Bohemia in History

Essays on the history of the Czech lands from the ninth century to the fall of socialism in 1989.

Mikulas Teich (Edited by)

9780521431552, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 October 1998

408 pages, 6 b/w illus. 7 maps
23.6 x 16 x 3.1 cm, 0.86 kg

'… a valuable compilation of historical work.' Catherine Albrecht, H-NET Book Review

This original collection offers an account of key moments and themes in the history of the Czech lands from the time of the rise of the Premyslide dynasty in the ninth century to the fall of socialism in 1989. The pieces, commissioned especially for this volume, are written by prominent scholars almost all teaching and researching in the present-day Czech Republic. Apart from eleven historical essays along socio-political times there are four contributions which focus broadly on the arts, sciences and education, emphasising political, economic and other aspects. Two further essays consider the worlds of the university and of science in the period 1800–1914, and 1800–1930 respectively. The co-existence and encounters between Czechs and Germans embedded in Czech history are emphasised throughout the book, while the conflicts between the two nationalities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are examined in a separate chapter. Lastly, pursuing the 'ethnic' theme, there are essays on both the little-explored question of Czech-Jewish relations and on the sensitive Czech-Slovak question.

Introduction Mikulás Teich
1. Boiohaemum - Cechy Jirí Sláma
2. The making of the Czech state: Bohemia and Moravia from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries Jaroslav Mezník and Zdenek Merínsky
3. Politics and culture under Charles IV Frantisek Kavka
4. The Hussite movement: an anomaly of European history? Frantisek Smahel
5. The monarchy of the estates Josef Macek
6. Rudolfine culture Josef Válka
7. The White Mountain as a symbol in modern Czech history Josef Petrán and Lydia Petránová
8. The alchemy of happiness: the Enlightenment in the Moravian context Jirí Kroupa
9. Problems and paradoxes of the national revival Vladimír Macura
10. Czech society 1848–1918 Otto Urban
11. The university professors and students in nineteenth-century Bohemia Jan Havránek
12. Science in a bilingual country Irena Seidlerová
13. The rise and fall of a democracy Robert Kvacek
14. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939–45): the economic dimension Alice Teichova
15. Czechoslovakia behind the Iron Curtain (1945–89) Milan Otáhal
16. Changes in identity: Germans in Bohemia and Moravia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Jan Kren
17. Czechs and Jews Helena Krejcová 18. Czechs and Slovaks in modern history Dusan Kovác.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]