Prague Panoramas: Religious and National Symbols in a 20th-Century City

FAIN: FT-52104-04

Cynthia Jean Paces
College of New Jersey (Ewing, NJ 08628-0718)

My book analyzes monuments and celebrations, tracing how conflicts over national identity were written on the landscape of 20th-century Prague. Prague’s modern history illustrates the difficulties of imposing a national consciousness on a multiethnic and class-stratified region. I argue that studies of collective memory ought not follow traditional political periodization. This particularly applies to the relationship between religion and nationalism, which occupied a primary place in Czech self-perception even among secular liberals and atheist Communists. The city’s multiple and extreme political transformations show how leaders and citizens use public space to create national identities.