National Holidays in Czechoslovakia Between the World Wars: Celebrate the Republic examines how a new state sought to transform political power into popular loyalty through multiple rituals of celebration and public remembrance. The volume shows how holidays became a crucial arena in which competing visions of history and identifications were negotiated in one of Central Europe’s most diverse societies. Far from being a neutral record of the past, the political calendar defined who belonged to the nation, which memories deserved public recognition, and which were forget or marginalized. By illuminating the relationships among state-building, collective memory, and national identifications, this book offers fresh insights into enduring questions of sovereignty, legitimacy, and loyalty. It speaks not only to historians of Central Europe, but also to readers interested in contemporary debates about nationhood, democratic cohesion, and the pitfalls of assimilationist policies in multiethnic societies.
Prof. Borut Klabjan, Science and Research Centre Koper