Description
Book SynopsisSince 1918, Czechoslovakia has been known as East-Central Europe''s most devoted democracy, an outpost of Western values in the East. While the country has had more democratic experience than its neighbors, this book argues that the claim that Czechs are native democrats, devoted to liberal ideas, emerged from nationalist myth. Battle for the Castle tells the story of that myth''s creation during the First World War, used to persuade the Great Powers to create Czechoslovakia out of pieces of Austria-Hungary. Tomáš Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, the two academics crafting the myth and employing it for wartime propaganda, became Czechoslovakia''s first president and prime minister. They tried to use the myth to outmaneuver political opponents at home and Czechoslovakia''s enemies abroad. Those enemies, and the European Great Powers, also conducted their own propaganda campaigns targeting Czechoslovakia as a symbol of the postwar order. At home, while proclaiming themselves the protectors of
Trade Reviewfinely researched ... an erudite deconstruction of political myths deliberately created and manipulated for the political end of building a nationâs identity, reputation and power abroad among influential westerners. * Cathleen Giustino, European History Quarterly *
Table of ContentsIntroduction The Golden Republic ; Chapter One Myth and Wartime ; Chapter Two The Castle ; Chapter Three Battles of the Legend-Makers ; Chapter Four Difficulties Abroad ; Chapter Five A Time of Iron and Fire ; Epilogue ; Abbreviations and Definitions ; Notes ; Index
