Karolinum,Nakladatelstvi Univerzity Karlovy,Czech Republic – förlag

These new editions of the first universal textbooks for studying Czech as a foreign language employ a strictly communication-based format that requires no mediating language and thus is ideal for users of all mother tongues. Fresh and modern in their approach, these books systematically develop all language skills—reading, speaking, listening, and writing—using engaging illustrations and texts that emphasize the natural dialogical character of the language as used in everyday speech. Jitka Cvejnová’s extensive experience teaching intensive, immersive classes and introducing foreign learners to the Czech world through language also enables her to enrich the books with valuable sociocultural context. Consequently the only Czech language textbooks based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages levels, they are ideal for use in both short-term and long-term courses.Česky, prosím II, which meets to requirements for level A2, continues to derive grammar rules directly from presented texts. Also introducing life and culture in the Czech Republic, it consists of a textbook with grammar overview, a workbook, and two audio CDs.

This new edition celebrates the stunning examples of art nouveau art and architecture on display in Prague. Since the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Prague has become one of Europe’s—and the world’s—most popular tourist destinations. As in London, Paris, and Rome, visitors flock to the gorgeous buildings and monuments that grace the streets of Prague, entranced by structures ranging from Gothic and baroque to cubist and neoclassical. And while hundreds of thousands stroll over Charles Bridge and gaze up at St. Vitus Cathedral each year, far fewer venture away from the crowds to seek out the countless gems of art nouveau peppered throughout Prague.With Art Nouveau Prague, Petr Wittlich—one of Europe’s leading experts on nineteenth- and twentieth-century architecture—tours those monuments and buildings of Prague that are most representative of the art nouveau movement while offering insightful commentary on each. Along the way, Wittlich visits such sites as the Municipal House, the Wilson Railway Station, the Grand Hotel Europa, and works by sculptors František Bílek, Ladislav Šaloun, and Stanislav Sucharda.An introductory essay by Wittlich emphasizing the role of art nouveau within contemporary currents of modern European art accompanies more than one hundred color illustrations of some of the most stunning examples of art nouveau architecture and decoration in existence, and a detailed bibliography provides additional reading for each of the sites displayed in the book. Art Nouveau Prague is a must-have for those traveling to Prague for the first time or for anyone who appreciates or wants to learn more about art nouveau style.

Born January 1, 1993, after the split with Slovakia, the Czech Republic is one of the youngest members of the European Union. Despite its youth, this new state and the areas just outside its modern borders boast an ancient and intricate past. With A History of the Czech Lands, editors Jaroslav Panek and Oldrich Tuma-along with several scholars from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Charles University - provide one of the most complete historical accounts of this region to date. Panek and Tuma's history begins in the Neolithic Era and follows the development of the state as it transformed into the Kingdom of Bohemia during the ninth century, into a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into Czechoslovakia after World War I, and finally into the Czech Republic. Such a tumultuous political past arises in part from a fascinating native people, and A History of the Czech Lands profiles the Czechs in great detail, delving into past and present traditions and explaining how generation after generation adapted to a perpetually changing government and economy.In addition, contributors examine the many minorities that now call these lands home - Jews, Slovaks, Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and others - and how each group's migration to the region has contributed to life in the Czech Republic today. With sixty new illustrations and an additional chapter examining the transformation of the Czech Republic from a post-communist country into a member of the European Union, this new edition of A History of the Czech Lands will be essential for scholars of Slavic, Central, and East European studies and a must-read for those who trace their ancestry to these lands.

These new editions of the first universal textbooks for studying Czech as a foreign language employ a strictly communication-based format that requires no mediating language and thus is ideal for users of all mother tongues. Fresh and modern in their approach, these books systematically develop all language skills—reading, speaking, listening, and writing—using engaging illustrations and texts that emphasize the natural dialogical character of the language as used in everyday speech. Jitka Cvejnová’s extensive experience teaching intensive, immersive classes and introducing foreign learners to the Czech world through language also enables her to enrich the books with valuable sociocultural context. Consequently the only Czech language textbooks based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages levels, they are ideal for use in both short-term and long-term courses.Česky, prosím III is intended for young adults and adults who want to master Czech at the B1 level. It also includes a workbook, grammar overview, audio exercises on CD, and other materials online.

A new edition of a classic of Czech literature and literary comedy. Upon its initial publication in Czech in 1942, Saturnin was a bestseller. This is entirely appropriate, for while Saturnin draws on a tradition of Czech comedy and authors such as J. Hašek, K. Čapek, and K. Poláček, it was also clearly influenced by the English masters Jerome K. Jerome and P. G. Wodehouse. Saturnin is the story of a young man in love and his faithful servant Saturnin, who upsets the peaceful rhythm of his master’s domestic arrangements and turns his life inside out. He lures him into an exotic world where he is forced to live dangerously, and he shows him how to cope with any situation. Saturnin lays bare the weaknesses of others and compels them to disclose their “true” nature—he is a subversive servant.Written at a time when Czechoslovakia was deep in the grip of the Nazi occupation, Saturnin showed how one form of resistance was to put the world created by invasion out of your mind and create another. However, so recognizably Czech was that “other” that its popularity did not diminish with the end of the war or, indeed, with the end of the forty years of communism that followed the war’s end. The book has been adapted for radio and television, produced as a film, and has a regular place in the repertoire of the Czech stage.

A favorite work of Czech humor, We Were a Handful depicts the adventures of five boys from a small Czech town through the diary of Petr Bajza, the grocer’s son. Written by Karel Poláček at the height of World War II before his deportation to Auschwitz in 1944, this book draws on the happier years of Poláček’s own childhood as inspiration. As we look upon the world through Petr’s eyes, we, too, marvel at the incomprehensible world of grownups; join in fights between gangs of neighborhood kids; and laugh at the charming language of boys, a major source of the book’s humor. This translation at last offers English-language readers the opportunity to share in Petr’s (and Poláček’s) childhood and reminds us that joy and laughter are possible even in the darkest times.

These new editions of the first universal textbooks for studying Czech as a foreign language employ a strictly communication-based format that requires no mediating language and thus is ideal for users of all mother tongues. Fresh and modern in their approach, these books systematically develop all language skills—reading, speaking, listening, and writing—using engaging illustrations and texts that emphasize the natural dialogical character of the language as used in everyday speech. Jitka Cvejnová’s extensive experience teaching intensive, immersive classes and introducing foreign learners to the Czech world through language also enables her to enrich the books with valuable sociocultural context. Consequently the only Czech language textbooks based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages levels, they are ideal for use in both short-term and long-term courses.Česky, prosím I is intended for young adult and adult beginners. Including both a textbook and a workbook, its content meets the demands of level A1.

During its more than six centuries Charles University has given birth to a whole range of beautiful monuments, which, together with its spiritual values of education and science, form part of the significant contribution of Prague's university to national as well as European culture. This book based on a new set of quality photographs deals with the buildings, cult objects, insignia, collection of paintings and traditional festive graduation ceremonies. The book is designed for a wide range of university members and graduates and for anyone with interests in its cultural events.

Jaroslav Hasek is a Czech writer most famous for his wickedly funny, widely read yet incomplete novel "The Good Soldier Svejk", a series of absurdist vignettes about a recalcitrant soldier in World War I. Hasek - in spite of a life of bufoonery and debauchery - was remarkably prolific. He wrote hundreds of short stories that all display both his extraordinary gift for satire and his profound distrust of authority. Here, in a new English translation, is a series of short stories based on Hasek's experiences as a Red Commissar in the Russian Civil War and his return to Czechoslovakia. First published in the "Prague Tribune", these nine stories are considered to be some of his best, and they provide delightful entertainment as well as important background and insight into "The Good Soldier Svejk". This collection, by a writer some refer to as a Bolshevik Mark Twain, is much more than a tool for understanding Hasek's better-known novel; it is a significant work in its own right. "Behind the Lines" focuses on the Russian town of Bugulma and takes aim, with mordant wit, at the absurdities of a revolution.A hidden gem remarkable for its modern, ribald sense of humor, "Behind the Lines" is an enjoyable, fast-paced collection of great literary and historical value.

During his 1893 journey around the world, Czech traveler, pedagogue, and writer Josef Korensky spent only two months traveling in Japan, yet his power of observation yielded a travelogue that remains popular to this day. Originally published in Czech, "In Japan" portrays the epic grandeur of the country's landscapes, the elegance of its gardens, and the hustle and bustle of its cities with incisive prose. Beyond his own immediate impressions of people and places, Korensky set out to create an ethnography of the Japanese people for a private collector whose belongings would later become an essential part of the Czech National Museum. Korensky draws on his extensive expertise in the natural sciences to provide meticulous descriptions of geological phenomena, including accounts of volcanic activity, as well as Japan's flora and fauna. Korensky supplements descriptions of his own experiences with extensive accounts of Japanese history, agriculture, and education.This unabridged English translation of Korensky's report on his first trip to Japan offers an authentic account of the rapidly changing social mores of Japan during the 1890s, only a few decades after it had opened itself to the West. "In Japan" is an unusual and important resource for scholars of Japanese or Eastern European history, and Korensky's enthusiasm for his subject and sharp sense of irony make this travelogue informative and lively.

In "Czechs and Germans 1848-2004", Vaclav Houzvicka describes the development of the Czech-German national controversies from the mid-nineteenth century through the establishing of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 and finally to the beginning of the twenty-first century. He focuses mainly on the tragic end of the nations' coexistence in 1938-1945 and the development - in the latter part of the twentieth century - of differing Czech and German explanations for the reasons the Germans were removed from the Czechoslovak Republic after 1945. A detailed explanation of Czech, German, and Sudeten-German concepts is rendered coherently and in detail within the international and socioeconomic context of the twentieth century.

The Birth of the State provides an overview of four of the most significant cultural centers in the ancient world, now in Egypt, the Persian Gulf region, India, and China. Petr Charvat approaches his subjects from a variety of perspectives and offers information on the economy, society, political climate, and religion within each of the empires. Using the most up-to-date research and theories available, Charvat not only delves into each of these nation states individually, but also synthesizes the material to reveal overarching themes in the birth and decline of civilizations.

In this unusual and important new work, Miroslav Vanek interviews twelve experts on oral history to discuss the medium's current status within the social sciences in light of recent technological breakthroughs. Around the Globe addresses many of the challenges of oral history, from its inherent subjectivity to whether it should be treated as a discipline or simply a method for research. The interviewees also include their own accounts of how they began to study oral history, giving each section of the book a personal element that makes it a unique handbook for anyone using oral history in their research.

In this compact yet informative book, former dissident, occasional politician, software developer, and noted Czech philosopher Jan Sokol offers a way to teach young radical students about philosophy. Drawing on his own experiences, Sokol explains that one does not start teaching by talking about philosophers and theories specifically, but by aiming to excite students and from there leading them to think philosophically about the important questions that have faced humans for centuries. Divided into thirty short chapters, Thinking about Ordinary Things is a unique perspective on the teaching of philosophy.

Czech action art - a medium similar to performance art that does not require an audience - emerged out of the political and social turmoil of the 1960s. This movement has received little critical attention, however, as the Iron Curtain prevented its dissemination to an international audience. Here theorist and art historian Pavlina Morganova gives this art scene its due, chronicling its inception and tracing its evolution through to the present. Morganova explains the various forms of action art, from the "actions" and "happenings" of the 1960s; to the actions of land art that encompass stones, trees, water, or fire; to recent displays of body art; to the actions of the latest generation of artists, who are using the principles of action art in contemporary postconceptual and participative art. Along the way, she introduces the most prominent Czech artists of each specific niche, including Milan Knizak, Zorka Saglova, Ivan Kafka, Petr Stembera, Karel Miler, Jiri Kovanda, and Katerina Seda, and demonstrates not only the changes in the art forms themselves but also the shifting roles of artists and spectators after World War II.With over one hundred illustrations, Czech Action Art introduces this heretofore overlooked but fascinating art form to a global readership.

This book represents a concise summary of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics for physics students at the university level. The text covers essential topics, from general mathematical formalism to specific applications. The formulation of quantum theory is explained and supported with illustrations of the general concepts of elementary quantum systems. In addition to traditional topics of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics - including single-particle dynamics, symmetries, semiclassical and perturbative approximations, density-matrix formalism, scattering theory, and the theory of angular momentum - the book also covers modern issues, among them quantum entanglement, decoherence, measurement, nonlocality, and quantum information. Historical context and chronology of basic achievements is also outlined in explanatory notes. Ideal as a supplement to classroom lectures, the book can also serve as a compact and comprehensible refresher of elementary quantum theory for more advanced students.

These three volumes form a complete textbook for a course for English-language speakers who want to learn Czech. The first volume presents the basics of the Czech language by means of continuous and systematic acquisition of vocabulary and conversational phrases grouped around useful topics and situations. Basic Czech II is structured similarly, but it moves students from beginning to intermediate work, gradually delving into more complicated issues of grammar and usage. It includes a compact disc that features audio exercises built around texts and dialogues that the student will have learned in the first volume. Basic Czech III is based on a communicative and comparative approach, and is suitable for intensive study or even for self-directed study. Grammatical and lexical topics covered in this volume go beyond the basic level, into intermediate and even advanced language study.

In 1936, following the sale of Newton's unpublished manuscripts at auction, the scientific world was shocked: it turned out that Newton's writings in physics and mathematics, often considered the foundations of modern science, were only a fragment of his writings, most of which were focused on theology and alchemy. In this study of Newton's work and thought, Irena stepanova argues for a Newton who was not the man of cold reason we know, but a "priest-scientist" with the life-long intention of carrying out an examination of God himself, as he revealed himself in both the world and in scriptural writings.

These three volumes form a complete textbook for a course for English-language speakers who want to learn Czech. The first volume presents the basics of the Czech language by means of continuous and systematic acquisition of vocabulary and conversational phrases grouped around useful topics and situations. Basic Czech II is structured similarly, but it moves students from beginning to intermediate work, gradually delving into more complicated issues of grammar and usage. It includes a compact disc that features audio exercises built around texts and dialogues that the student will have learned in the first volume. Basic Czech III is based on a communicative and comparative approach, and is suitable for intensive study or for two-semester courses, or even for self-directed study. Grammatical and lexical topics covered in this volume go beyond the basic level, into intermediate and even advanced language study.

The chronically homeless face a stark reality: lack of access to support systems, adequate shelter, and sustenance, with little hope for something better. For young people, however, life on the street may be merely a temporary stage in their lives. This book tells of homelessness among young people - the causes and their attitudes to the various problems they face. Young homeless people describe a life in which they lose their privacy, the possibility to satisfy their basic needs, and, often, their self-respect in order to survive. The latter half of the book considers what happens when these young people return to society and how they navigate difficulties as they attempt to leave their past behind. Often, the struggle is not solely one of coping with the stigma of their experience; rather, they must face the legacies that linger long after their lives have turned a corner: drug addiction, criminal records, and accumulated debt.Based on interviews with homeless people in Prague, Homelessness as an Alternative Existence of Young People paints an authentic picture of this social group and documents the often unseen social consequences of the transformation to capitalism from communism.

The National Gallery in Prague has in its collection a unique Japanese illustrated manuscript of ogi no soshi, a genre of waka poems illustrated in fan-shaped pictures, which blossomed from the late Muromachi to the early Edo period. Book of Fans, with 120 poems, is the largest such book extant in the world. This facsimile of an ancient illustrated manuscript of waka poetry reveals hitherto unknown aspects of Japanese traditional culture at the close of the sixteenth century, after the end of a century of destructive civil wars. The illustrated fans contain both classical waka poetry and poetry with close affinity to renga, haikai no renga, and Noh drama. The introductory text, from specialists on three continents, sheds new light on a literature and art that were instrumental in the renewal of the country in the Momoyama period. The literary quality of the translations and the beauty of the illustrations will be welcomed by both academic and general audiences around the world.

Examining, outlining, elucidating, and supplementing the existing body of scholarship concerning the medieval theological supposition that man was created as a replacement for fallen angels, Cur Homo? traces the implications of the question from the first century of the common era to the present day. First introduced by St. Augustine and developed by other church fathers, the concept truly flourished in the twelfth century, when it was decided that man is an "original" being, created for its own sake, for whom God created the world. Vojtech Novotny goes on to trace the idea as it gradually faded over the centuries and, more recently, has been revived in the fields of modern philosophical thought.

Jan Opolsky has primarily been viewed as an undistinguished hanger-on in the era of Czech literary decadence. Through close reading and detailed analysis of Opolsky's prose, however, Peter Butler argues that, far from his reputation as a literary lackey, Opolsky is a master of sustained narrative irony and an accomplished writer in his own right. Beyond Decadence evaluates archival sources and private correspondence between Opolsky and other literary figures, and includes a classified bibliography of Opolsky's work. Butler's introduction, meanwhile, offers an overview of the Czech decadent/symbolist literary and artistic movements, placing them within a larger European perspective. Redeeming a literary artist who has been nearly forgotten in the English-speaking world, Beyond Decadence will be of particular interest to students of Slavic and European literary history.

At the end of the sixteenth century, Queen Elizabeth I forced the Irish Franciscans into exile. Of the four continental provinces to which the Irish Franciscans fled, the Prague Franciscan College of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary was the largest in its time. This monograph documents this intense point of contact between two small European lands, Ireland and Bohemia. The Irish exiles changed the course of Bohemian history in significant ways, both positive - the Irish students and teachers of medicine who contributed to Bohemia's culture and sciences - and negative - the Irish officers who participated in the murder of Albrecht of Valdstejn and their successors who served in the Imperial forces. Dealing with a hitherto largely neglected theme, Parez and Kucharova attempt to place the Franciscan College within Bohemian history and to document the activities of its members. This wealth of historical material from the Czech archives, presented in English for the first time, will be of great aid for international researchers, particularly those interested in Bohemia or the Irish diaspora.

The legal system of the present-day Czech Republic cannot be understood without sufficient knowledge of its historical roots and evolution. Kuklik traces the development of Czech law from its origins as a form of Slavic law to its current position, reflecting the influence of both Roman law and the legal systems of neighboring countries. The twentieth century is of particular importance due to the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 and its split in 1993 into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. It was a century encompassing periods of democratic as well as totalitarian regimes, and major political, ideological, economic, and social changes, making Czech Law in Historical Context an ideal case study for researchers interested in the transition of democratic legal systems into totalitarian regimes, and vice versa.

The volume deals with the interaction between syntax, informational structure (or functional sentence perspective), and text in present-day English and Czech. Libuse Duskova focuses on the two facets of functional sentence perspective: syntactic structures as carriers of informational structure functions and the connection of functional sentence perspective within the level of text. Functional sentence perspective is investigated as a potential factor of syntactic divergence between English and Czech, and the role of functional sentence perspective is examined with respect to theme development, text build-up, and style. Other topics include the hierarchical relationship between syntax and functional sentence perspective and general and specific questions of word order, with major attention paid to the role of semantics.