National Holidays in Czechoslovakia Between the World Wars

Dagmar Hájková, Nancy Wingfield (eds)

Dagmar Hájková, Nancy Wingfield (eds)

National Holidays in Czechoslovakia Between the World Wars

Celebrate the Republic

National holidays were among the most ambitious tools the new Czechoslovak state employed in its attempt to forge loyalty among a diverse population after 1918. This volume offers the first comprehensive examination of how ordinary citizens, officials, and political elites alike constructed, contested, and lived the interwar republic's political calendar whose celebrations ranged from Independence Day through the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius and Saint Wenceslas, to May Day. Drawing on numerous primary sources, the contributors demonstrate how state-sponsored commemorations sought to translate the political narrative of a unified Czechoslovak nation into everyday ritual, even as they excluded or provoked many of the non-national peoples. The book also analyzes alternative and resistance celebrations that flourished outside, and often against, the official calendar, revealing the limits of Czechoslovak state-building alongside its successes.
Forthcoming publication. Pre-orders will open a few weeks before publication date.
Editors

Dagmar Hájková

Dagmar Hájková is Deputy Director and Senior Researcher at the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, specializing in modern Czech and Czechoslovak history. She has published widely in this field, including the award-winning Republika ceskoslovenská: 1918–1939 (2018).

Nancy Wingfield

Nancy M. Wingfield is Distinguished Research Professor Emerita at Northern Illinois University and the recipient of the Czech Academy of Sciences' Franti.ek Palack. Medal for contributions to the historical sciences. She has published widely on Habsburg Central Europe, including the award-winning The World of Prostitution in Late Imperial Austria.
Title
National Holidays in Czechoslovakia Between the World Wars
Subtitle
Celebrate the Republic
Editors
Price
€ 134,00 excl. VAT
ISBN
9789048576555
Format
Hardback
Number of pages
294
Language
English
Publication date
Dimensions
15.6 x 23.4 cm
Series
Politics, Culture and Transitions: MIA CAS Studies on Modern Central and Eastern Europe
Categories
Cultural Studies
Eastern Central Europe
Modern History
Discipline
History, Art History, and Archaeology
Imprint
Table of Contents
Show Table of ContentsHide Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction - Dagmar Hájková and Nancy Wingfield
Chapter 1: Celebrate Independence! October 28 and the Limits of National Unity - Dagmar Hájková
Chapter 2: From Emperor to President: Presidential Birthday Celebrations - Dagmar Hájková and Pavel Horák
Chapter 3: Fashioning Military Heroes for the First Republic: The Battle of Zborov - Nancy M. Wingfield
Chapter 4: The Heretic as National Hero: Jan Hus Day - Dagmar Hájková and Eva Hajdinová
Chapter 5: The Politicization of the Saints Cyril and Methodius Cult - Miroslav Michela
Chapter 6: Saint Wenceslas: Patron of the Bohemian Lands - Eva Hajdinová
Chapter 7: May Day: A Holiday Nobody Could Own - Pavel Horák
Chapter 8: The Celebration of Hungarian National Feasts - Miroslav Michela
Chapter 9: The German Sonnwendfeier: In Lieu of a Holiday, a National Mobilizing Ritual - Nancy M. Wingfield
Authors
Index .

Reviews and Features

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