Abstract
The reviewer recaps historical publications since 1990 dedicated to the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University in Prague at the time of the Communist regime (1948-1989), assessing Petráňʼs impressive book Philosophers making a revolution: Faculty of Arts of the Charles University in Prague during the Communist experiment (1948-1968-1989) as the climax of the authorʼs research efforts so far. In his opinion, the author is asking himself essential general questions concerning the reasons of easy acceptance and long-term existence of the Communist regime, resignation of the society, and isolated nature of the dissent during the so-called normalization; however, he argues the authorʼs answers could have been more convincing if the book had not been partly burdened by the "totalitarian historical narrative" presenting the ruling regime and the society as opposite entities.
He appreciates that Professor Josef Petráň (1930-2017), as an early modern era historian lecturing at the Faculty of Arts in Prague since the 1960s, connects the portrayal of its history with his own ego-histoire story while not avoiding questionable moments and not attempting to defend himself. The main principle of the book, namely Petráňʼs partial rehabilitation of the quality of professional production of the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University in Prague at the time of the Communist regime, is, in the reviewerʼs opinion, substantiated, and the reviewer sees the bookʼs greatest contribution in its exceptionally rich factography.