Abstract
Václav Havel’s Summer Meditations willremind an American reader, especially a political scientist, of our Federalist Papers. Havel sees his country as undergoing a time of critical transition, of root-and-branch rebuilding, as being at a decisive crossroad. All-important for Czechoslovakia’s future is a new, solid constitution, "the cornerstone"" of a prosperous future. He offers his reflections on his country’s current situation, optimal future, and feasible and desirable means to it, in the short compass of a book written in 1991 during a ten-day summer holiday.
