest strength. I learned a lot, though not always about Havel.
no stars?.......2000-10-07
Mr Rossman's review of Vaclav Havel : A Political Tragedy in Six Acts is most misleading and surely based on a careless reading of the book - perhaps even no reading of the book. It should be ignored. The book is very much richer and of long-term significance than he makes out.
Mr. Keane - What planet have you been on?.......2000-09-08
Skip this insulting piece of garbage. I almost couldn't believe what I was reading! At one point Keane seems to imply that Havel's five years as a political prisoner, was nothing more than a planned political move to further his career. Mr. Keane definitely is not a historian, or for that matter, a good writer. What a pity that the book has even received so much publicity. A pure unadulterated insult to one of the greatest figures of our time. Shame on you Keane. Attacking this courageous leader for smoking and drinking habits. I wonder if Keane might have looked for a beer and cigarette after 5 years in a communist prison. Lastly, he criticizes Havel as a writer. Wow, this guy has some really big stones! He writes a piece of junk and in it criticizes one of the most creative and courageous voices of our time. This website only lets you rate from 1 star up, otherwise I would have given it no stars. A waste of time and paper.
Amazon.com
This collection of 35 essays written by the Czech playwright and human rights dissident who became the president of his country in 1989, focuses on the challenges facing an East learning democracy from scratch and a West unused to the multicultural complexities this process involves. Their organizing principle is that what is necessary now in politics and statecraft is the reaffirmation of values. "It will certainly not be easy," Havel writes, "to awaken in people a new sense of responsibility for the world, or to convince them to conduct themselves as if they were to live on this earth forever and be answerable for its condition one day. Who knows how many cataclysms humanity may have to experience before such a sense of responsibility is generally accepted? But this does not mean that those who wish to work for it cannot begin at once." The best vehicle for pulling this off, Havel says, are "those organisms that lie somewhere between nation-states and a world community." What he has in mind are "regional communities" like NATO, world organizations like the U.N., and another force that he thinks might be the best suited of all for this task--the mass media.
Book Description
There is no shortage of politicians who make a habit of shooting from the hip, but it is much rarer to find one who speaks from the heart. Václav Havel knows no other way to speak, or to write. Both as a dissident and as a playwright it was his sworn purpose for many years to combat evil with nothing but truth. As president of Czechoslovakia, and now of the Czech Republic, he has clung to that habit, refusing to turn over either his conscience or his voice to political handlers and professional speechwriters. Instead he assumes the additional burden--for him, it is a distinct pleasure--of composing all of his oratory. Audiences from New York to New Delhi, Oslo to Tokyo, have been the luckier for his decision.
This volume consists of thirty-five of these essays, written between the years 1990 and 1996, that manage to be both profoundly personal and profoundly political. Havel writes of totalitarianism, its miseries and the nonetheless difficult emergence from it.
He describes how his country and the other postcommunist countries are learning democracy from scratch and are encountering obstacles from inside and out. He marvels at the single technology-driven civilization that envelops the globe, and the challenges this presents to multicultural realities. He invokes the duty of every person alive to prevent hatred and fear from derailing history ever again. He acknowledges "the advantage it is for doing a good job as president to know that I do not belong in the position and that I can at any moment, and justifiably, be removed from it." And he reminds us that--contrary to all appearances--common sense, moderation, responsibility, good taste, feeling, instinct, and conscience are not alien to politics, but are the very key to its long-term success.
Customer Reviews:
Several excerpts from this illuminating and inspiring book.......2002-08-25
I hope Havel's own words (he is one of the few presidents who writes his own speeches, consistently with his life motto "living in the truth") will inspire you to buy and read "The Art of Impossible" and other books written by this humble and couragoues man. From Havel's writings one can learn much about history, politics, philosophy,psychology and art/theatre. Moreover, everyone reading Havel's works with an open mind and heart will be challenged to reflect on his/her own place in this world.
"For forty years on this day you heard, from my predecessors, variations on the same theme: how our country flourished, how many million tons of steel we produced, how happy we all were,
how we trusted our government, and what bright perspectives were unfolding before us. I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you. (New Year's Address to the Nation, Prague, January 1, 1990)
"But this is still not the main problem. The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We fell morally ill because we got used to saying something different from what we thought. We learned not to believe in anything, to ignore each other, to care only for ourselves. Concepts such as love, friendship, compassion, humility and forgiveness lost their
depth and dimension, and for many of us they came to represent only psychological pecularities, or to resemble long-lost greetings from the ancient times, a little ridiculous in the era of commuters and spaceships. ...When I talk about contaminated moral atmosphere, I am not talking just about the gentlemen who eat organic vegetables and do not look out of the planes windows, I am talking about all of us. We had all become used to the totalitarian system and accepted it as an unalterable fact of life, and thus we helped to perpetuate it. In other words, we are all-though naturally to differing extents-responsible for the operation of the totalitarian machinery. None of us is just its victim: we are all also its cocreators. (New Year's Address to the Nation, Prague, January 1, 1990)
"...we must accept this legacy as a sin we committed against ourselves. If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us alone, to do something about it. We must not blame the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would be untrue but also because it could blunt the duty each of us faces today, that is, the obligation to act independently, freely,reasonably, and quickly. ...Freedom and democracy require participation and therefore responsible action from us all. (New Year's Address to the Nation, Prague, January 1, 1990)
"We agree that the basic prerequisite for a genuine friendship between our nations is truth, a truth that is always expressed, no matter how hard." (The Visit of German President Richard von
Weizacker, Prague)
"Interests of all kinds-personal, selfish, state, national, group, and if you like, company interests-still considerably outweigh genuinely common and global interests. We are still under the sway of the destructive and thoroughly vain belief that man is the pinnacle of creation, and not just a part of it, and that therefore everything is permitted to him. There are still many who say they are concerned not for themselves but for the cause, while they act demonstrably in their own interests
and not for the cause at all. We are destroying the planet that was entrusted to us. We still close our eyes to the growing social, ethnic, and cultural conflicts in the world. From time to time we say that the anonymous megamachinery we have created for ourselves no longer serves us but,rather, has enslaved us, yet we fail to do anything about it. In other words, we still don't know how to put morality ahead of politics, science and economics. We are still incapable of understanding that the only genuine core of all our actions-if they are to be moral-is responsibility. Responsibility to something higher than my family, my country, my firm, my success. Responsibility to the order of Being, where all our actions are indelibly recorded and where, and only where, they will be properly judged. The
interpreter or mediator between us and this higher authority is what is traditionally referred to as human conscience. If I subordinate my political behavior to this imperative, I can't go far wrong. If on the contrary, I am not guided by this voice, not even ten presidential schools with two thousand of the best political scientists in the world could help me. (A Joint Session of the U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., February 21, 1990)
After reading "The Art of Impossible" I would also recommend the following writings:
Havel, Vaclav. Open Letters: Selected Writings 1965-1990. Translated by Paul Wilson. New York:Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
Sire, James W. Václav Havel: the intellectual conscience of international politics: an introduction, appreciation, and critique. Downers Grove: IVP, 2001.
Inspirational.......2000-10-11
The Art of the Impossible is, indeed, a very good introduction to the political philosophy of a great leader. Every lecture and article contained in this volume holds fabulous, almost poetic passages, and offers insights into the difficulties of leading a nation away from the physical and psychological devastation of communism. On some occasions Mr. Havel looks at his own position from a critical point of view, something we don't see very often in this kind of work.
This is a rather optimistic book, and every person who aspires to making our world a better - and safer - place for everyone, should definitely read it. It does not, however, provide us with solutions, but this is not what this work was intended for in the first place. What it does is identify the areas of politics we ought to concentrate on. The passages in which he argues for an increased participation of "intellectuals" in politics is particularly enlightening.
A commendable collection of lectures and essays, beautifully translated, which offers us a glimpse of a truly admirable man.
Excellent introduction to Havel.......1999-12-15
The essays and speeches contained in this book provide an excellent introduction to Vaclav Havel, one of the most intelligent and conscientious political figures of this century. His discussions about democracy, forgiveness, the future of the former Soviet Union, the future of the Czech Republic and other themes are thoughtfully composed and eloquently expressed. No review that I can write can do justice to this man's incredible vision for his country, our world, and our future.
Customer Reviews:
Humanitarian.......2000-04-08
I found this book motivational and inspirational. The societywe live in today reflects the opinions and speeches of Mr. Havel. Iuse this book like a bible..He spoke many truths to our nation.His speech on "hate" was so true about the ideas and thoughts of the Human Race in this world...His tribute as a President to treat people with such dignity and honor..His speech in "Oslo" was refreshing and exhilirating..I applaud his humanitarism. One day I would love to meet and speak to him.
Book Description
As writer, dissident, and statesman, Václav Havel played an essential part in the profound changes that occurred in Central Europe during the last decades of the twentieth century, and became a powerful intellectual and political force for the reestablishment of democratic principles and institutions. Now, in this intimate, illuminating memoir, he recollects the pivotal experiences and ideas of his remarkable life.
Known in his native Prague for his theatrical productions, and imprisoned for his anticommunist views, Havel emerged on the international stage in 1989 as the elected president of Czechoslovakia, and, in 1993, as president of the newly formed Czech Republic. He writes with eloquence and candor about his transition from playwright to politician, and the surreal challenges of governing a young democracy. But the scope of his writing extends far beyond the circumstances he faced in his own country. He shares his thoughts on the future of the EU, the reach of the American superpower, and the role of national identity in today’s world. He explains why he has come to believe the war in Iraq is a fiasco, and he discusses the reverberations from his initial support of the invasion.
This is also a personal book, in which he writes for the first time about his battle with lung cancer, the death of his first wife, Olga, and the controversy that has dogged his relationship with his second wife, the Czech actress Dagmar Veškrnová. And, finally, it is a meditation on mortality and on the difficulties of writing itself.
Infused with characteristic wit and well-honed irony, To the Castle and Back is a revelation of one of the most important figures of our time.
Customer Reviews:
A mortal Sisyphus.......2007-08-07
I just finished Vaclav Havel's memoir, To the Castle and Back, and the harsh feelings I had towards the book as I began it dissipated a bit by the end. It has an odd structure, equal parts an interview done concerning events before he was president, memos he wrote while he was president, and recollections he wrote some years after he left office, all interspersed randomly among each other, with occasional repetitions of texts. As a biography, it's a failure. By the end of the book, I still know little of the history of the Czech Republic, or what Havel did while in office. Readers looking for that should go to Havel's book, Disturbing the Peace. That book remains one of the most influential books I've ever read, and I still count myself as lucky for stumbling on it in a friend's bookshelf.
As a piece of literature, though, To the Castle is a success. Fundamentally, it casts Havel (and all writers and activists) as a sort of postmodern Sisyphus. He writes in depth and at length about his difficulty getting motivated and starting to write. He write, to the point of being whiney, about his intense doubt that his writing and political projects will ever achieve their high objectives. Indeed, he seems to argue that writing is fundamentally futile: "man will carry the complete truth about himself to the grave." And yet Havel write, driven on by the "somewhat ridiculous" idea that "the world desperately needs the work in question, and will fall apart if it doesn't appear." I too like writing and thinking yet have intense self-doubt, and so I get great joy seeing that someone way more gifted than I like Havel suffers the same. I agree with Havel's quote: "I sometimes ask myself whether I did not originally begin to write... only to overcome my essential experience of inappropriateness... in order to be able to live with those feelings."
Yet somehow the Sisyphean task of the writer gives him meaning: "He simply tried to capture the world and himself more and more exactly through words, images, or actors, and the more he succeeds, the more aware he is that he can never completely capture either the world or himself... but that drives him to keep trying." Imagine Sisyphus as conscious of the absurdity of his task, yet still drawing meaning from it. Camus would be proud.
This book is also a lament, for it is perhaps his last, and is certainly written as such. Havel is sending a message: he did his best to write himself into the world, but ultimately failed to communicate his internal self. Like a mortal Sisyphus in old age realizing he will never reach the top of this hill, nor could have.
Fascinating, but not for Havel beginners.......2007-06-24
To those of us deeply involved in Czech history or culture, this is an essential book. It's a fascinating insider's look at the choices a dissident was forced to make when he became President of a postcommunist country. But for people not deeply familiar with Havel's work, this is not the place to start. First read "Open Letters" and "Disturbing the Peace," then John Keane's (similarly unconventional) biography.
Disappointment.......2007-06-14
What a disappointment this book turned out to be. It is nothing but an apparently random collection of snippets from the author's diary and memory, unconnected by any clear themes or points. You'd have to be thorougly familiar with his life and work to have these snippets mean anything. If you are looking for any sort of autobiography of the author, forget it. I have a hard time seeing how anyone could experience life so randomly.
Havel in his own words-- and his own style .......2007-06-05
Maybe we can be forgiven for wishing that Vaclav Havel, one of the truly amazing figures of our time, had written a more traditional, linear, and straightforward memoir of the Velvet Revolution that brought him to power, and his experiences as president, first of Czechoslovakia, then the Czech Republic. Those were years that pulsed with excitement; and if our hopes that this philosopher-president could remake the world (or his own country, even) in his own image were wildly over-optimistic, then at least his example continues to shine as evidence that history is always unpredictable, and amazing things are truly possible.
But instead of a chronological incident-by-incident description of what happened in those years from 1989 onward, Havel has given us this unorothodox book which is divided in three parts: his answers to an interviewer's question (the same interviewer with whom he collaborated on the fascinating "Distrubing the Peace" just before the revolution); excerpts from his official directions to his staff while president; and more recent reflections of his life in the post-presidency (largely written while on sabbatical in the United States).
There is plenty here to keep interested people enthralled: insights into contemporary world leaders; descriptions of those heady days which saw one-time "dissidents" elevated to power; explanations of why Havel acted as he did in various issues facing the Czech Republic (much of this material might be pretty much incomprehensible to many non-European readers). We also get stunningly honest glimpses into Havel's personality-- sometimes witty, often persnickety, always overly conflicted. These are, perhaps, the most fascinating aspects of the book (though, from a scholarly viewpoint, perhaps the least important). We learn that Havel loves Americans (so polite [!], he says; such good drivers [!!]; with such beautiful teeth-- though they eat these gigantic sandwiches and wash them down the Coca-cola. Interesting? Maybe. Important? Hardly.
Perhaps, from the viewpoint of the student of history and politics, it would have been more useful for Havel to concetrate for a longer time on, say, his relations with Klaus; the problems of privatization; the Czech Republic's relationship to NATO or the EU. But one senses that, had he done so, we would have a much less humane (and human) book here-- and letting personality and humanity shine through beyond the expected constructs of society is what much of Havel's lifework has been about. Certainly, this book irritates at times. Sometimes, one senses that by jumping about from subject to subject, from 2005 to 1994 to 1999 to 2004 again, much is left unsaid and much escapes sufficient analysis. Certainly, there is some kind of absurdist pattern to Havel's repeating certain brief extracts from his journal (about how he wants his pike prepared; the bat in the closet; needing a linger hose for his garden) over and over again. But what that pattern is precisely escapes most of those approching this book hoping for insights into Havel's perspective on our world and its recent history.
"To The Castle and Back" is well worth reading for its insights into this marvelous man and his story. It was good of him to share as much of himself with us as he has. But certainly, we shouldn't be surprised that as one of the great iconoclasts of our age, he chose to do so in a manner that was completely and unmistakably his own.
Book Description
Spanning twenty-five years, this historic collection of writings shows Vaclav Havel's evolution from a modestly known playwright who had the courage to advise and criticize Czechoslovakia's leaders to a newly elected president whose first address to his fellow citizens begins, "I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you." Some of the pieces in Open Letters, such as "Dear Dr. Husak" and the essay "The Power of the Powerless," are by now almost legendary for their influence on a generation of Eastern European dissidents; others, such as some of Havel's prison correspondence and his private letter to Alexander Dubcek, appear in English for the first time. All of them bear the unmistakable imprint of Havel's intellectual rigor, moral conviction, and unassuming eloquence, while standing as important additions to the world's literature of conscience.
Customer Reviews:
Havel's greatest essays in one single volume.......1997-07-09
Vaclav Havel has been called "the greatest moral thinker of our time" and "a sort of EuroGhandi." While most noted as a playwright, Havel's most important works have been of prose; essays such as "Power of the Powerless" and his "Open Letter to Gustav Husak" allowed his nation to retain hope under brutal conditions. Now, Havel's greatest essays, from the early sixties to his "New Year's Address" after his 1989 election to the presidency, have been collected in a volume that will, unlike most political texts, make you think as well as feel.
The most impressive of Havel's essays would have to be "Power of the Powerless" which was written in only a few days during the mid-1970's at the urging of a Polish dissident. It stresses that, when a government holds its citizens actions, words and even minds at bay, that gives the citizens a power that the government can only dream of; the power of truth. This idea of truth, which is contained in one form or another in all of Havel's writings, serves as the very basis of his political thought, which outlines man's current journey towards moral politics. A thought-provoking and deeply illuminating book
Book Description
An intimate history of Czechoslovakia under communism; a meditation on the social and political role of art, and a triumphant statement of the values underlying all the recent revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe.
Customer Reviews:
Human-Centric Self-Governance--Take Back the Power.......2002-06-26
This book should be read as an adjunct to the author's other major book along these lines on power to the powerless.
The most gripping and troubling conclusion that I drew from this book is that the United States of America is today much closer to where Czechoslovakia was in 1968 than anyone other than the Chomsky's and Vidal's might be willing to admit. We have both a federal government and a national corporate economy that thrives on elitist secrecy and blatant lies--even our non-profit sector is corrupt, from the Red Cross to United Way to many others. The people, the citizen-voters, truly have lost all power, as well as access to the information that might give them back the power, and this is indeed a black, absurdist-realist situation.
On a more positive note, the author offers up, in the course of a long series of interviews, a number of ideas that are relevant to America today, as well as to any other emerging or re-emergent democracies in the making.
1) Model of behavior. When arguing with the center of power, do not get side-tracked with ideological debates over right or wrong. Focus on very specific concrete things (e.g. term limits, campaign finance reform, neighborhood economics) and stick to your guns.
2) Popular coalitions. Non-violent non-partisan popular coalitions are the core means of taking back the power. They represent a means for bring together groups of people from widely divergent backgrounds, with genuine social tolerance.
3) Informal networks. Even under conditions of repression and censorship, informal networks of dissidents and quasi-dissidents can be effective in sharing information through samizdat publications. [With the Internet, these possibilities explode, although caution must be taken on the fringes since the Internet is easily monitored and the more radical leaders could be declared seditionist "combatants" ineligible for their rights as citizens...speaking of the Soviet Union, of course, not America.]
4) Man versus Machine. Havel reaches his own conclusions founded in Czech literature and his own experience, with respect to the urgency of restoring the kinship and human connections that used to drive politics, economics, and other aspects of organized living. He is at one with Lionel Tiger among many others, with respect to the terribly consequences of the industrial era in terms of de-humanizing decision-making and allowing remote elites to treat individual workers as dispensable cogs in the machine, whose lives matter not a whit.
5) Neighborhoods, Politics "From Below". He joins the authors of the Cultural Creatives (Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson) and of IMAGINE: What America Could be in the 21st Century (Marianne Williamson) in emphasizing the vital role that neighborhoods must play in any democracy. From political self-governance to sustainable economics to low-cost healthy agriculture to cultural cohesion, neighborhoods are the sin qua non of democracy--without active neighborhoods, one can go so far as to say, national democracy is a sham, a false theater, fully equivalent to the centralized, repressive, inefficient totalitarian control states of earlier eras.
6) Small Numbers Can Make a Difference. I was struck by how few were the original dissidents and organizers--in some cases, 20-30 in number, in others 70-80. Earlier studies have suggested that Hitler took power over millions with just 25,000 people. One can only hope that the anti-thesis is true, and that the 50 million cultural creatives can take back the power by getting serious about organizing across neighborhoods and into a national network.
7) Art and theater matter. Even under conditions of severe censorship and control, art and theater can be the manifestation of uncensored life, "life that spits on all ideology and all that lofty word of babble; a life that intrinsically resist(s) all forms of violence, all interpretations, all directives....here stood truth..."
8) Absurdity is a warning. Nihilistic and absurd theater or other works of art are a caution. They "do not offer us consolation or hope (but) merely remind( ) us of how we are living: without hope.
9) Truth can be misappropriated. The author experienced the misappropriation of his words and was both hurt and enlightened, ultimately creating a play about truth, the circumstances in which it is said, and the whom, why, and how of it.
10) Great men doubt themselves. Most touching are the author's many retrospective and current references to his insecurities, to his doubting himself even as he made history and became President of Czechoslovakia.
11) Writers live to tell the truth. This is certainly not true of most American writers who write for money, but it reflects the ideal and merits thought.
12) Change the atmosphere. If you can do nothing else, strive for a moral mobilization and a change in the atmosphere of governance, at any level. We cannot even begin to conceive the magnitude of the positive changes that can occur overnight if the people begin to speak truth among themselves. Work toward a process "in which people's civic backbones (begin) to straighten again."
13) Role of the intellectual. While I the reviewer would churlishly doubt that America has many intellectuals right now, the author's concluding words on the role of the intellectual strike me as very important: "...the intellectual should constantly disturb, should bear witness to the misery of the world, should be provocative by being independent, should rebel against all hidden and open pressure and manipulations, should be the chief doubter of systems, of power and its incantations, should be a witness to their mendacity."
Any person concerned about the corruption and misdirection of their government and their corporate as well as non-profit entities, will be provoked and inspired by this book. It speaks to the future of human life as it might be, were we willing to stand up straight and be counted at citizen-voters, active at every level beginning with our own neighborhoods.
Should interest mangagers and artists too........2002-02-24
Other reviews are right on the money in terms of this being a very good book and of course it covers many key elements of the events and times during the changes in Czechoslovakia. However the are several key messages, and lessons for anyone interested in managing, motivating and leading people; particularly through difficult or uncharted changes. There are also some good reflections on the role, character and nature of theater and other individual and group activities in the arts.
Amazing Book, Amazing Man.......2000-12-30
This is a fine book about an amazing man. I was truly inspired by Vaclav Havel after reading this book. This book is an "easy read" even though it is largely about weighty matters. It is an interesting and enlightening book.
This book gives you a moral boost.......2000-10-03
Whenever I need a moral boost I go back and reread Vaclav Havel's
"Disturbing the Peace". This book is a series of essays by the
dissident Vaclav Havel that were smuggled out of communist
Czechoslovakia and translated by a Havel friend in the West. Vaclav
Havel was a playwright who became a Czech dissident who became leader
of the Velvet revolution (which ousted the communists) and who finally
became president of the republic.
Vaclav Havel was the foremost
dissident under the communist regime. He openly challenged the ruling
government with such essays as "Power to the Powerless" and
"The Soul of Main under Communism". (Actually I forgot the name
of the latter essay. I think "The Soul of Man under Communism"
is an essay written by Oscar Wilde. But Havel did address this theme
in "Disturbing the Peace" and in essays he forwarded to the
communist rulers.)
One of the most exciting parts of the book is
where Havel describes the dissident communitie's efforts to publish a
Havel essay advocating that the Czech government adhere to the terms
of the Charter 77 human rights accord to which they were a signatory.
The story is spine tingling thriller complete with car chases and
obscure drop points. It reads like a John le Carre novel except it is
real.
After you read "Disturbing to Peace" I also recommend
"The Magic Lanten" by Timothy Garton Ash. This is a first hand
account of the fall of the communism as the democratic revolution
rolled across Czechoslovakia, East German, Hungary, and Romania.
Garton Ash was privy to the inner circle of people who plotted and
executed these bloodless coups. (Bloodless everywhere except, of
course, in Romania.)
The Revolution BEFORE the Revolution.......1999-04-24
This is the most insightful book I've ever read on the spirit of political dissent. It was published as Havel's responses to a series of written interview questions smuggled to him while he was under watch in the 80s. From this vantage point, 1989 is nowhere on the horizon. Thus, there is no triumphalism in the way Havel understands his generation. He is deeply meditative, and even-handed, about the human condition. There are no tremendous feats of courage, just a bounteous sense of passion, reasonableness, and brotherhood. This private spirit of solidarity led a community of leaders to establish a civil society in the interstices of an oppressive system. I read this in China, a very different environment that does not share all same characteristics that made Havel's movement successful. To better understand the limits of contemporary dissent in China, I'd recommend Merle Goldman's (dense) "Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China" or Zhang Xianliang's "Grass Soup" -- his un-hyperbolic work-camp memoirs of the Anti-Rightist Campaign in the 1950s. Zhang is now a CCP member, but that doesn't diminish in the least the power of the message.
Books:
- The Redhunter: A Novel Based on the Life of Senator Joe McCarthy
- The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
- The Seventeen Traditions
- The Unfulfilled Prime Minister: Tony Blair's Quest for a Legacy
- The Walls of Jericho : Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell and the Struggle for Civil Rights
- Truman
- Truman
- Truman
- Ulysses S. Grant : Memoirs and Selected Letters : Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant / Selected Letters, 1839-1865 (Library of America)
- Virtual Teams: People Working Across Boundaries with Technology
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- A Broken Heart Still Beats: After Your Child Dies
- Second Star to the Right
- If Only: How to Turn Regret Into Opportunity
- History: Fiction or Science
- In the Bleak Midwinter
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- Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics
- Five Trillion Dollars and Ever-Deeper in Debt: A New Net Worth Tax in 1995 Is Our Nation's Only Way
- Leadership Aikido: 6 Business Practices That Can Turn Your Life Around
- The World Economic Factbook '99
Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Huizdala
Open Letters: Selected Writings, 1965-1990
Summer Meditations
The Captive Mind
The Garden Party: and Other Plays (Havel, Vaclav)
