CSA Book Prize, 2023
(Books published between 2021-2022)
Felix Jeschke, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Iron Landscapes: National Space and the Railways in Interwar Czechoslovakia (Berghahn, 2021)
This fascinating new account of interwar Czechoslovakia tells a new story of the country’s
earliest years by examining the building of its national rail network. Drawing together an
impressive variety of primary and secondary sources, from visual sources to travelogues to
contemporary literature, Jeschke’s book draws on the newest literature in the field to open new
areas for study of the connections, ideas, and infrastructure that underpinned the Czechoslovak
state at home and abroad. He expands the traditional ‘geography’ – literally and figuratively – of
the First Czechoslovak Republic, integrating the study of the Czech lands with discussions of
Slovakia, Subcarpathian Ruthenia, and other regions. In the process he discusses the multiple,
contested meanings of ‘Czechoslovak’ over time, space, and national language. His account is a
fresh, deeply researched approach to the history of the First Czechoslovak Republic, its
challenges, contested politics, discourses, and everyday life.
Prize Committee: Christopher Campo Bowen, John Paul Newman, Molly Pucci
STANLEY Z. PECH PRIZE, 2022
(Articles published between 2020-2021)
Michael W. Dean, Pierce College
“’Žan Kudla Is My Name, It Brings Me Wealth and Fame!’ The Fortunes of a Barroom Song Tradition between Gilded Age Chicago and Fin-de-Siècle Prague,” Kosmas, n.s. 3, no. 11 (2021).
In this fascinating, well-written article, Dean describes the transnational fate of working-class pub icon Žan Kudla. Drawing on an impressive variety of sources, Dean transports the reader through diverse historical landscapes through the medium of song, language, and popular culture. In the process, he ties together questions of colonization, national identity, and race in Central Europe and the United States at the turn of the century. In exploring the significance of bars and saloons, he offers a new approach to the creation of everyday Czech popular culture and the everyday experience of emigration.
Prize Committee: Christopher Campo-Bowen, Todd Huebner, and Molly Pucci
Emerging Scholar Prize, 2023
Martin Pácha, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
“The Limits of Religious Plurality: The Pentecostal Movement in Post-Stalinist Czechoslovakia”, Politics, Religion & Ideology, vol. 23, no. 4, 2022, pp. 407-423
Pácha’s article explores the triangular relationship between a religious minority (Pentecostals in Silesia), an established Protestant church (the Unity of the Czech Brethren), and the socialist state to contribute to the ongoing debate about Communist atheization practices and the Communist system’s regulation of society more broadly. He shows that the socialist state found itself in the somewhat contradictory position of discouraging religion while also policing relations between rival denominations that could not otherwise settle their differences. By delegating the resolution of those conflicts, the churches solidified the role of the state in determining what constituted permissible worship. Pácha bases his analysis on a combination of primary sources, secondary literature, and a conceptual framework that avoids a simplistic totalitarian model of state persecution. Instead, we are shown a post-Stalinist policy process that was often ad hoc and erratic, focused on dividing congregants from their leaders but also reacting to moves between and within the churches involved. The result is a sophisticated reconstruction of events sensitive to the complex realities of local dynamics.
Honorable Mention
Kevin J. Hoeper, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“Nationalizing Habsburg Regimental Tradition in Interwar Czechoslovakia”, Hungarian Historical Review, vol. 11, no. 1, 2022, pp. 169–204
Hoeper’s article reminds us that upon independence Czechoslovakia had to build an army of its own, and did so by combining the legendary Legionnaire regiments with the more numerous but less celebrated regiments of the former Habsburg imperial army. Hoeper uses the idea of military tradition as the careful curation of military history to negotiate a shared identity, which in the case of interwar republic interacted with the general need to legitimate the new state. Through creative use of primary and secondary sources he shows that over time, veterans of the historically Czech-speaking Habsburg regiments lobbied successfully to be acknowledged and integrated into the republic’s military tradition through selective reimagining of the past.
Prize Committee: Melissa Feinberg, Mira Markham, and Kieran Williams