his study traces the changing portrayals of Maria Theresa in the writings of the most important Czech historians (F. M. Pelcl, W. W. Tomek, J. Kalousek, B. Rieger, J. Svátek, J. Pekař and J. Prokeš) up until the end of the First Republic. It also considers the works of popular chroniclers, the French historian E. Denis, and school textbooks. The author shows that from the end of the 18th century to the 1930s Czech historiography presented an image of Maria Theresa as an exceptionally capable ruler whose wide-ranging reforms brought considerable progress in many different spheres of life both in Bohemia and the monarchy as a whole. From the outset, however, there was also criticism of various aspects of her policies that were perceived as inimical to the Czech nation. First there was Germanization, especially in the education system; then, from the 1860s, the centralizing tendency of administrative reforms that threatened the (albeit limited) autonomy of the Czech state and opened the door to dualism. This criticism was especially abrasive in the works of J. Kalousek, B. Rieger and J. Svátek. Some even pointed to an actively hostile attitude on the part of the empress towards the Czech Lands. As the proliferation of factual evidence consolidated the positive image of the great monarch, critical assessments became more objective, though they never disappeared altogether. It is worth noting that, with few exceptions, the positive importance of absolutist enlightenment reforms for the emergence of the modern Czech nation-state was often overlooked., Eduard Maur., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The study of migration in the Czech lands in the early modern age should, in the author’s view, focus particularly on several basic questions. One of these is the cause of migration. Czech research has thus far tended to overlook the discussion discusion, where a Malthusian opinion on the fundamental significance of “overpopulation” is countered by opposing views that see the main cause of migration as being the appeal of the target regions. Other important question areas with regard to this migration are the supplementation of urban populations and not just the propertied classes that research tends to limit itself to. The regionalisation process in the Czech lands, viewed from the perspective of the intensity and direction of migration flows, geographic mobility in terms of social and professional categories, especially migration connected with the performance of various professions, questions about the links between migration and communication networks, the directions of migration flows and their forms (organised or unmethodical, forced or voluntary, seasonal or fluctuating), and the migration of marginal segments of the population. At the same time it is necessary to study the factors restricting migration, such as seigniorial agreement and the scope of the strengthening of serfdom, economic ties (inheritance rights), administrative boundaries (municipality, parish, estate, denomination, the geographical shape of the land), and the consequences of migration, for example, for life in the regions that the temporary migrants departed from, or for nationality developments in the country (shifts in language boundaries, Germanification of towns). This text also presents a systematic overview of the sources available in the Czech archives for the study of migration in the Czech lands in the early modern age.