Dramatický portrét Edvarda Beneše v podání francouzského historika
A Dramatic Portrait of Edvard Beneš Presented by a French Historian

Summary/Abstract: MARÈS, Antoine. Edvard Beneš: Od slávy k propasti. Drama mezi Hitlerem a Stalinem (Edvard Beneš: From the Glory to the Abyss. A Drama between Hitler and Stalin). Translated from the French original by Helena Beguivinová. Prague: Argo 2016, 372 pp., bibliography, 52 illustrations and a name index, ISBN 978-80-257-1895-7. The biography of the second Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš (1884–1948), a politician, diplomat, statesman, and political publicist, is a translation of the original title "Edvard Beneš: De la gloire à l’abîme: Un drame entre Hitler et Staline" (Paris: Perrin 2015). According to the reviewer, Antoine Marès, Professor of History of Central and Eastern Europe at the Sorbonne in Paris, whose published works deal mainly with Czechoslovak and Czech history, wrote his book in the best tradition of French historical biographies. He proceeded chronologically and described dramatic moments of the modern Czech history and difficult personal dilemmas of Beneš related thereto in a matter-of-fact way, with an understanding for a broader context, without any burden of negative or positive emotions which the Czech historiography often cannot get rid of. In doing so, he paid special attention to the development of the inter-war French foreign policy. The reviewer provides a detailed account of the author’s findings and comments on some episodes from his own point of view. In the end, he argues against Marès’s opinion to the effect that the Czech and Czechoslovak policy has always avoided forcible solutions.

• Details
• Contents