A Missed Opportunity? Czech Historiography of Modern War in the 21st Century

Abstract

This article aims to summarize recent developments in Czech scholarship dedicated to the study of war and warfare. Over the past decade, numerous authors have expressed dismay at the state of the field, analyzing its situation with often harsh criticism. This article aims to offer a comprehensive fresh look at the state of research as it has developed over the past twenty years, to prove or disprove these judgments. Its conclusions are far from positive and it is obvious that military historiography — while dominating the popular study of history — is not the most progressive area in Czech historical scholarship. However, individual authors and some particular fields of research are closer to international and mainstream scholarly discourse than previously thought. While the field remains very much disjointed in its topical coverage of the past, being heavily dependent on individual authors and their preferences, some areas, in particular the First World War and the post-1945 period, perhaps even the patchy selection of works on the nineteenth-century Habsburg period, show some promise in terms of methodological innovation. Particularly strong is the “war and society” approach to military history, while the cultureal history of warfare is getting increasingly more attention in recent years as well. On the other hand, the inter-war period and the history of the Second World War remain firmly rooted in a neo-positivist discourse developed throughout the 1990s, producing descriptive biographies or histories of military institutions often attached to a strongly politicized/nationalized perspective on history. In particular, a scant international relevance and selfcentered approach is the problem here, with analyses often all but ignoring the current state of research and methodology in a global perspective. As a result, it remains uncertain whether and when Czech military historiography will be able to overcome its conservative tendencies to integrate itself either into the international discourse on the history of warfare or into the academic study of history in general.