Czech Historiography at a Turning-Point
Czech Historiography at a Turning-Point

Summary/Abstract: To throw at least some light on the fate of historical scholarship in Czechoslovakia at the end of the Communist era, November 1989 and shortly after, we must limit the subject to Czech historiography, as the specific development in Slovakia would require a separate essay. We shall focus primarily on nineteenth- and twentieth-century history, because earlier the situation was, and is, rather different. Two aspects appear in our attempt to analyze the problems. One is personal and concerned with historians themselves, their institutions and organizations, and their entire community in brief; the other aspect involves the actual subject; the state of historical scholarship, the themes studied, and the research methods used. In both cases, the basis was the policy of the totalitarian regime, which affected the fate of historiography in a way unusual in democratic societies. [...]

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