The Greengrocer and His TV: The Culture of Communism after the 1968 Prague Spring

You don't have to be interested in 20th century Eastern Europe to be interested in this book. But if you are, you are in for a great surprise. Bren takes a chapter of Czech history, the 20 or so years between the Prague Spring and the fall of the Berlin wall, that has been almost completely ignored and brings it back to life. Although it is an academic text from a university press, it reads like the best kind of historical non-fiction. The writing is jargon-free with an easy style and terrific story telling mixed in. Bren shows how television was used as an increasingly complex form of propaganda to co-opt the Czech people into a life of quiet submission. She looks at the way the plotlines of state authorized TV serials present a view of life in the socialist Czech Republic that is both idealistic and also a revealing refelction of the actual struggles that people faced at the time. As a work of history, the book does a great job of shining a light on this forgotten period that led up to the overthrow of the Iron Curtain(and that served as the backdrop for Kundera's novels Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting). But the book is just as much a study of propaganda, its power and its limitations. Many people believe that ideology can be forced down people's throats by state controlled media. Bren shows, like Cialdini's Influence (another great book on persuasion), the crafty balance required to produce a message that is believable, entertaining and capable of shaping or directing public opinion.

This history book reflects a ton of talent, hard work, research and analysis. Though apparently undertaken partly for graduate work, the book is well-written and engaging, and only occasionally and briefly drifts into narrow topics that may be less interesting to a non-academic. The book is a worthy read for anyone with an interest in the post-1968 era behind the Iron Curtain.

Having lived through a similar experience, I can totally relate to the role of the TV as a vital instrument of power. I recall that one of the most high profile jobs was the minster of information. The research is superb , for example the analysis of the TV series and how it portrays the role of the party is second to none.The only reason I did not rate it a five is because at instances I though the author was anecdotal rather than empirical. for example, when she mentions that the higher rate of immigration from Dresden was in part due to weak reception of West German T.V. I could think of lots of reasons why Dresden's immigration rate was high.Overall, this is a great book and superb research.

This book is both interesting and entertaining - I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the era as an insightful and surprisingly riveting exploration.