This book was published in 1989 and was written in the context of a strong impetus for internal reform in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. As Dr Myant shows, economic and political developments have been as entwined in Czechoslovakia as elsewhere in the COMECON network. He presents a detailed account of the development and performance of the Czech economy over a period of forty years, and reveals the problems and tensions created by the chosen system of centralised planning. The study shows clearly that economic change can only be understood in a broader international and political context, and highlights certain crucial formative periods, most notably the early the early 1950s, the early 1960s and, of course, 1968. Dr Myant's conclusion is that any economic reform will have little substance unless accompanied by appropriate political change.