Last Blacksmith – First Minister
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: November 22, 2021, 19:00 – 20:00
Presentation of Poslední kovák – první ministr (Last Blacksmith – First Minister), a book of interviews that historian Jakub Šlouf conducted with November 1989 industrial workers’ leader and later first post-Communist federal minister of labour and social affairs, Petr Miller. The authors ponder changes in the status of the industrial working class in the late-socialist period, the way in which the factories influenced the Velvet Revolution and the social and economic consequences of a transformation that paradoxically led to the demise of numerous enterprises and manual professions. Petr Miller’s gripping life story and openness serve as an unusually inspiring stepping off point for such reflections.
Alongside the book’s writers the panel discussion will also feature another invited member of the then government of national understanding and the historian Jiří Suk.
Moderated by historian Vítězslav Sommer of the Institute of Contemporary History at the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Akropolis publishing house.