The Slovak Question

The Slovak Question PDF Author: Michael Cude
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822988666
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Winner, 2022 SSA Best Book Prize The so-called Slovak question asked what place Slovaks held—or should have held—in the former state of Czechoslovakia. Formed in 1918 at the end of World War I from the remains of the Hungarian Empire, and reformed after ceasing to exist during World War II, the country would eventually split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia after the “Velvet Divorce” in 1993. In the meantime, the minority Slovaks often clashed with the majority Czechs over their role in the nation. The Slovak Question examines this debate from a transatlantic perspective. Explored through the relationship between Slovaks, Americans of Slovak heritage, and United States and Czechoslovakian policymakers, it shows how Slovak national activism in America helped the Slovaks establish a sense of independent identity and national political assertion after World War I. It also shows how Slovak American leaders influenced US policy by conceptualizing the United States and Slovakia as natural allies due to their connections through immigration. This process played a critical role in undermining attempts to establish a united Czechoslovakian identity and instead caused a divide between the two groups, which was exploited by Nazi Germany and then by other actors during the Cold War, and proved ultimately to be insurmountable.

The Slovak Question

The Slovak Question PDF Author: Michael Cude
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822988666
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book

Book Description
Winner, 2022 SSA Best Book Prize The so-called Slovak question asked what place Slovaks held—or should have held—in the former state of Czechoslovakia. Formed in 1918 at the end of World War I from the remains of the Hungarian Empire, and reformed after ceasing to exist during World War II, the country would eventually split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia after the “Velvet Divorce” in 1993. In the meantime, the minority Slovaks often clashed with the majority Czechs over their role in the nation. The Slovak Question examines this debate from a transatlantic perspective. Explored through the relationship between Slovaks, Americans of Slovak heritage, and United States and Czechoslovakian policymakers, it shows how Slovak national activism in America helped the Slovaks establish a sense of independent identity and national political assertion after World War I. It also shows how Slovak American leaders influenced US policy by conceptualizing the United States and Slovakia as natural allies due to their connections through immigration. This process played a critical role in undermining attempts to establish a united Czechoslovakian identity and instead caused a divide between the two groups, which was exploited by Nazi Germany and then by other actors during the Cold War, and proved ultimately to be insurmountable.

The Slovak Question: a Memorandum Submitted by the Slovak Council to the Congress of the United States of America

The Slovak Question: a Memorandum Submitted by the Slovak Council to the Congress of the United States of America PDF Author: SLOVAK COUNCIL.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Questions of Identity

Questions of Identity PDF Author: Robert B. Pynsent
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Questions of Identity treats four varieties of conceptions of individual and social identity. This interdisciplinary book describes and analyzes four trends of thought that have prevailed at one time in most of Europe over the last two centuries: the idea of the responsible citizen, the concept of patriotism or nationalism, the loss of self, and "suffering" as a formative element in the "national character." In a section devoted to Václav Havel, Pynsent treats Havel's notion of personal identity as expressed in personal responsibility. Another section concerning national identity looks in particular at two early nineteenth-century Slovaks who rejected Slovak nationalism and whose ideas ultimately had a profound impact on East European thinking on nationality up to the fall of communism. A third section deals with the beginnings of Modernism and the apparent disintegration of the self in West European and Czech writers. The final section addresses Vladimír Páral's expositions of the Czech cult of national martyrs since St. Wenceslas and the extent to which the "martyr" complex remains part of Czech self-identification.

Slovakia in History

Slovakia in History PDF Author: Mikuláš Teich
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139494945
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
Until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia's identity seemed inextricably linked with that of the former state. This book explores the key moments and themes in the history of Slovakia from the Duchy of Nitra's ninth-century origins to the establishment of independent Slovakia at midnight 1992–3. Leading scholars chart the gradual ethnic awakening of the Slovaks during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and examine how Slovak national identity took shape with the codification of standard literary Slovak in 1843 and the subsequent development of the Slovak national movement. They show how, after a thousand years of Magyar-Slovak coexistence, Slovakia became part of the new Czechoslovak state from 1918–39, and shed new light on its role as a Nazi client state as well as on the postwar developments leading up to full statehood in the aftermath of the collapse of communism in 1989. There is no comparable book in English on the subject.

The Czech and Slovak Republics

The Czech and Slovak Republics PDF Author: M. Mark Stolarik
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 9633861543
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
The essays in the book compare the Czech Republic and Slovakia since the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993. The papers deal with the causes of the divorce and discuss the political, economic and social developments in the new countries. This is the only English-language volume that presents the synoptic findings of leading Czech, Slovak, and North American scholars in the field.The authors include two former Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, eight leading scholars (four Czechs and four Slovaks), and eight knowledgeable commentators from North America. The most significant new insight is that in spite of predictions by various pundits in the Western World that Czechia would flourish after the breakup and Slovakia would languish, the opposite has happened. While the Czech Republic did well in its early years, it is now languishing while Slovakia, which had a rough start, is now doing very well. Anyone interested in the history of the Czech and Slovak Republics over the last twenty years will find gratification in reading this book.

Question of the Nation in Slovak Thought

Question of the Nation in Slovak Thought PDF Author: Vladimír Bakoš
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Czechoslovakia
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description


The New Slovakia

The New Slovakia PDF Author: Robert William Seton-Watson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Czechoslovakia
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description


Czecho/Slovakia

Czecho/Slovakia PDF Author: Eric Stein
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472086283
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
DIVDescribes the peaceful breakup of the Czechoslovak Federation /div

Modernism: The Creation of Nation-States

Modernism: The Creation of Nation-States PDF Author: Ahmet Ersoy
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 9637326618
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
Notwithstanding the advantages of physical power, the struggle for survival among societies is not merely a matter of serial armed clashes but of the nation's spiritual resources that in the end always decide upon the victory. In Europe, there indeed exist independent countries, insignificant from the point of view of the entire civilization, and born by sheer coincidence, yet, this coincidence, this fancy, or diplomatic ploy that created them can just as easily bring them to an end---the nations that count in the political calculations are only the enlightened ones. Therefore, our nation should not merely grow in power, strengthen its character, and foster in people the feeling of love for homeland, but also---inasmuch as it is possible---breath the fresh breeze of humanity's general progress, feed it to the nation, absorb its creative energy. Until now, we have trusted and lived only in the weary conditions, conditions devoid of health-giving elements---now, as a result the nation's heart beats too slowly and its mind works too tediously. We ought to open our windows to Europe, to the wind of continental change and allow it to air our sultry home, since as not all health comes from the inside, not all disease comes from the outside.

The Slovak Dilemma

The Slovak Dilemma PDF Author: Eugen Steiner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521200509
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The Slovak Dilemma is a case-study in nationalism. Accepting the view that the four and a half million Slovaks who inhabit the eastern part of Czechoslovakia are a separate Slav ethnic group, Dr Steiner describes their position in Czechoslovak history, their role in political life, the extraordinary persistence and continuing frustration of their national aspirations. After a brief survey of the history of the Slovaks under Hungarian rule, Dr Steiner examines their position in the democratic Czechoslovak Republic which was established in 1918. He analyses the causes of Slovak discontent and shows that although the new constitution granted full expression to Slovak culture, it limited complete development of Slovak national rights. Nevertheless he suggests that Slovak separatism played little part in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and that the real attitude of the people towards Hitler's puppet Slovak State was eloquently expressed in their tragic rising against it in August 1944.