Hledání dějin: o české státnosti a identitě [In Quest of History: on Czech statehood and identity]

Priban, Jiri ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4760-6734 and Hvížďala, Karel 2018. Hledání dějin: o české státnosti a identitě [In Quest of History: on Czech statehood and identity]. [Hledání dějin: o české státnosti a identitě]. Prague: Karolinum.

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Abstract

This book of dialogues is the original Czech version of the English translation edited and published jointly by University of Chicago Press and Karolinum Press in 2019. Abstract: Unlike Latin’s neutralised historia, the Czech dějepis continues to remind us that every historical narrative is self-referential, by which I mean that, ultimately, it always folds back on itself as part of history, the historical narrative, and the wisdom attached to history. History is the process of hauling yesteryear into the present so that past events acquire meaning and purpose for the current generation. National history has that and more: it is imbued with numerous existential questions such as “who are we?”, “where do we come from?”, and “where are we going?”, which are pivotal, and all the more dangerous for it, because they also conjure up the illusion that nations are special, chosen to take on humanity’s historical tasks, and that they have been here since time immemorial like natural groupings of people whose claim to their own existence takes precedence over any other right of an individual or group, or even of any other nation. Likewise, history routinely creates the illusion that the state is some sort of eternal political institution in which a nation finds and confirms its own existence and identity. In point of fact, the state is a product of modern politics, and the nation is an imaginary community devised by political romantics in the modern industrial age. Were every nation to exercise an unconditional right to self-determination in its own state, total political chaos and anarchy would ensue on a global scale.

Item Type:	Book
Book Type:	Authored Book
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Law
Subjects:	K Law > K Law (General)
Publisher:	Karolinum
ISBN:	978-80-246-4103-4
Last Modified:	22 Mar 2024 16:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/166659

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