{"product_id":"summer-meditations-9780679744979","title":"Summer Meditations","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHavel, 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVáclav Havel\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Czechoslovakia in 1936. Among his plays, those best known in the West are \u003ci\u003eThe Garden Party\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Memorandum\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLargo Desolato, Temptation\u003c\/i\u003e, and three one-act plays, \u003ci\u003eAudience\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePrivate View\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eProtest\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a founding spokesman of Charter 77 and the author of many influential essays on the nature of totalitarianism and dissent. In 1979 he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for his involvement in the human rights movement. Out of this imprisonment came his book of letters to his wife, \u003ci\u003eLetters to Olga \u003c\/i\u003e(1981). In 1989 he helped to found the Civic Forum, the first legal opposition movement in Czechoslovakia in 40 years; in December 1989 he was elected president of Czechoslovakia; and in 1994 became the first president of the independent Czech Republic. His memoir, \u003ci\u003eTo the Castle and Back\u003c\/i\u003e, was published in 2007. He died in 2011 at the age of 75.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50412793200914,"sku":"9780679744979","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_87f733d9-5b34-4679-b9ff-e409251870ca.jpg?v=1729328494","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/summer-meditations-9780679744979","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}