Konfliktní společenství - Češi a Němci 1780-1918 – Křen Jan (2013)

This Czech-language book is the first comprehensive Czech history of Czech-German relations from the late 18th century to 1918. Unlike standard approaches, which focus solely on events in the Czech lands, it also considers Austrian and German influences. As its widely cited title suggests, the book does not focus only on mutual hostility and conflict, but also portrays the coexistence of two surprisingly close and essentially related communities. Praised in numerous reviews for its objectivity, it has become one of the most successful works of Czech historiography. Because the author was one of the historians forbidden to practise his profession during the period of normalization, the book first appeared as samizdat, then in the well-known exile publishing house run by Josef and Zdena Škvorecký in Toronto, and after November 1989 at Academia; in Germany it was published in two editions by the leading R. Oldenbourg Verlag in Munich. This edition also includes the author’s memoir study of the difficult circumstances in which the book was written, set against the background of working-class life and the contemporary dissident movement, particularly the major debate about the expulsion held there in the 1980s.