The Legacies of Totalitarianism

Aviezer Tucker is a philosopher and social scientist, author of The Philosophy of Politics of Czech Dissidents from Patočka to Havel (2000) and Our Knowledge of the Past: A Philosophy of Historiography (2004). He published extensively in journals such as The American Interest, Critical Review, Foreign Affairs, History and Theory, Independent Review, Philosophy, Politics Philosophy and Economics, and Telos. He spent a decade working and conducting research in post-totalitarian Europe at the Central European University in Prague, Palacky University, and Charles University in the Czech Republic. He also taught and held fellowships at Columbia University, New York University, Trinity College, the Australian National University, the University of Texas, Austin, and Harvard University.

• Introduction; 1. The adjustment of elite rights to interests; 2. Post-totalitarian rough justice; 3. Rough justice: post-totalitarian retribution; 4. Rough and shallow: post-totalitarian rectification; 5. The new politics of property rights; 6. Old to new totalitarianism: post-totalitarian higher education; 7. Short-circuiting reason: the legacies of post-totalitarian thinking; Conclusion. Only dissidents can save us now.

'Discussion about post-communist Central and Eastern Europe has long been tethered to imprecise, ideologically driven thinking. This book reframes the conversation in a manner befitting the region's unique history and plugs a lingering gap in political theory.' Benjamin Cunningham, Prague correspondent, The Economist