The present can best be understood if we know the past. In his book, Martin Bútora provides brief reflections on the turning points in history of the past decades. These texts will enable the reader to better understand what happened in 1918, 1939, 1968, 2004, but also 2022. And thanks to this, think about the future.

The book is populated by personalities who influenced domestic and world events. Some are natives of Bratislava: the legendary Austrian journalist Hugo Portisch or rabbi Romi Cohn, who as a boy fought in the SNP and contributed to the building of the Chatam Sofer memorial, others from Prague: Václav Havel, Petr Pithart, Jan Sokol or the dissident Milan Šimečka. However, you will also find foreign personalities whose words and actions changed our world - Zbigniew Brzeziński and Madeleine Albright, diplomat George Kennan, journalist Adam Michnik, or historian Timothy Snyder.