Freedom for Publishing, Publishing for Freedom

Jacket Description/Back: The Oxford-based Central and East European Publishing Project was a remarkable initiative to support embattled Central and East European publishers and journals, and to punch holes through the cultural iron curtain by encouraging translations and a 'common market of the mind' between East and West. The nine years of its existence straddle the largest watershed in European history since 1945, and the Project's history - told here by some of its leading participants - illuminates the nature of the recent changes in Central and Eastern Europe. In a vivid personal account, Timothy Garton Ash recalls the work of the Project, ranging from smuggling in subsidies to underground journals and samizdat publishers in the pre-1989 period to supporting high-quality translations and East-West workshops in the period after 1989. Also included are an Introduction in which Ralf Dahrendorf, Chairman of the Project, reflects on the importance of both publishing and foundations for a healthy civil society; an annotated catalogue of the Project's work, prepared by Elizabeth Winter; and a detailed and original report by Richard Davy on the state of publishing in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, with suggestions for further Western help. Biographical Note: Timothy Garton Ash is a writer and founder of the Central and East European Publishing ProjectMarc Notes: 100 books which have influenced western public discourse since the Second World War: p. 196-201. Publisher Marketing: This is an assessment of the Central and East European Publishing Project, an initiative designed to support embattled Central and East European publishers and journals, and to punch holes through the cultural Iron Curtain by encouraging translations. The nine years of its existence straddle the largest watershed in European history since 1945, and the Project's history - told here by some of its leading participants - illuminates the nature of the recent changes in Central and Eastern Europe.

Contributor Bio:  Ash, Timothy Garton Timothy Garton Ash is the author of The File, In Europe's Name, and three volumes of " history of the present" The Polish Revolution (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), The Uses of Adversity (for which he was awarded the Prix Europé en de l'Essai), and The Magic Lantern, his personal account of the revolutions of 1989, which has now appeared in fifteen languages. A Fellow of Saint Antony's College, Oxford, he lives in Oxford with his wife and two sons. Contributor Bio:  Dahrendorf, Ralf Ralf Dahrendorf (1929-2009) was a member of Britain's House of Lords. Previously, he was professor of sociology at Hamburg, Tubingen, and Konstanz from 1957 to 1968, and in 1974 moved to Britain. He also was director of the London School of Economics, warden of St. Antony's College, and pro vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. He is the author of numerous books, including After 1989: Morals, Revolution and Civil Society and Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (Transaction 2004).