Past Fellows at the Institute of International Studies

Reinhard Bendix Memorial Research Fellow, 2006-2007

James Krapfl, History: Politics, Culture, and Community in Revolutionary Czechoslovakia, 1989-1992. While no one questions the importance of the "events" that transformed Eastern Europe in 1989, their meaning has become so ambiguous as to render them unnamable. Whether scholars refer to 1989 as "the collapse of Communism" or "the beginning of transition," they are mostly content to regard 1989 as a mere boundary -- a colorful bridge from socialism to post-socialism -- deserving little analysis in its own right. Mr. Krapfl's dissertation counters this wisdom by arguing that, in Czechoslovakia at least, citizens experienced 1989 as an epoch of meaning-formation that engendered an enduring new political culture. Drawing on the words and actions of the ordinary citizens who filled Czechoslovakia's public spaces in that year, the dissertation reveals an expanding universe of symbolism and collective action, replete with festivals and journées that accomplished (in addition to or in lieu of any explicit political purpose) the sacralization of a revolutionary community. By analyzing thousands of workers' declarations, student bulletins, ephemeral newspapers, and videorecordings, in addition to more standard sources like the minutes of local administrative organs and the national press, he charts the evolution of popular political culture from the beginning of the revolution in 1989 to the demise of the Czechoslovak federation in 1992.The picture that emerges is that of a surprisingly idealistic revolution that was at once social, political, and quasi-religious.