Historian of Treason, Austria-Hungary, Czech, Hungarian and South Slav lands. Writing book about 'Treason in the Age of Franz Joseph 1848-1918'. Also preparing set of essays on LGBTQ Czech history; researching the Czech security police in 1989
Critical review of The Bell of Treason by P.E. Caquet. Review argues that despite its vivid captu... more Critical review of The Bell of Treason by P.E. Caquet. Review argues that despite its vivid capture of the Czech atmosphere of 1938, this is nevertheless a book based on old historiography which does not take account of recent research by Czech and other historians on interwar Czechoslovakia and the Czech-German background to the Sudeten crisis.
This is a critical review for the Times Literary Supplement of John Zametica, Folly and Malice: T... more This is a critical review for the Times Literary Supplement of John Zametica, Folly and Malice: The Habsburg Empire, the Balkans and the Start of World War I (2017). It acknowledges some new research on the Sarajevo murders of 1914 but questions the polemical underlying argument.
Lesbian voices and experiences have received little attention in Czech historiography: recent res... more Lesbian voices and experiences have received little attention in Czech historiography: recent research has concentrated on the modern era from the 1950s. This article deepens our understanding of lesbian lives in interwar Prague. It focuses on two forgotten lesbian novels, Exiles of Love and The Third Sex, which were deliberately suppressed after 1948 by the Communist regime as examples of inferior bourgeois literature. The two authors, LĂda MerlĂnová and Gill Sedláčková, both hailed from Prague's cultural world (theatre and film) and were active too in the 1930s Czech movement for homosexual reform. Spanning the late twenties to the late thirties, the novels reveal tantalising glimpses of the evolving sub-culture of interwar Prague. MerlĂnová's naĂŻve novel of 1929, Exiles of Love, was the first Czech lesbian novel, and it betrayed the 1920s optimism of the 'Czech New Woman' who was prepared to challenge gender stereotypes. Sedláčková's novel, The Third Sex, is a more explicit study from 1937, reflecting the more mature sub-culture but also a cynicism about the chances of homosexual reform. Yet it manages, even more than Exiles, to convey an uplifting and moral message. Indeed, both novels are about lesbian self-knowledge, exploring the scope for same-sex survival in a world where the best solution may be abroad, not in 'provincial Prague'. In restoring these texts to lesbian literature we recover a range of voices, expressing the hopes and frustrations of some queer Czech women in an unusually liberal era.
'Die Heimstatt des Historikers sind die Archive'. Festschrift fur Lothar Hoebelt, Oct 10, 2022
A study of how traitors emerged and were interpreted during the 1848 year of revolution in Vienna... more A study of how traitors emerged and were interpreted during the 1848 year of revolution in Vienna: a concept first endorsed by liberals and radicals but then adopted by the conservatives as they retook the city.
A version of this booklet was delivered as the lst Austrian Studies Lecture at the University of ... more A version of this booklet was delivered as the lst Austrian Studies Lecture at the University of Leiden in November 2019. It is an analysis of how traitors were defined and categorized in the Habsburg Empire from c.1866 to 1900, using material in the German, Czech, Croatian and Hungarian languages. Case studies are supplied of assassins, anarchists and irredentists since these roughly mapped on to the criminal codes used in Austria and Hungary. The discussion explores why and when treason law was invoked and the damage done to the authorities when they pursued traitors who in fact had broad support in the state community
This article uses Czech and German material to reassess the career of the controversial Sudeten G... more This article uses Czech and German material to reassess the career of the controversial Sudeten German nationalist politician, Konrad Henlein (1898-1945). It particularly seeks to clarify the behaviour of a man who many in 1930s Britain viewed as 'moderate', and pinpoints turning points in his life and career which finally led him towards Nazi Germany after 1937 as a solution for Czech-German nationalist tensions in Czechoslovakia. The chapter is contained in a volume of essays which reassesses right-wing and fascist personalities of East-Central Europe in the early 20th century. Henlein is revealed as alternatively 'moderate' and 'Nazi' to the outside observer, but in essence a man with a Sudeten voelkisch mentality
New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key Issues and Controversies, 2011
This is an innovative study of how popular mobilization increased on behalf of a Yugoslav state i... more This is an innovative study of how popular mobilization increased on behalf of a Yugoslav state in the South Slavs of the wartime Habsburg Monarchy. The article reveals where the grassroots mobilization was strongest (often propelled forward by economic and social grievances), and contributes to our understanding of how and why the imperial authorities were fast losing their legitimacy by 1918 to the advantage of the Yugoslav vision.
This is an in-depth study of how the historian Elizabeth Wiskemann researched and wrote about the... more This is an in-depth study of how the historian Elizabeth Wiskemann researched and wrote about the Sudeten Question in the 1930s/40s. Her groundbreaking book, Czechs and Germans (1938) has never been translated into Czech or German, yet it remains an incisive and balanced study of Czech-German domestic tensions in the 1930s. The article (volume 1/1 of the journal Central Europe) evaluates her role as a female interpreter of a controversial subject - arousing criticism of her from both Czech and German quarters.
In the Shadow of Hitler: Personalities of the Right in Central and Eastern Europe, 2011
A study of the Sudeten German nationalist leader Konrad Henlein which analyses his personality an... more A study of the Sudeten German nationalist leader Konrad Henlein which analyses his personality and evolving views over 25 years. The chapter is one of a range of studies of right-wing influential figures in early 20th century Europe
'Die Heimstatt des Historikers sind die Archive'. Festschrift fur Lothar Hobelt, 2022
A study of how 'traitors' emerged and were interpreted during the year of revolution in Vienna: a... more A study of how 'traitors' emerged and were interpreted during the year of revolution in Vienna: a concept first endorsed by liberals and radicals but then adopted by the conservatives as they retook the city
Nationalisms in Action: The Great War and Its Aftermath in East-Central Europe, 2022
This article (pp.62-83) analyses the stages from 1916 which led to the collapse of the Habsburg e... more This article (pp.62-83) analyses the stages from 1916 which led to the collapse of the Habsburg empire in the First World War, assessing when and why decisions were taken domestically that reinforced a delegitimization of the state in the eyes of politicians or the general public. It reassesses the key watersheds and how far the radical rhetoric matched the reality of expectations.
This article reassesses the views of the British historian and commentator R.W. Seton-Watson on t... more This article reassesses the views of the British historian and commentator R.W. Seton-Watson on the phenomenon of nationalism and nation-building in late Austria-Hungary. It concentrates on the Hungarian and South Slav lands, the key focus of Seton-Watson's interest in the early twentieth century, revealing the rationale for his beliefs but also the ways that his views evolved over twenty years.
This article reassesses the official British discourse around the Treaty of Trianon between 1919 ... more This article reassesses the official British discourse around the Treaty of Trianon between 1919 and 1921. It studies a range of colorful opinions for and against the treaty, why they emerged at particular times, and why some could prevail over others. Especially it focuses on the rationale of those British parliamentarians or officials who spoke out against Trianon as being unjust to Hungary. These leading voices had varied backgrounds and prejudices, but they all had personal knowledge of Hungary either before or after World War I. The article is divided into three time-periods, thereby highlighting the main shifts in British opinion that were often caused by geo-political changes in Hungary itself. While the key British decisions were taken in 1919 at the time of the Paris Peace Conference, the vibrant and public British debate of 1920–21 also had a long-term impact: it sustained Hungarian hopes and illusions about a future revision of Trianon and about potential British sympathy...
Ă–sterreich-Ungarn und Italien im Ersten Weltkrieg. Austria-Ungheria e Italia nella Grande Guerra, 2019
A study of the work of Yugoslav emigres during the First World War and the problems that they fac... more A study of the work of Yugoslav emigres during the First World War and the problems that they faced in Italy because of the Treaty of London. Despite consistent difficulties, the chapter argues that there were successes in the fields of propaganda and intelligence in the 1917-18., aiding at least indirectly the creation of a Yugoslav state in 1918
In a quiet cemetery on the c outskirts of OseÄŤná, in northern Bohemia, at one with nature and ove... more In a quiet cemetery on the c outskirts of OseÄŤná, in northern Bohemia, at one with nature and overlooked by Mount JeštÄ›d, lies the plot of the Rutha family. Two black metal plaques bolted to a stone wall commemorate Heinrich Rutha (1897–1937), with an inscription in German: “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15.13). For those who erected this memorial, the meaning was undoubtedly clear. Heinz Rutha (as he was usually called) had died as a martyr to a higher cause, in service to the Sudeten German people—the German minority in Czechoslovakia who were struggling in the 1930s to secure greater autonomy for themselves. Rutha was a prominent Sudeten German leader and ideologue. Indeed, he was the unofficial “foreign minister” of the Sudeten German Party (Sudetendeutsche Partei; SdP), led by Konrad Henlein, which had won 63 percent of the German vote in the parliamentary elections of 1935. Early on the morning of 5 November 1937 Rutha was found dead in his prison cell in the town of Böhmisch Leipa (ÄŚeska LĂpa).1 Although all the evidence pointed to suicide, rumors spread immediately that he had been murdered, either by the Czechs or by some other (Nazi) political opponents. The inscription on Rutha’s grave, however, also has a cryptic significance, especially if we assume (as seems possible) that Rutha himself left instructions as to the wording. It hints at his philosophy of life and his vision for a new type of
Critical review of The Bell of Treason by P.E. Caquet. Review argues that despite its vivid captu... more Critical review of The Bell of Treason by P.E. Caquet. Review argues that despite its vivid capture of the Czech atmosphere of 1938, this is nevertheless a book based on old historiography which does not take account of recent research by Czech and other historians on interwar Czechoslovakia and the Czech-German background to the Sudeten crisis.
This is a critical review for the Times Literary Supplement of John Zametica, Folly and Malice: T... more This is a critical review for the Times Literary Supplement of John Zametica, Folly and Malice: The Habsburg Empire, the Balkans and the Start of World War I (2017). It acknowledges some new research on the Sarajevo murders of 1914 but questions the polemical underlying argument.
Lesbian voices and experiences have received little attention in Czech historiography: recent res... more Lesbian voices and experiences have received little attention in Czech historiography: recent research has concentrated on the modern era from the 1950s. This article deepens our understanding of lesbian lives in interwar Prague. It focuses on two forgotten lesbian novels, Exiles of Love and The Third Sex, which were deliberately suppressed after 1948 by the Communist regime as examples of inferior bourgeois literature. The two authors, LĂda MerlĂnová and Gill Sedláčková, both hailed from Prague's cultural world (theatre and film) and were active too in the 1930s Czech movement for homosexual reform. Spanning the late twenties to the late thirties, the novels reveal tantalising glimpses of the evolving sub-culture of interwar Prague. MerlĂnová's naĂŻve novel of 1929, Exiles of Love, was the first Czech lesbian novel, and it betrayed the 1920s optimism of the 'Czech New Woman' who was prepared to challenge gender stereotypes. Sedláčková's novel, The Third Sex, is a more explicit study from 1937, reflecting the more mature sub-culture but also a cynicism about the chances of homosexual reform. Yet it manages, even more than Exiles, to convey an uplifting and moral message. Indeed, both novels are about lesbian self-knowledge, exploring the scope for same-sex survival in a world where the best solution may be abroad, not in 'provincial Prague'. In restoring these texts to lesbian literature we recover a range of voices, expressing the hopes and frustrations of some queer Czech women in an unusually liberal era.
'Die Heimstatt des Historikers sind die Archive'. Festschrift fur Lothar Hoebelt, Oct 10, 2022
A study of how traitors emerged and were interpreted during the 1848 year of revolution in Vienna... more A study of how traitors emerged and were interpreted during the 1848 year of revolution in Vienna: a concept first endorsed by liberals and radicals but then adopted by the conservatives as they retook the city.
A version of this booklet was delivered as the lst Austrian Studies Lecture at the University of ... more A version of this booklet was delivered as the lst Austrian Studies Lecture at the University of Leiden in November 2019. It is an analysis of how traitors were defined and categorized in the Habsburg Empire from c.1866 to 1900, using material in the German, Czech, Croatian and Hungarian languages. Case studies are supplied of assassins, anarchists and irredentists since these roughly mapped on to the criminal codes used in Austria and Hungary. The discussion explores why and when treason law was invoked and the damage done to the authorities when they pursued traitors who in fact had broad support in the state community
This article uses Czech and German material to reassess the career of the controversial Sudeten G... more This article uses Czech and German material to reassess the career of the controversial Sudeten German nationalist politician, Konrad Henlein (1898-1945). It particularly seeks to clarify the behaviour of a man who many in 1930s Britain viewed as 'moderate', and pinpoints turning points in his life and career which finally led him towards Nazi Germany after 1937 as a solution for Czech-German nationalist tensions in Czechoslovakia. The chapter is contained in a volume of essays which reassesses right-wing and fascist personalities of East-Central Europe in the early 20th century. Henlein is revealed as alternatively 'moderate' and 'Nazi' to the outside observer, but in essence a man with a Sudeten voelkisch mentality
New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key Issues and Controversies, 2011
This is an innovative study of how popular mobilization increased on behalf of a Yugoslav state i... more This is an innovative study of how popular mobilization increased on behalf of a Yugoslav state in the South Slavs of the wartime Habsburg Monarchy. The article reveals where the grassroots mobilization was strongest (often propelled forward by economic and social grievances), and contributes to our understanding of how and why the imperial authorities were fast losing their legitimacy by 1918 to the advantage of the Yugoslav vision.
This is an in-depth study of how the historian Elizabeth Wiskemann researched and wrote about the... more This is an in-depth study of how the historian Elizabeth Wiskemann researched and wrote about the Sudeten Question in the 1930s/40s. Her groundbreaking book, Czechs and Germans (1938) has never been translated into Czech or German, yet it remains an incisive and balanced study of Czech-German domestic tensions in the 1930s. The article (volume 1/1 of the journal Central Europe) evaluates her role as a female interpreter of a controversial subject - arousing criticism of her from both Czech and German quarters.
In the Shadow of Hitler: Personalities of the Right in Central and Eastern Europe, 2011
A study of the Sudeten German nationalist leader Konrad Henlein which analyses his personality an... more A study of the Sudeten German nationalist leader Konrad Henlein which analyses his personality and evolving views over 25 years. The chapter is one of a range of studies of right-wing influential figures in early 20th century Europe
'Die Heimstatt des Historikers sind die Archive'. Festschrift fur Lothar Hobelt, 2022
A study of how 'traitors' emerged and were interpreted during the year of revolution in Vienna: a... more A study of how 'traitors' emerged and were interpreted during the year of revolution in Vienna: a concept first endorsed by liberals and radicals but then adopted by the conservatives as they retook the city
Nationalisms in Action: The Great War and Its Aftermath in East-Central Europe, 2022
This article (pp.62-83) analyses the stages from 1916 which led to the collapse of the Habsburg e... more This article (pp.62-83) analyses the stages from 1916 which led to the collapse of the Habsburg empire in the First World War, assessing when and why decisions were taken domestically that reinforced a delegitimization of the state in the eyes of politicians or the general public. It reassesses the key watersheds and how far the radical rhetoric matched the reality of expectations.
This article reassesses the views of the British historian and commentator R.W. Seton-Watson on t... more This article reassesses the views of the British historian and commentator R.W. Seton-Watson on the phenomenon of nationalism and nation-building in late Austria-Hungary. It concentrates on the Hungarian and South Slav lands, the key focus of Seton-Watson's interest in the early twentieth century, revealing the rationale for his beliefs but also the ways that his views evolved over twenty years.
This article reassesses the official British discourse around the Treaty of Trianon between 1919 ... more This article reassesses the official British discourse around the Treaty of Trianon between 1919 and 1921. It studies a range of colorful opinions for and against the treaty, why they emerged at particular times, and why some could prevail over others. Especially it focuses on the rationale of those British parliamentarians or officials who spoke out against Trianon as being unjust to Hungary. These leading voices had varied backgrounds and prejudices, but they all had personal knowledge of Hungary either before or after World War I. The article is divided into three time-periods, thereby highlighting the main shifts in British opinion that were often caused by geo-political changes in Hungary itself. While the key British decisions were taken in 1919 at the time of the Paris Peace Conference, the vibrant and public British debate of 1920–21 also had a long-term impact: it sustained Hungarian hopes and illusions about a future revision of Trianon and about potential British sympathy...
Ă–sterreich-Ungarn und Italien im Ersten Weltkrieg. Austria-Ungheria e Italia nella Grande Guerra, 2019
A study of the work of Yugoslav emigres during the First World War and the problems that they fac... more A study of the work of Yugoslav emigres during the First World War and the problems that they faced in Italy because of the Treaty of London. Despite consistent difficulties, the chapter argues that there were successes in the fields of propaganda and intelligence in the 1917-18., aiding at least indirectly the creation of a Yugoslav state in 1918
In a quiet cemetery on the c outskirts of OseÄŤná, in northern Bohemia, at one with nature and ove... more In a quiet cemetery on the c outskirts of OseÄŤná, in northern Bohemia, at one with nature and overlooked by Mount JeštÄ›d, lies the plot of the Rutha family. Two black metal plaques bolted to a stone wall commemorate Heinrich Rutha (1897–1937), with an inscription in German: “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15.13). For those who erected this memorial, the meaning was undoubtedly clear. Heinz Rutha (as he was usually called) had died as a martyr to a higher cause, in service to the Sudeten German people—the German minority in Czechoslovakia who were struggling in the 1930s to secure greater autonomy for themselves. Rutha was a prominent Sudeten German leader and ideologue. Indeed, he was the unofficial “foreign minister” of the Sudeten German Party (Sudetendeutsche Partei; SdP), led by Konrad Henlein, which had won 63 percent of the German vote in the parliamentary elections of 1935. Early on the morning of 5 November 1937 Rutha was found dead in his prison cell in the town of Böhmisch Leipa (ÄŚeska LĂpa).1 Although all the evidence pointed to suicide, rumors spread immediately that he had been murdered, either by the Czechs or by some other (Nazi) political opponents. The inscription on Rutha’s grave, however, also has a cryptic significance, especially if we assume (as seems possible) that Rutha himself left instructions as to the wording. It hints at his philosophy of life and his vision for a new type of
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 2015
ABSTRACTTreason is a ubiquitous historical phenomenon, one particularly associated with regime in... more ABSTRACTTreason is a ubiquitous historical phenomenon, one particularly associated with regime instability or wartime loyalties. This paper explores the practice and prosecution of treason in the last decades of the Habsburg monarchy with a special focus on some notorious wartime treason trials. It first sets the rhetoric and law of treason in a comparative historical context before assessing the legal framework supplied by the Austrian penal code of 1852. Although the treason law was exploited quite arbitrarily after 1914, the state authorities in the pre-war decade were already targeting irredentist suspects due to major anxiety about domestic and foreign security. In the Great War, the military were then given extensive powers to prosecute all political crimes including treason, causing a string of show-trials of Bosnian Serbs and some leading Czech politicians. By 1917–18, however, this onslaught on disloyalty was backfiring in the wake of an imperial amnesty: as loyalties shift...
This article, published in the centennial year of Trianon, analyses afresh the British official v... more This article, published in the centennial year of Trianon, analyses afresh the British official viewpoints about the peace settlement imposed on Hungary after the First World War. It examines both favourable and critical opinions, revealing some new voices. While some of these had long experience in the Danubian region, many were influenced by what they observed there in the years 1918-21. Early 1920 was a key period in the ongoing British debate, but by 1921 there was a certain consensus and pragmatism that the Trianon settlement was permanent: there could be no restoration of greater Hungary.
This article, in draft before journal publication, is the first fruit of new research on the subj... more This article, in draft before journal publication, is the first fruit of new research on the subject of early 20th-century Croatian lawyers (attorneys) and how they made the transition from a career in the Habsburg empire to one in the new state of Yugoslavia. The research so far, while showing the diversity of trajectories, suggests that many Croatian attorneys could successfully adjust in view of their own priorities and the peculiarities of the Croatian legal system (which survived until at least 1930). In other words, for many 1918 was not a complete watershed - legal continuity was mirrored in the continuity of many professional careers.
A series of essays reassessing the causes and results of the Sarajevo murders of June 1914. The b... more A series of essays reassessing the causes and results of the Sarajevo murders of June 1914. The book especially seeks to explore the wider Balkan and international contexts, with contributions from historians from different disciplinary approaches. It also argues for the South Slav Question as a cause of the First World War due to the prominence given to this in the thinking of the Habsburg elite
First Annual Lecture, Foundation for Austrian Studies, University of Leiden, 2020
This is a study of the crime of treason as identified and prosecuted in Austria-Hungary in the la... more This is a study of the crime of treason as identified and prosecuted in Austria-Hungary in the late 19th century. It focuses on three types of traitor: the assassin; the socialist-anarchist; the nationalist. It argues that the Habsburg empire continued to invoke treason law well into the constitutional era, and that a study of how treason was interpreted tells us much about the security fears of the ruling elite ans their mentality.
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