Meze myšlenek

The book explores all the stages of approval procedures and other obstacles on the trajectory of an idea from its author(s) via a publishing house to book reviews. Personal, professional, and textual strategies of authors, their perceptions of censorship and self-censorship, and their negotiations with editors and other participants in scientific institutions, communities, and editorial boards are discussed. The book also explores the ways in which researchers strove to communicate their ideas to readers. In the context of ideology-driven science policies, Czech and Hungarian historians, philosophers, literary scholars, sociologists, and editors of scientific literature discuss their work in “imaginary conversations,” covering the last two decades of the socialist era. Their contributions shed light on the typology of academic publishing under socialist rule and constitute a “primary text” for subsequent theories of socialist censorship. The epilogue is a reflection on academic publishing under socialism and its relevance to contemporary debates on the future of the humanities and on the significance of the experience gained during the normalisation period in Czechoslovakia.