This study of the "independent life of society" (dissent) in Central and Eastern Europe examines the forms of independent activity at work today. Included are autonomous family life, religion and nationalism, the second economy, "samizdat" communications, the second culture and social deviance.

Part 1 Samizdat in the USSR, China and Eastern Europe: Samizdat - a return to the pre-Gutenberg era?; independent communications in Eastern Europe. Part 2 Independent tendencies in Czechoslovakia: dissent and Charter 77; other independent currents; the muse of history - independent historiography reborn; parallel politics. Part 3 The independent life of society in Eastern Europe: a second society; a parallel polity and society; towards an independent society?.