Legacy

by David Borek, Tomas Carba, Alexandr Korab

Chronicles the history of Communism in Czechoslovakia and the aftermath of the Velvet Revolution.

109 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Rupert Dreyfus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book and read it while in Prague a few years ago. It was purchased from the communist museum which is really interesting and worth a visit if you ever go there. It can be read in a couple of hours and gives a nice overview of how shit Czech communism was.

This book is how I learned about the avant garde band The Plastic People of the Universe. They existed as part of the underground counterculture movement for many years, supressed by the communists.

As a side note: if you live outside of Europe and want to visit Europe's nicest city - visit Prague!

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was picked up for me by my parents years ago when they were doing a tour of Eastern Europe and were visiting in Prague. While there they stopped into the Museum of Communism and picked up this book. This book is a history of communist rule in Czechoslovakia following the conclusion of the Second World War. It was mostly a pretty simple recounting of the events that happened in Czechoslovakia until the end of the Cold War. Just off the bat, there are probably much better sourced and written books about this time period from historians. There were zero citations in this book. Does that mean it is all lies? No, it just means that you have to take what the authors say with a grain of salt. If you are left wing, probably a very large grain of salt from your perspective. However, even though it wouldn't pass my historian sniff test I still liked this book enough to finish it and pull things out from it because it serves as a really useful primary source about how many Czechs felt after the fall of communism. It also has some really choice quotes in it. "Many a Czech regrets today that General Pinochet was not a Czech," and "Stalin died on 5th March 1953. The insane dictator was leaving for hell tortured by paranoid visions. He is said to have had frequent dreams about wolves." I love stuff like this. Is it good history? Mmmm no, unless it is supposed to be entertaining then yes. Either way, it's stuff like that which kept me reading.

The history of Czech communism is a niche subject, but this book would probably be interesting if you happened to find the history of that region interesting or how post-communist states looked back on communism on a popular level.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

So interesting!! I was never interested in history before, but I never knew any of this about the communist history of Eastern Europe, and it's so interesting to read, especially while being in the place! Feel like I should know more.