Czechoslovak Contemporary History (1968–1989) - YMO310

• Title: Czechoslovak Contemporary History (1968–1989)
• Guaranteed by: Programme Oral History and Contemporary History (24-KOHSD)
• Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
• Actual: from 2023 to 2023
• Semester: summer
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:5/0, Ex [HS]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: combined
• Teaching methods: combined
• Guarantor: prof. PaedDr. Miroslav Vaněk, Ph.D.; PhDr. Přemysl Houda, Ph.D.

Annotation

English

Last update: Mgr. Monika Picková (07.09.2022)

The subject will focus on the history of Czechoslovakia in the years 1968–1989, i.e. the period of so-called normalization. Attention will be devoted especially to the power structures of the time (mainly the Communist Party), the opposition and selected layers of society. This subject also focuses on political life and social conditions of life in the two decades of the so-called real socialism.

Czech

Last update: Mgr. Jana Wohlmuth Markupová, Ph.D. (13.02.2019)

Předmět se zaměří dějiny Československa v letech 1968–1989, tj. na období tzv. normalizace. Pozornost bude věnována zvlášť tehdejším mocenským strukturám (především KSČ), opozici a vybraným vrstvám společnosti. Předmět se rovněž soustředí na politický život a sociální podmínky života ve dvou dekádách tzv. reálného socialismu.

Literature

Last update: Mgr. Monika Picková (31.08.2023)

Obligatory:

• Vaněk, Miroslav; Mücke, Pavel. Velvet revolutions: an oral history of Czech society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, 251 s. ISBN 978-0-19-934272-3.
• Bischof, Günter; Karner, Stefan; Ruggenthaler, Peter (eds.). The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2011, 510 s. ISBN 978-0-7391-4305-6.
• Krapfl, James. Revolution with a human face: politics, culture, and community in Czechoslovakia, 1989-1992. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013, 291 s. ISBN 978-0-8014-6942-8.
• Havel, Václav. Power of the Powerless (October 1978) [online]. Dostupné z: https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/the-power-of-the-powerless-vaclav-havel-2011-12-23
• Yurchak, Alexei. Everything was forever, until it was no more: the last Soviet generation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, 331 s. ISBN 0691121176.

Recommended:

• Judt, Tony. Postwar: a history of Europe since 1945. London: Vintage, 2010, 933 s. ISBN 978-0-099-54203-2.
• Vinen, Richard. A history in fragments: Europe in the twentieth century. London: Abacus, 2002, 724 s. ISBN 0-349-11269-X.
• Hobsbawm, Eric J. The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991. New York: Vintage, 1994, 640 s. ISBN 0-349-10671-1.
• Johnson, Paul. Modern Times Revised Edition: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2001, 880 s. ISBN 978-0060935504.

Requirements to the exam

Last update: PhDr. Přemysl Houda, Ph.D. (31.08.2023)

Attestation requirements:

Oral exam (list of literature - 5 books and 5 articles according to students´ choice).

Syllabus

Last update: Mgr. Monika Picková (31.08.2023)

Thematic Blocks

1. Late socialism as the research problem of the contemporary history (traditional paradigm vs. revisionist reaction)

2. Prague Spring (‘Socialism with human face’ – what does it mean, what were political, social and economic consequences of the Prague Spring collapse)

3. Power of the powerless (V. Havel) as the key text of the Czech political dissent

4. Perestroika, its impact on the Czechoslovakia and the collapse of the communist regime

Learning resources

Last update: Mgr. Monika Picková (27.08.2023)

Study materials for the course can be found on Moodle UK. All informations are written on the OHSD website.