H-Net Reviews H-German
Tara Zahra's finely researched, engagingly written book... makes two central points. First, exclusive national identification was neither a natural nor an inevitable development in multi-linguistic central Europe. And second, competing nationalists had to work hard to win the allegiance of 'nationally ambiguous' Bohemians and Moravians. The nationalists' persistent sense of failure motivated their nationalizing efforts as much as their successes. Zahra astutely focuses on nationalist campaigns for the 'souls' of school children in Bohemia and Moravia. Not only were schools a central battleground in conflicts between Czech and German nationalists over the control of public resources; they were also an active front in the struggles of both sides to eradicate national indifference.... Zahra's book makes many contributions to several different literatures, including comparative studies of nationalism, the history of the welfare state, and the history of pedagogy. Most striking for me, though, was her ability to write a truly Bohemian history, rather than a Czech or German one. Not only are Czech and German histories intimately intertwined in this book, they are in fact unthinkable without each other. Drawing on Rogers Brubaker's call to see nations as 'perspectives on the world' rather than 'things in the world' (p. 8), Zahra shows how Czech and German nationalist perspectives related directly to each other, finding meaning in their relationship to the other. The persistence of national indifference—the fuzzy margins between Czech and German national communities—maintained the salience of these national perspectives, while at the same time casting doubt on their substantive differences.
Chad Bryant
Kidnapped Souls brilliantly details how Czech and German nationalists attempted to claim, secure, and then mold children for their respective nations—often in the face of stiff resistance from nationally indifferent parents. Along the way, it offers thought-provoking analyses of the rise of the welfare state, interwar democracy, domestic life under Nazi rule, and the rise and fall of a forgotten political culture in the Bohemian Lands. Ambitious in its chronological breadth and supported by a dizzying array of archival sources, the book challenges historians of Europe to rethink many fundamental presumptions about the aims and successes of modern national movements.
John Connelly
Tara Zahra tells us that the nationality struggle in the Czech lands was fierce because people did not care about nationality. But everyone—nationalist or not—cared about children,though often in harshly conflicting ways. From these original insights Zahra takes us through a half century of Central Europe's history, discovering and illuminating unknown stretches of modern nationalism's most heavily explored terrain. But she not only remaps her subject: she reconstitutes it.
From the Publisher
Solidly anchored in archival research, this book is situated squarely within the history of the European welfare state and helps blur the line between 'us' and 'them/the Other' that still exists between 'Eastern' and 'Western' European historiography. With her judicious use of comparative material, Zahra not only provides fascinating comparisons between Nazi treatment of children and families in the wartime Protectorate and occupied Poland during the war, but also with France. This volume is of interest to modern European historians in general and especially those interested in family history and nationalism studies. A tour de force, it is among the most innovative monographs on Habsburg Central European history to appear in recent years.
Larry Wolff
Tara Zahra has written a pioneering work that brings together the most complex issues of nations and nationalism with the history of the family and the history of childhood. Focusing on Bohemia from the late Habsburg monarchy through World War II, this brilliantly conceived book illuminates our historical understanding of nationhood and childhood, their relation to one another, and the crucial importance of that relation for modern European history.
Alison Frank
In Kidnapped Souls, Tara Zahra reveals an incredible talent for archival sleuthing. She masterfully accomplishes what many historians neglect to attempt by giving voice to those very anonymous historical actors whose opinions and perspectives nationalists have labored to silence. Far from being too simple to merit attention, these parents and children, students and citizens had a nuanced and contextualized conception of 'nation' that historians must, if not admire and emulate, then at least acknowledge and seek to understand.
