Book Description
This original study revisits the critical historical and cultural debates in Czech society immediately following World War II. Bradley F. Abrams discovers that communist public figures were largely successful in controlling the discourse 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 was later mirrored in the struggles over socialism, the burning political issue of the time. The communists engaged their political foes in the democratic socialist and Roman Catholic camps, and, surprisingly, found significant support from a major Protestant church. The author's careful reading of major publications of the day vividly recreates a postwar mood sympathetic to radical social change, thus casting doubt on the standard view of the communists' rise to power. A rich contribution to our understanding of Czech history, this book also raises provocative questions about the relationship between war and radical social change, the communist takeover of the region, and the role of intellectuals in public life.
The Struggle for the Soul of a Nation: Czech Culture and the Rise of Communism FROM THE PUBLISHER
The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation examines the most important and politically resonant fields of historical and culture debate in Czech society immediately after World War II. The author 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 issues 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.
SYNOPSIS
Seeking a more nuanced picture of communist success in gaining state power in Czechoslovakia immediately following World War II than narratives that concentrate solely on machinations of the Kremlin, Abrams (history, Columbia U.) examines the debates that raged within the communist and non-communist intellectual castes. He discusses how the ways intellectuals framed historical questions of their recent experiences of the Munich Accords and the Second World War impacted attitudes towards East vs. West cultural orientations. He then examines the development of the various political questions facing postwar Czechoslovakia and their influence in allowing the communists to seize power. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Foreign Affairs
Now that the final chapter of communism in Eastern Europe has closed, historians can take a fresh crack at explaining its life cycle. Abrams addresses its birthing years, 1945-1948, in the Czech regions, arguing that the long-popular image of communism arriving on the bayonets of the Red Army or, in the case of Czechoslovakia, through a Moscow-orchestrated coup in February 1948 vastly understates the genuine support enjoyed by the Czechoslovak Communist Party and the left more generally. Czechoslovakia, of course, was not Poland or Hungary, neither of which was haunted by Munich, inclined to see the Soviets as liberators, or conflicted in the choice between Eastern and Western political culture. Abrams focuses on the intelligentsia, because of its special role in Czech history, dividing it into four parts-communist, democratic socialist, Catholic, and Protestant-and tracing in detail how war, political and social currents, and human frailty privileged the first. — Robert Legvold
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