Freedom From the State and Through a State

Thoughts on an Outline of Liberal-Conservative Conception of Modern History of the Bohemian Lands

Abstract

This article presents a critical examination of the conception of modern history of the Bohemian Lands offered by a recent synthetic historical publication Habsburkové 1740–1918. Vznikání občanské společnosti (Habsburgs, 1740–1918. Origins of a Civic Society) and its editor. This conception rejects a conflictualist approach, which tends to view the past as a history of conflicts between various groups and their interests. Instead, it offers a consensualist approach which emphasises attempts at negotiating social consensus. This latter approach does, however, have certain pitfalls: it can easily lead to uncritical adoption and legitimisation of dominant political directions and movements, and it once again reduces history to stories of important personages and authors of influential or prevailing social ideas.