Between Cross and Hammer. Reception of Social Thought in the Catholic Church during the First Half of the 20th Century ABSTRACT The thesis examines the construction, development, transfer, and adaptation of Catholic social thought in the first half of the 20th century. Social Catholicism is understood not only as a concept defined by the social teachings of the Church in the form of encyclicals, but primarily as a collective social practice present in society in various forms. From this perspective the thesis contributes to the debate around the secularization discourse and the role of religion in modern society. The analysis of the Social Catholic movement is done in two different national contexts: Belgium and Czechoslovakia. Comparative method finds its place dominantly in the second part of the study, which puts together the network of Social Catholic organizations and different actors in both countries. The focus on the discourse and social practices of Social Catholicism and Catholics' involvement among the working class tries to reinforce connections and links within ecclesiastical, social, and cultural history. Jakub ŠTOFANÍK

This dissertation deals with the Czechoslovak and Polish community of "scientists of science" (mainly historians, philosophers, and methodologists of science) from 1962 to 1989. It focuses not only on the inner evolution of this community (scientists, their works, scientific institutions etc.), but it also examines how was this community formed by the tradition of scientific thought on the one hand, and by the contemporary political and ideological context (Soviet influences, Marxism-Leninism, monopoly of the communist party) on the other. It focuses also on the ability of the scientific community to accept or reflect influences from the Western Europe or United States - which means from the so-called "capitalist countries". Two spheres are analysed to clarify dispositions of Polish and Czechoslovak "scientists of science" to foreign transfers: first, scientists' possibilities to travel to Western countries (research stays, participations at congresses etc.), and second, accessibility to foreign (mainly Western) scientific literature. Functioning of Western concepts in the community of Polish and Czechoslovak "scientists of science" is illustrated by an example of the reception of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions from 1962. This dissertation shows that the role of scientific...

The following thesis is focused on Czechoslovakia and an establishment of the State of Israel. It outlines the historical context of the state of Israel and focuses on the development of the armed forces. It describes the situation in Czechoslovakia in the post-war years and mentions the specific situation of the Jewish minority. It describes the international political situation, focusing on the relations between these two countries and monitors the role of Czechoslovakia in the establishment of the state of Israel. It deals with Israeli training camps that support emerging state. By analyzing biographical narratives of witnesses describes the motivation for active involvement in activities which helped to promote the birth of the State of Israel. Keywords: Israeli training camps, establishment of the State of Israel, Israel and Czechoslovakia

This Master thesis, Evolution of British concepts of the territorial organization of the area of Czechoslovakia between the years 1918-1938, examines the attitude of the British foreign policy towards the territorial concept of Czechoslovakia in the interwar period. This thesis is a historiographical narrative study based primarily on the analysis of documents on British foreign policy from the period 1918-1938. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate how the British foreign policy makers reflected the existence of the new state formation in Central Europe and how their ideas about the suitability of such political organization in the area of Czechoslovakia was changing during the interwar period. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first covers the period after the First World War, when the borders of Czechoslovakia were decided and focuses on the British role in this process. The second chapter is dedicated to British reflections on the new state in the context of the new territorial organization of Central Europe during the twenties and early thirties. The third chapter deals with the changes in British policy towards Czechoslovakia in the context of the new geopolitical reality in Central Europe after the rise of Nazism in Germany. It tries to analyse the British standpoint on the...

In this thesis based on research of historical sources I try to reconstruct the Prague festival of majales in 50s and 60s of 20th century and understand if they were truly meant as an act of defiance against the communist "régime" as some historians say. My point of view is base around the theory of Michail Bachtin and carnival as form of culturally creative force which act as form of social order negotiation. Worlds of play and laughter exist as a parallel to the official mundane world with their own different rules and they can be used as a form of social negotiation even in totalitarian or strongly conservative "régimes". Majales is a form of carnival that grants the transition into the world of play. Students in Czechoslovakia could use this possibility to negotiate about many otherwise taboo topics. Even if the worlds of play and mundane seem to be separated they influence each other in many ways and even the rules of mundane world can be changed through play and carnival. Students are also protected by their liminal status between being a child and an adult. Which grants them more rights than children but less duties than adults.

For the theme of my dissertation I chose a emigration to Austria from communist Czechoslovakia druing the eighties of the twentieth century. The aim of this work is to make a interpretation of emigration and exile in this period and uncover the life stories of three generations of one family which was affected by this experience with the application of oral historical research on selected emigrants in Austria and with the use of other archival sources. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This thesis deals with the issue of public appearances of amateur rock bands in Prague after the introduction of the so-called "requlifications" which basically destroyed professional rock music in Czechoslovakia. This affected especially the capital city which had witnessed an unprecedented rise of this genre only several years earlier. Thereafter, independent rock music could be practiced only as a hobby, and even the amateur musicians had to face extensive regulations and general mistrust. As a result, opportunities to appear in public were very sparse because organizers were worried about the consequences of such events. The research investigates the mechanisms and conditions for durable opportunities to play publicly in Prague before 1984. The effects of the article Nová vlna se starým obsahem - the pinnacle of the media and social campaign against new forms of rock music, were already becoming apparent in that year and the Union of musicians and its sections - main pillars of independent culture in Czechoslovakia - were dissolved. The conclusion is that in such difficult circumstances persistence, creativity and readiness to lose one's job proved crucial qualities. They enabled people to overcome not only the regulations but mainly the concerns about sanctions for nonconformist appearance and...

This thesis Position of Roma minority in the First Czechoslovak Republic focuses on position of ethnic and national minorities in the First Czechoslovak Republic between 1918 and 1938, specifically on position of Roma minority. Many scholars have already focused on the topic of position of minorities in the First Czechoslovak Republic, but only few focused their work on position of Roma minority. This topic still remains quite unexpolred. In the first part of my thesis, I will focus my research on disprooving claim, that we can consider Czechoslovakia as consociational democracy, by apllication of four basic consociational mechanisms on the political system of the First Czechoslovak Republic. In the second part of my research I will focus on position of Roma minority in Czechoslovak society by analyzing origins of Roma minority, laws focused on Roma minority and position of political parties and majority society towards Roma minority.

This thesis deals with the relations between Czechoslovakia and Israel in 1967-1971. It is specifically concerned with anti-Zionist policies of the socialist regime, which reflected themselves not only in the anti-Israeli stance of Czechoslovakia, but also in the relations of state authorities towards Jewish minority, and bore antisemitic characteristics. Contrary to lasting rigorous refusal of antisemitism since 1940s/50s, Czechoslovakia manifested its hostility towards Israel on regular basis. Struggle against Zionism was one of the aims of the Czechoslovak ideological war against alleged or real adversaries. For the regime, Israel represented West, and West was full of so called centres of ideological diversion. One of such centres was also Radio Free Europe (RFE). Author of the thesis assumes that RFE not only reflected the ideological struggle concerning Jews and "Zionists," in Czechoslovakia, but also played a role of a counter-balancing force in the matter. By means of analysis of RFE situation reports, the thesis evaluates the extent of RFE counter-balance of the Czechoslovak anti-Zionist ideology. After theoretical introduction (chapter one), changes in the relations of Czechoslovakia towards Israel and local Jewish community in 1945-1967 are described. Second chapter also debates tension...

The main aim of this work is to compare the discourses and analyze the relations of the American and Czechoslovak intellectual Left between 1956 and 1968. It begins by Khrushchev's revelation of Stalinist crimes and by the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 which created an atmosphere of disillusionment on the Left. The global Left of this period to a substantial extent ceased to be ideologically inspired by the Soviet Union and began to rethink the foundations of its thought. So, the 1960s are the period of the flourishing leftist thought. Authors are inspired by Marxist humanism and the New Left emerges, especially in the West. There were issues which existed beyond the ideological struggle of two Cold War blocs, but the different character of the regimes in the East and the West resulted in different approaches to these issues. At the same time, the mobility of ideas and their authors or supporters increased even across the Iron Curtain. Therefore, we could see some interesting encounters and clashes of different, even though still leftist, discourses. This work tries to depict the intellectual environment of the period by dealing with issues like philosophy of Man in the context of technological changes, the tactics of the struggle against the system or bureaucracy, the relation of...