A History Of The Czech Lands

Provides a systematic history from prehistory to the establishment of the Czech Republic.

Born January 1, 1993 after it split with Slovakia, the Czech Republic is one of the youngest members of the European Union. Despite its youth as a nation, this land and the areas just outside its modern borders boasts an ancient and intricate past. With A History of the Czech Lands, editors Jaroslav Pánek and Oldrich Tuma—along with several scholars from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Charles University—provide one of the most complete historical accounts of this region to date. Pánek and Tuma’s history begins in the Neolithic era and follows the development of the state as it transformed into the Kingdom of Bohemia during the ninth century, into Czechoslovakia after World War I, and finally into the Czech Republic. Such a tumultuous political past arises in part from a fascinating native people, and A History of the Czech Lands profiles the Czechs in great detail, delving into past and present traditions and explaining how generation after generation adapted to a perpetually changing government and economy. In addition, Pánek and Tuma examine the many minorities that now call these lands home—Jews, Slovaks, Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and others—and how each group’s migration to the region has contributed to life in the Czech Republic today. The first study in English with this scope and ambition, A History of the Czech Lands is essential for scholars of Slavic, Central, and East European studies and a must-read for those who trace their ancestry to these lands

This book offers a key to several important chapters of the history of Czech lands, firmly anchoring them in a broad European context. The Medieval transformation that impacted the Czech lands mostly in the 13th century is seen as a broad cultural change in which domestic preconditions encountered a system of innovations already evolved in West Central Europe. The main topics analysed are the onset of landed nobility, the transformation of the rural milieu, and the early history of towns. This analysis draws on every source category, including written testimony, archaeological findings, and architectural monuments. Inspired by microhistorical methodology, it does not indulge in general schemes but studies carefully chosen samples of the transformation and its natural differentiations. Winner of the 2012 Book Prize of the Early Slavic Studies Association.

This survey of Czech and Slovak history traces the development of two neighboring peoples through the creation of a common Czechoslovakian state in 1918 to the founding of the independent Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993 and beyond. The History of the Czech Republic and Slovakia charts historical developments in the two nations to the opening decade of the 21st century. The book begins with an overview of the geography, climate, people, economy, and government of both the Czech and Slovak republics. Subsequent chapters offer a chronologically organized survey of historical events, trends, ideas, and people. Starting with the early Slavic settlements around the 5th century AD, the book explores Czech and Slovak history through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Early Modern eras, the Enlightenment, and the age of nationalism and revolution. Chapters on the 20th century include discussion of the World Wars, the interwar Czechoslovak state, the Communist decades, the Prague Spring, and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The story is brought up to date with insights into developments in the independent Czech and Slovak republics since 1993.

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

This overview of the history of the Sokol, the Czech nationalist gymnastic organization, from its founding in 1862 until the outbreak of World War I emphasizes its role in articulating national values and facilitating mass mobilization in the political context of the multinational Habsburg state. By including background on the German Turnverein , this study goes beyond the Czech context to explore the intersection of gymnastics and mass nationalism in Central Europe.