The development of besedas and agricultural associations in Bohemia during the rise of the Czech agrarian movement, 1870s-1890s

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of agricultural associations in Bohemia during the rise of the Czech agrarian movement, from the 1870s–1890s, focusing on the agricultural circle called beseda. Exploring how they spread and how rural inhabitants began to participate in political discussions and parliamentary politics, using these associations as a platform, this paper suggests the necessity to place the rise of the Czech agrarian movement in the broader context of an expanding public sphere and the social transformation after the abolition of hereditary subjection.