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Author analyzes the history of women’s emancipation in the discourse of Slovak national movement at the turn of the century. The basic assumption of the publication is that there was a direct relationship between history of women’s emancipation and history of nationalism. Karol Hollý’s observation of this phenomenon is based primarily on history of ideas, which were inevitable for the contemporary nationalist thinking. Main object of the monograph is the ideological concept of Slovak nationalists (Slovak national movement or Slovak women movement) at the turn of the century in the context of women’s emancipation idea. The aim of the book is to define, how the concepts of women and their role in society were constructed in the discourse of the Slovak nationalists. First chapter is dealing with the basic question of the education of women, analyzing both the institutional-legal point of view and the discourse of the Slovak nationalists. The chapter also includes an analysis of the education process of Mária Bellová, a woman with Slovak national identity, who, in the given circumstances, acquired an unusually high level of education. In the second chapter, the author explores the complicated genesis of the first Slovak journal for women (Dennica) and its reception in the circle of Slovak nationalists. Third chapter is devoted to the key question of the Czech and Slovak women movement relations in the context of conflicting national ideologies of independent Slovak nation and national unity of Czechs and Slovaks. Main focus of the fourth chapter is the so called Embroidering movement. The nationalist context of the embroidering is documenting the connection between Slovak women movement and Slovak national movement. Fifth chapter consists of case studies. It is divided into two parts, covering detailed analysis of the discourse in newspapers from 1913 about fundamental questions of women’s emancipation – women suffrage, professional realization of women in the public sphere, social welfare of the unmarried women, freedom to decide not to marry and so on. Themes analyzed in the individual chapters confirm the initial hypothesis, that the question of women’s emancipation was subordinated to the nationalist objectives. It was because of nationalism that women question acquired its prominent role in the national community. Women became responsible for creating the secure background for the men involved in the national movement. The “living space” of women was, therefore, limited to the household, the role of wives and, first of all, mothers, raising and preparing the next generation of nationalists for their future “national tasks”. This function was accepted also in the Slovak women’s movement. According to the author, despite some conflicts between ideas of Slovak national and Slovak women’s movement (observable in the genesis of Dennica), they were, in fact, not in opposition. One of the reasons was the political orientation of Živena (association of Slovak women) and its representatives on the so called Martin centre of Slovak National Party. In comparison with the earlier periods, in the era before WWI, the women question became an increasingly broader concept in the framework of national discourse. The restricted concept of a woman in a household was supplemented with an image of woman active in the public sphere as a valued member of the national community. During this time, the so called woman question was clearly influencing the differentiation among the Slovak nationalists. However, there was a general consensus regarding positive attitude towards the women suffrage. This has to be understood in the context of Slovak nationalism in Kingdom of Hungary – women should have added to the number of the nationally oriented voters. The most fundamental conclusion of the publication is that for the whole analyzed period the nationalism had a priority over feminism; the women question was always secondary to the Slovak question.

History --- Social Sciences --- Gender Studies --- Education --- Media studies --- Sociology --- Social history --- Modern Age --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- 19th Century

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The book presents the results of new research in Slovak history in the field or period called “the long 19th century”, i.e. dating from the rule of Joseph II. in the late 18th century until the First World War. The focus of research was on the themes and domains which were either neglected in the past or needed reconsidering. The book centres on five fields and is composed of five chapters. The first chapter is called “The Nation and the national issue”. It presents new aspects by exploring one of the most principal themes of 19th century. In his study, László Vörös reflects about the modern concept of the nation, which won recognition by the most contemporary historians, ethnologists and sociologists: the nation as an imagined community and an imagined tradition which is connected with the modernisation epoch. Nationalism is specifically an urban phenomenon. In the Slovak historiography, the national movement had been explored mostly in the rural area, in the peasant milieu, because the majority of the Slovak ethnic population was composed of peasants. Eva Kowalská aimed to change this perspective and concentrated on explaining urban aspects of Slovak nationalism. In case of Slovakia, these aspects are more interesting since the Slovaks in the 19th century had no important central city, and only small towns in the countryside (like Turčiansky Sv. Martin), had tried to compensate this lack. In his contribution, Peter Macho summarises how the symbol of the Tatra mountains as well as other Slovak geographic-territorial symbols were present in the Slovak nationalist discourse. Peter Šoltés elaborates on the theme and the activities of the Slovak Evangelical intelligentsia in the first half of the 19th century. The second chapter “The National movement in foreign and domestic politics” deals with the important connection of nationalism and politics. Slovak foreign political thought was traditionally orientated toward the Russian Empire. In his contribution, Dušan Kováč shows the other side of the Slovak foreign orientation: their attitude to the Western powers England and France. Dušan Škvarna attempts at a reconsideration of the role and inspiring function of the Slovak National Council, established during the 1848 revolution. The Swiss political scientist Josette Baer, a specialist in the field of Slavonic and lately mainly of Slovak political thought, presents her analysis of the early political activities of Vavro Šrobár (an important personality of Slovak politics in the 20th century), especially his leading role in the so-called “Hlasist movement”. The third chapter is dedicated to the juridical system and economic issues. Tomáš Gábriš presents a very useful survey of the juridical system in Hungary and its changes in the era of modernization during the 19th century. His paper shows that in Hungary the tendency to modernize was clashing with very difficult obstacles, mainly ideological and political ones. The attempt to create the centralised “nation state” in Hungary restrained the most important liberal-democratic reforms of the juridical system. In her contribution, Eva Ondrušová deals with the traditional studies of economic cameralism and its influence on the economic theory and practise in the 19th century. Ľudovít Hallon and Miroslav Sabol follow the history of the Pittel and Brausewetter architectural company, which was much closely connected with and active in the very broad Pressburg (Bratislava) area. Very new themes are presented in the forth chapter named “Society, social life and environment”. Gabriela Dudeková outlines the system of poor relief in the Habsburg monarchy; her focus is on the mechanisms how the authorities denied social care to specific groups in Hungary. Slovak emigration to America is a very traditional issue in Slovak historiography. Igor Harušťák tries to consider this problem in the broader Central- and East-European context. Prior to 1989, research about the nobility as a social strata was neglected in Slovak historiography. Even after 1989, this theme was intensively researched mainly in the period of middle ages and the early modern times. However, from the social point of view, important and interesting issues are e. g. the nobility’s life style as well as the attempts of these “high society” members to preserve their status in the modern 19th century. Daniel Hupko deals with these issues focussing on the example of Lucia Wilczek. Roman Holec presents a completely new approach in his contribution about the changes in the relationship ‘man – animal’ as manifestation of a new attitude to nature during the 19th century. The last chapter of this volume is dedicated to “The Churches in the social – modernizing processes “.Ingrid Kušniráková analyses the controversial interferences of Joseph II. into the life of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the closing-down of some cloisters. Tomáš Králik focuses on the relations of the Vienna court to the St. Elisabeth convent in Pressburg (Bratislava). The chapters of this collective monograph will serve as a basis for the draft of a new synthetis on Slovak history in the “long 19th century”.

Christian Theology and Religion --- History --- Anthropology --- Social Sciences --- Economy --- Fine Arts / Performing Arts --- Cultural history --- Architecture --- Energy and Environmental Studies --- Sociology --- Economic history --- Political history --- Modern Age --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Theology and Religion --- Culture and social structure --- Family and social welfare --- Nationalism Studies --- 19th Century --- Socio-Economic Research --- Identity of Collectives --- Slovakia --- History.