The “Velvet Revolution” in a Kaleidoscope of Fates of “Ordinary People”
The “Velvet Revolution” in a Kaleidoscope of Fates of “Ordinary People”

Summary/Abstract: VANĚK, Miroslav – MÜCKE, Pavel: Velvet Revolutions: An Oral History of Czech Society. New York – Oxford, Oxford University Press 2016, 251 pages, ISBN 978-0-19-9 34272-3. If a publishing house as renowned as Oxford University Press publishes a book representing it, it is in the reviewer’s opinion an exceptional success of the Czech historiography. As a matter of fact, this is what Miroslav Vaněk and Pavel Mücke have achieved with their Velvet revolutions: An oral history of Czech society. It is a pioneering-work which, using oral history, systematically conveys and interprets perceptions, thinking, opinions, and attitudes of “ordinary people” during the period of more than two decades from the Prague Spring to the fall of the Communist regime and democratic transformation; moreover, being focused on an international audience, it enables such perceptions, thinking, opinions, and attitudes to be understood across the mental barrier of the former Iron Curtain. The publication is based on an analysis and interpretation of more than three hundred methodologically conducted interviews most of which date back to between 2006 and 2013 and whose purpose was to record stories and experience of “ordinary people” during the period in question in a structured manner, i.e. with a focus on several central topics, including politics, family, school and education, employment and unemployment, perception of the West, travelling, and leisure.

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