Naše živá i mrtvá minulost po padesáti letech : (Imprese nad osmi eseji z roku 1967)

This study was written for the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Naše živá i mrtvá minulost/Our Living and Dead Past (Praha, Svoboda 1968), which was instigated by then leading historian František Graus, and in which eight key essays on core problems of Czech history were published, mainly written by younger talented researchers. The study combines a reader witness approach and an analysis of the wider context of the book’s publication which in many regards (its criticism of dogmatic Marxism and its erosion of the traditional picture of Czech history) is one of Czech historiography’s milestones. It characterises and assesses all eight papers (with particular focus on Graus’s introductory essay), looks at its reception at the time, which was not wholly positive, and endeavours to answer the question of whether the team of authors’ work fulfilled the tasks it had set itself.