Emílio Rui Vilar experienced the main changes of the second half of the twentieth century. The social and political changes during the second half of the twentieth century were experienced first-hand by Emílio Rui Vilar. Told in the first person, this book gives insight to the end of Salazar' and Caetano's dictatorship and the subsequent Carnation Revolution.

Through a collection of interviews that were gathered along several months, this book gathers a first-hand account of the trajectory of the Revolution: the dispute against the Estado Novo, the colonial war, the creation of SEDES, the failure of the "primavera marcelista" and the first years of the new democratic regime. Within this new democracy, Emílio Rui Vilar oversaw government functions in the first three provisional governments and in the first consituitional government. I

Transcrevendo entrevistas realizadas ao longo de vários meses, este livro recolhe o relato na primeira pessoa de uma trajetória que percorreu o início da contestação ao Estado Novo no meio universitário, a guerra colonial, a criação da SEDES, o fracasso da «primavera marcelista» e os primeiros anos do novo regime democrático saído do 25 de abril, onde Emílio Rui Vilar desempenhou funções governativas nos primeiros três governos provisórios e no primeiro governo constitucional. In the year that celebrates five decades of democracy in Portugal, this book is an important testimony to two regimes, the end of one and the birth of another.