Claire Morelon’s book examines everyday life in Prague during World War I and its immediate aftermath. It focuses on the “streetscape,” “the sensorial texture of the city, from the posters plastered on walls, to the shop windows’ displays (or lack thereof amid shortages), the badges worn by passersby, and the crowds gathering for protest or celebration” (3). Based on extensive archival research primarily conducted in Czech archives, and drawing on a wide range of sources—including archival materials, contemporary newspapers, memoir literature, and other egodocuments—the author reconstructs the transformations of Prague and its streets from the outbreak of the war through to the final months, when the economic situation and food supply deteriorated dramatically, up to the “national revolution” at the end of October 1918 and the first postwar years in the new republic.
Although the chapters are organized by theme, they also follow a clear chronological order. Chapter 1 focuses on the transformation of Prague in the first months of the war, which resulted from the militarization of urban spaces. This includes mobilization at the outbreak of war, the militarization of public spaces, and frequent, often violent, clashes between soldiers and civilians. The chapter also covers the ultimately counterproductive efforts of the army to control public spaces and the flow of information. Chapter 2 focuses on patriotic mobilization and its representation on the city’s streets (see below for more information on this chapter). Chapter 3 highlights Prague as both a place of absence due to the conscription of men into the army and a place of presence for “local” and “foreign” soldiers on leave or convalescing. It also covers wartime migration, emphasizing Prague’s entanglement with the battlefront as a “home front.” Chapter 4 addresses the issue of provisioning, the transformation of social hierarchies and relations between the city and the countryside (the “ruralization” of Prague), and the growing nationalization of welfare, which often unfolded through national associations and organizations. Chapter 5 examines the culture of protest during the war and its aftermath. Chapter 6 conceptualizes the end of the war, the establishment of the new state, and the uncertain first years of the new republic.
Morelon’s book primarily addresses two research contexts that have grown remarkably over the past twenty years. These contexts have evolved from “revisionist” approaches into a new canon, without which no study of this period can dispense, whether by building upon or critically engaging with the canon. The first context is scholarship on the late Habsburg monarchy, particularly research on national indifference and nation-forming processes within the framework of late imperial parliamentarism. This body of scholarship emphasizes that “nation” and “empire” are not necessarily opposites and that the quasi-national states that emerged from the monarchy’s collapse should not be viewed as a sharp rupture but rather as the result of economic, administrative, political, and legal continuities. However, within this framework, a logical question arises: Why did the monarchy collapse?
The answer is usually sought in the processes of delegitimization that occurred during World War I. Scholars have emphasized the army’s destructive role in the war. The army saw the war as an opportunity to impose its own authoritarian vision of an “efficient” state, which came at the expense of widespread political participation, national autonomy, and the rule of law. At the same time, the food and supply crisis further eroded the monarchy’s legitimacy in the eyes of many of its inhabitants. Morelon provides rich new material that supports these theses, concluding that “as Austria-Hungary seemed increasingly unable to respond to this challenge, … many turned their hopes toward a new state that could promise a better future” (294).
In a broader context, the delegitimization of state authority during the war, as perceived by many Prague residents, must be understood as part of a wider democratization process and demands for greater participation, Morelon notes. After the war, these processes paved the way for the acceptance of the idea of a (national) republic, although many people had vague and confused notions of what it should look like.
The second major research context consists of studies of cities at war and everyday life under total mobilization conditions. Morelon builds on this scholarship and applies it to the case of Prague. From this perspective, the author does not offer a new interpretive framework or new conclusions about the collapse of the monarchy and the formation of the postwar political and social order. Therefore, the book’s main contribution lies in its detailed reconstruction of everyday life in Prague. This reconstruction is logically structured and substantiates the above-mentioned broader theses with extensive empirical material.
However, what is truly innovative is her methodological approach. Morelon conceptualizes the city as a shared framework irrespective of the inhabitants’ personal identities, language, political orientation, or gender, all of which were often fluid. Drawing primarily on sociological scholarship, Morelon treats streets and urban spaces as sources that allow this shared experiential framework to be interpreted.
The author’s concept of patriotism is also particularly noteworthy. Here, patriotism functions as an analytical category that facilitates a better understanding of historical actors’ behavior without automatically interpreting it as an expression of a stable inner identity. Morelon focuses on the practice of patriotism. She seeks to “read” patriotism from the streets themselves, that is, from how it was enacted, staged, and rendered visible in urban space.
Morelon convincingly demonstrates that the shifting manifestations of patriotism—from supporting “Prague” soldiers who were conscripted into the imperial army in 1914 or who departed for or returned from the front, either as invalids or convalescents, to the similarly enthusiastic welcome accorded to Czechoslovak legionnaires who had fought on the opposing side—could have been internally consistent and meaningful. Historiography, which has focused primarily on the nation as its key interpretive framework, has considerable difficulty with this phenomenon, often explaining it merely as opportunism or behavior imposed from above and inwardly rejected. However, Morelon’s work “has sought to break down the dichotomy between a ‘fake’ surface of loyalty and hidden ‘true’ feelings of opposition to the war,” noting that “not only did Czech nationalism not stand in contradiction with patriotic mobilization, it could even be used to bolster it” (113).
While the chapter on patriotism is the book’s most substantial contribution, the other chapters, especially those addressing provisioning and the culture of protest during World War I and the postwar period, explore a relatively well-researched field. Therefore, it is surprising that Morelon briefly mentions this scholarship but does not engage more deeply with the theses and conclusions of studies addressing these themes directly.
At the very least, further discussion is warranted regarding the author’s thesis that Prague’s streets constituted a shared urban experience. The issue is not only that different social groups and genders may have interpreted this framework differently, a point to which the author herself is attentive. More fundamentally, one must ask whether this space was shared at all and, if so, to what extent. Did workers in militarized factories, whose work hours, labor regimes, and leisure time were strictly regulated, or soldiers hospitalized in Prague’s military hospitals have the same access to the city’s streets—and thus to this supposedly common wartime framework—as members of the middle and upper classes? A more thorough elaboration of this argument would be beneficial rather than a brief reference alone (15).
This issue also has implications for what is otherwise the most stimulating chapter of the book on patriotism. This chapter may be considered socially and geographically limited. In practice, it focuses primarily on the middle and upper classes, as well as Prague’s city center, where manifestations of patriotism were most visible in the streets. Does the author’s emphasis on interpreting the contemporary streetscape risk capturing only what was exposed, audible, and publicly staged in this space? Do other forms of representation, largely absent from Prague’s predominantly middle-class city center, remain hidden or unarticulated? This raises the question of whether patriotism among the lower social strata can be assumed at all and, if so, how it might be identified when it is not expressed or only marginally evident in the urban streetscape of the city center. Nevertheless, it is precisely these questions that demonstrate how Claire Morelon’s book provokes further reflection and opens up new interpretive possibilities. This is a hallmark of a high-quality historical study.
