Publisher 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.

Review

"A leader who values civility, who can write and speak beautifully, and who has moral authority and compassion." —Los Angeles Times

"It is surely for the president of a modern country, while still in office, to offer the public so unsparing an expose of his political and personal philosophy. And what is even more striking still is the elevated quality, morally and intellectually, of the philosophy that emerges from this effort." —George F. Kennan, The New York Review of Books

"An eloquent reminder that moral struggles do not end with the overthrow of dictators." —The Christian Science Monitor

Translated from the Czech by Paul Wilson

Review Quote

"It is surely for the president of a modern country, while still in office, to offer the public so unsparing an expose of his political and personal philosophy. And what is even more striking still is the elevated quality, morally and intellectually, of the philosophy that emerges from this effort." -- George F. Kennan, The New York Review of Books "An eloquent reminder that moral struggles do not end with the overthrow of dictators." -- Christian Science Monitor Translated from the Czech by Paul Wilson

Excerpt from Book

Foreword These meditations were inspired by conversations I had with Pavel Tigrid and Michael Zantovsk

Details