Streetscapes of War and Revolution
Prague, 1914–1920

Morelon reconstructs the collapse of the Habsburg Empire as it was experienced on the streets of Prague.

Claire Morelon (Author)

9781009335300, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 June 2024

340 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.64 kg

'wonderfully atmospheric.' Anna Parker, Times Literary Supplement

Prague entered the First World War as the third city of the Habsburg empire, but emerged in 1918 as the capital of a brand new nation-state, Czechoslovakia. Claire Morelon explores what this transition looked, sounded and felt like at street level. Through deep archival research, she has carefully reconstructed the sensorial texture of the city, from the posters plastered on walls, to the shop windows' displays, the badges worn by passers-by, and the crowds gathering for protest or celebration. The result is both an atmospheric account of life amid war and regime change, and a fresh interpretation of imperial collapse from below, in which the experience of life on the Habsburg home-front is essential to understanding the post-Versailles world order that followed. Prague is the perfect case study for examining the transition from empire to nation-statehood, hinging on revolutionary dreams of fairer distribution and new forms of political participation.

Introduction
1. All Grey: Militarization in Urban Space
2. Black-Yellow Surfaces: Austrian Patriotic Mobilization
3. Shades of War: Absence and Presence on the Homefront
4. Black Markets, Green Expeditions: Food Shortages and Growing Divisions
5. Not Only Red: Street Protests, State Legitimacy and Social Justice
6. The End of Darkness? Uncertainty and Revolution
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]