Czech, German, and Noble: Status and National Identity in Habsburg Bohemia

305 Pages·2009·1.54 MB·English

by  Rita Krueger

Czech, German, and Noble
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Czech, German,
and Noble
rita krueger
Status and National Identity
in Habsburg Bohemia
1
2009
1
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Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Krueger, Rita.
Czech, German, and noble : status and national identity in Habsburg Bohemia / Rita Krueger.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN978-0-19-532345-0
1. Nationalism—Czech Republic—Bohemia—History. 2. Nationalism—Social aspects—Czech
Republic—Bohemia. 3. Nobility—Czech Republic—Bohemia—History. 4. Social status—Czech
Republic—Bohemia—History. 5. Language and culture—Czech Republic—Bohemia—History.
6. Public institutions—Czech Republic—Bohemia—History. 7. Bohemia (Czech Republic)—Politics
and government. 8. Bohemia (Czech Republic)—Social conditions. 9. Bohemia
(Czech Republic)—Intellectual life. I. Title.
DB2167.K782009
320.5409437109'034—dc22 2008021652
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For my parents
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acknowledgments
I
have accumulated many intellectual and personal debts in the course
of writing this book. Most recently, my editor at Oxford University Press,
Susan Ferber, has been a model of startling effi ciency and stylistic clarity. Her
input into the fi nal text has been invaluable. I am also grateful to the copy
editor, Mary Anne Shahidi, and to Stephanie Attia and the other staff who
have been so dedicated in the preparation of the manuscript. Oxford Uni-
versity Press’s two external reviewers provided thoughtful and constructive
comments on the manuscript and contributed tangibly to its improvement.
There are many who have helped me over years of research and writing.
I wish fi rst to recognize the debt I owe my graduate school advisors, Roman
Szporluk and Charles Maier, for the steady interest, intellectual support, and
personal encouragement they have given me over the years. Roman Szporluk’s
enduring interest in the theories of nationalism and its consequences gave
my own intellectual development many of its early contours. Charles Maier’s
limitless interest in critical historical questions has always been an inspira-
tion. Olwen Hufton deserves special thanks for being the fi rst to encourage
this topic, when I had barely formulated it myself. Many readers of parts or
the whole of the manuscript have given me untold help in sharpening its
focus. Hugh Agnew, Catherine Albrecht, Gary Cohen, David Blackbourn,
Cathleen Giustino, Eagle Glassheim, Miroslav Hroch, Jeremy King, and
Larry Wolff all encountered early versions and/or parts of the manuscript,
and I have gained enormously over the years from their work and their com-
ments. Ian McNeely and Lisa Wolverton were fi rst to read and critique the
whole manuscript. Beyond their intellectual insightfulness, their friendship
has sustained me over the years. In the Czech Republic, I owe a large debt
to Zdeneˇk Hojda and Barbara Bouzková, who shared their knowledge and
research on this period so generously. The late Jan Havránek was unparalleled
in his willingness to discuss a vast number of topics and share his extensive
knowledge of history and experience of the archives, and I regret only that he
did not see the end product.
The librarians and archivists in the Czech Republic were an invaluable
source of information, and I benefi ted from the expertise of the staff of the
National Library, the State Central Archive in Prague, the State Regional
Archives in Trˇebonˇ/Jindrˇichu°v Hradec, Plzenˇ, and Prague, the Archive of
the National Gallery, and the Archive of the Academy of Sciences. I am most
particularly indebted to the staff of the Archive of the National Museum,
especially Jaroslav Cˇechura and Milena Beˇlicˇová, who endured my presence,
questions, and endless material and reproduction requests for months on end
and invited me for innumerable lunches and coffees. They are the standard
bearers for conviviality.
More than one institution has provided shelter for this project. Research
for the book was completed with assistance from the Fulbright Foundation,
the Krupp Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Center for European Studies
at Harvard University, and the European University Institute. I am indebted
to the European University Institute for postdoctoral support, to the faculty
of the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University
of Wisconsin–Madison who supported my leave of absence, and to Temple
University, where I fi nished the revisions for the manuscript. My Temple col-
leagues have been wonderfully supportive, reading parts or the whole of the
manuscript and its prospectus.
There are many friends and family who have been with me throughout
the long road to publication. Hanka Ripková was a rock through my years of
research trips to the Czech Republic, and I value her friendship enormously.
In Madison, Kathie Hendley is one of the best and most encouraging people
I know. Priya Joshi and Orfeo Fioretos have been a constant source of support
and sociability. I am not sure that I have the words suffi cient to thank my
husband Mark. It is unthinkable that this book would have been completed
without his unfl agging support and patience, or without his willingness to
make sacrifi ces that afforded me the opportunity to do this work. He is sim-
ply the best of men. My children Cameron and Fiona have faced more than
one moment of motherly distraction with aplomb, and I hope that they will
someday understand how grateful I am not just for the time they gave me
to write, but for the amazing people they have become. I am proud of them
beyond measure. I am absolutely indebted to Lynn Krueger, whose generos-
ity and sense of purpose in the face of my father’s illness is humbling. Frank
viii | acknowledgments
Knobloch has shared in countless intellectual and political discussions, con-
stantly reminding me how much I value him not just as a member of our
family, but as a public intellectual. My sister Linda has always been an inspi-
ration to me, now more than ever. I fi nd it diffi cult to reduce my parents to
the black and white of print. Together and separately, they have faced such
hardships, not least of which was the loss of my brother, whose amazing
scientifi c mind and outsize personality are missed by all of us. My parents’
courage, who they are, and the way they have lived, makes me proud to be
their daughter. This book is dedicated to them.
acknowledgments | ix