Culture and Customs of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Culture and Customs of the Czech Republic and Slovakia PDF Author: Craig Cravens
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Discusses the traditions, culture, religion, media, literature, and arts of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Culture and Customs of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Culture and Customs of the Czech Republic and Slovakia PDF Author: Craig Cravens
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Discusses the traditions, culture, religion, media, literature, and arts of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture

The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture PDF Author: Miloslav Rechcigl
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3112415906
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 662

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Book Description
No detailed description available for "The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture".

Spartakiads

Spartakiads PDF Author: Petr Roubal
Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
ISBN: 8024638517
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
Every five years from 1955 to 1985, mass Czechoslovak gymnastic demonstrations and sporting parades called Spartakiads were held to mark the 1945 liberation of Czechoslovakia. Involving hundreds of thousands of male and female performers of all ages and held in the world’s largest stadium—a space built expressly for this purpose—the synchronized and unified movements of the Czech citizenry embodied, quite literally, the idealized Socialist people: a powerful yet pliant force directed by the regime. This book explores the political, social, and aesthetic dimensions of these mass physical demonstrations, with a particular focus on their roots in the völkisch nationalism of the German Turner movement and the Czech Sokol gymnastic tradition. Featuring an abundance of photographs, Spartakiads takes a new approach to Communist history by opening a window onto the mentality and mundanity behind the Iron Curtain.

Vanished History

Vanished History PDF Author: Tomas Sniegon
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 178238295X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Bohemia and Moravia, today part of the Czech Republic, was the first territory with a majority of non-German speakers occupied by Hitler's Third Reich on the eve of the World War II. Tens of thousands of Jewish inhabitants in the so called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia soon felt the tragic consequences of Nazi racial politics. Not all Czechs, however, remained passive bystanders during the genocide. After the destruction of Czechoslovakia in 1938-39, Slovakia became a formally independent but fully subordinate satellite of Germany. Despite the fact it was not occupied until 1944, Slovakia paid Germany to deport its own Jewish citizens to extermination camps. About 270,000 out of the 360,000 Czech and Slovak casualties of World War II were victims of the Holocaust. Despite these statistics, the Holocaust vanished almost entirely from post-war Czechoslovak, and later Czech and Slovak, historical cultures. The communist dictatorship carried the main responsibility for this disappearance, yet the situation has not changed much since the fall of the communist regime. The main questions of this study are how and why the Holocaust was excluded from the Czech and Slovak history.

Czechoslovakia Behind the Curtain

Czechoslovakia Behind the Curtain PDF Author: Thomas K. Murphy
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476672806
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
During the Cold War, the West--especially in the popular media--tended to view communism as a monolithic phenomenon, with little variation throughout the Eastern Bloc. Yet culture and geography contributed to social diversity among and within communist systems. Drawing on interviews with approximately 100 Czechs and Slovaks, the author provides new perspectives on day-to-day life in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Their recollections paint a more complex picture of the life on the other side of the Iron Curtain, from the Sputnik era reforms of the early 1960s, through the tumult of the 1968 Prague Spring and the subsequent Soviet invasion, to the Velvet Revolution, the collapse of the communist regime and the formation of democratic Czechoslovakia in 1989.

The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation

The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation PDF Author: Ladislav Holy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521555845
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
When Ladislav Holy precipitately left Czechoslovakia for the UK in 1968 he was already one of the leading anthropologists in Central Europe. In the following decades he made important field studies in Africa. Since 1986 he has been engaged in research in the Czech Republic, and he brings to this timely study of national identity the skills of a seasoned researcher, a cosmopolitan perspective, and the insights of an insider. Drawing on historical and literary sources as well as ethnography, he analyses Czech discourses on national identity. He argues that there were specifically 'Czech' aspects to the communist regime and to the 'velvet revolution', and paying particular attention to symbolic representations of what it means to be Czech, he explores how notions of Czech identity were involved in the debates surrounding the fall of communism, and the emergence of a new social system.

The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation

The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation PDF Author: Bradley F. Abrams
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742530249
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
The material effects of World War II, in combination with Eastern Europe's disappointingly undemocratic interwar history, placed radical social change on the postwar agenda across the region and shaped the debates that took place in immediate postwar Czech society. These debates adopted both a cultural form, in struggles over the meaning of the recent past and the nation's position on the East-West continuum, and a directly political form, in battles over the meaning of socialism. The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation examines the most important and politically resonant fields of historical and cultural debate in Czech society immediately after World War II. Bradley Abrams finds that communist public figures were largely successful in controlling debate over the nation's recent past--the interwar First Republic and the experiences of Munich and World War II--and over its location on the East-West continuum. This success preceded and was mirrored in the struggles over the political issue of the times: socialism. The communists engaged their political foes in the democratic socialist and Roman Catholic camps, and, surprisingly, found significant support from a major Protestant church. Abrams's careful reading of major publications re-creates a postwar mood sympathetic to radical social change, questioning the standard view of the communists' rise to power. This book not only contributes to the specific literature on Czech history, but also raises questions about the relationship between war and radical social change, about the communist takeover of the region, and about the role of intellectuals in public life.

Popular Culture and Subcultures of Czech Post-Socialism

Popular Culture and Subcultures of Czech Post-Socialism PDF Author: Ondřej Daniel
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443869252
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
This book draws on wide range of inspirations to provide a well-balanced picture of the popular culture and subcultures of Czech post-socialism. What were the continuities and discontinuities of the post-socialist popular culture, mentalities and society during the period of late state socialism? What were the different mechanisms of ‘creating the Other’ in popular culture and subcultures? This volume shows the diverse trajectories of the late socialist (and older national) cultural practices and the related set of values and beliefs in new transitory circumstances. Whereas many scholars emphasize the tendency to sustain in a more or less adapted form under the new circumstances, the chapters and case studies of this book demonstrate a slightly different, more nuanced development.

The Czech Reader

The Czech Reader PDF Author: Jan Bažant
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822347946
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
Frances Starn is a writer living in Berkeley, California. --Book Jacket.

The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture

The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture PDF Author: Miloslav Rechcigl (jr.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description