The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation: National Identity and the Post-Communist Social Transformation / Edition 1

by Ladislav Holy

Overview

Ladislav Holy brings to this timely study of national identity the skills of a seasoned researcher, a cosmopolitan perspective, and the insights of an insider. Drawing on historical and literary sources as well as ethnography, he analyzes Czech discourses on national identity. Arguing that there were specifically "Czech" aspects to the Communist regime and to the "velvet revolution", he explores how notions of Czech identity were involved in the debates surrounding the fall of Communism, and the emergence of a new social system.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521555845
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/28/1996
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology , #103
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.55(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Nation against state; 2. Freedom, nation, and personhood; 3. Self-stereotypes and national traditions; 4. National traditions and the imagining of the nation; 5. National traditions and the political process; 6. Nation and state in the context of Czech culture.

Editorial Reviews

"Serious students of Czech culture and politics can ill afford to ignore Holy's fascinating book." H. Steck, Choice

"As it challenges recent understandings of central and eastern European economic and political developments as 'natural' in themselves, the material within The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation will be extremely useful to anthropologists who work in the region." Rebecca Nash, American Anthropologist

"...a valuable and suggestive study....to enrich our understanding of the domestic transitions from communism Carol Skalnik Leff, Slavic Review

From the Publisher