The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Realism, Tolerance, and Liberalism in the Czech National Awakening: Legacies of the Bohemian Reformation
Related Topics: Religion, Czech Republic
Realism, Tolerance, and Liberalism in the Czech National Awakening reevaluates the formation of modern Czech intellectual and political culture.
In this meticulous intellectual history, Zdenek V. David traces the roots of the eighteenth-century Czech National Awakening, not to the Counter Reformation but to the Utraquist church (often called "Hussite"), which arose in pre-Protestant Bohemia. Utraquist ideas advancing realism, liberalism, and tolerance were, he shows, rediscovered, republished, and rearticulated by the Awakeners.
David's thesis directly challenges the notion that the Czech National Awakening promoted a folkloric, linguistic, Romantic culture. Ultimately, he argues, the Utraquist legacy and its transmission by the Awakeners contributed to democratic vigor in twentieth-century Czechoslovakia.
What People are Saying
"This is a formidable piece of scholarship. It offers a clearly conceptualized argument spanning several centuries, a plethora of intellectual cultures, and innumerable authors and texts in multiple languages. The historical depth of David's argument and the incredible breadth of his repertoire will make this a widely read and very significant book." — Kveta Benes, College of William and Mary
"This book reflects impressive erudition. The research has obviously been a labor of love and close application." — Paul Shore, Boston College
Chapter List
Preface
1. The Czech National Awakening and the Bohemian Reformation in Recent Historiography
2. Tolerance, Universalism, and Plebeianism as Legacies of the Sixteenth Century
3. Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Enlightenment: An Acute Antithesis
4. Catholic Enlightenment and Utraquism: A Liberal Symbiosis
5. The Czech National Awakening as a Renaissance
6. The Bohemian Fate of Johann Gottfried Herder
7. The Roots of Resistance to German Idealism
8. Bolzano: Against Kant, Fichte, and Schelling
9. Hegel's Collision with the Catholic Enlightenment in Bohemia
10. Bohemian Anti-Hegelianism: Slovak Contrast and Polish Paradox
11. Liberal Thought and the Authoritarian Church
Epilogue: The Global Legacy of Bohemian Anti-Hegelianism
Appendix
Notes
Chronology
Glossary
Bibliography
Archival Sources
Primary Sources
Secondary Services
Reference Books
Index
