Publisher's Synopsis
This study of the "independent life of society" (dissent) in Central and Eastern Europe examines the many forms of independent activity at work today. Included are autonomous family life, religion and nationalism, the second economy, "samizdat" communications, the second culture, including the alternative youth culture, parallel politics and social deviance.;The author provides a comprehensive systematic analysis of independent historical and political writings in Czechoslovakia, Charter 77 and other forms of autonomous action in that country. He also makes a thorough survey of "samizdat" and other dissident activities in the USSR and the other countries of Central Europe, and assesses the validity of the concepts of an "independent" or "parallel" society which are widely used to interpret these phenomena.;The author has published several books on Eastern Europe including "Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution".
