Hledání souvislostí - Eseje z komparativních dějin Evropy – Hroch Miroslav (2022)

These essays, in Czech, are intended not only for historians but for anyone interested in the past as more than a colourful mosaic of events: as a complex and contradictory process. Drawing on a lifetime of research, Miroslav Hroch argues that historians should not merely tell engaging stories and convey what lies hidden in archives. They should also explain the great historical transformations from which the present has grown. In twenty essays, he searches for the causal relationships intertwined with these transformations. History cannot be limited to national histories; it must be interpreted within the broader context of European history. The book reflects on why developmental changes took place at different speeds and unevenly across Europe, why Western European countries gained dominance over the world during the early modern period, and how Europe’s past differs from the histories of other continents. It asks whether the uneven development of European countries can be explained, whether a comparative approach can be applied to the study of European history on the path to modern society, and why the Reformation prevailed in only some European countries. It also considers what the crisis of European politics and society in the mid-seventeenth century can teach us today, whether revolutions drove history forward or brought about its ruin, whether nationalism is a suitable term for analysing national issues in the past and present, and whether it makes sense to ask what might have happened, exploring the relationship between historical possibility and alternative development.