Book Talk: The Long Night of the Watchman

Join the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, the Embassy of the Czech Republic, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and FIU in DC for a presentation on The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda,1977-1989. Renowned Czech anti-Communist dissident and Catholic thinker Václav Benda (1946-1999) was an earlier signatory of Charter 77 and served twice as the association's spokesperson. He was a founding member of the Committee to Defend the Unjustly Persecuted (VONS) and served a four-year prison sentence for his dissident activities. Benda was a keen analyst of totalitarianism; his essays delve deeply into life under a communist regime.

Event Details:

Time/Date: February 13, 2018, at 6 pm

Location: Florida International University in Washington, DC
440 1st Street, NW, Suite 860, Washington, DC 20001

RSVP by February 12 to https://benda.eventbrite.com

The event is free and open to the public

F. Flagg Taylor, IV is an associate professor of political science at Skidmore College. He holds a PhD and an MA in political science from Fordham University and a BA from Kenyon College. He specializes in the history of political thought and American government. He is the editor of The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism, co-author of The Contested Removal Power, 1789-2010, and the author of numerous articles. He is the editor of the book featured in the discussion: The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977-1989.

Martin Palouš is the director of the Václav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy at Florida International University. He was a signatory of Charter 77 and a founding member of the Civic Forum. He was appointed as the Czech Ambassador to the United States (2001–2005), prior to taking office as the Czech Republic’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2006–2011). He has also served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Czech Republic, and a member of the Czechoslovak parliament. He is a member of the Prague Society for International Cooperation.

Kamila Bendová is the widow of Václav Benda. She studied mathematics at Charles University in Prague and worked at the Mathematics Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The Czech Senate elected her to the post of Inspector at the Office for Personal Data Protection in June 2003. In 1977, her husband signed Charter 77, a document that denounced the human rights violations of the communist regime. After her husband was jailed for his dissident activities, Bendová remained in contact with the dissident community, while raising her five children.

Co-sponsored by
Embassy of the Czech Republic | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | FIU in DC