We were and we will be

The daily life of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Bohemia during the First World War seems to have sunk into a fog, hidden by the natural passage of time, but also by the much darker period of Nazi terror a quarter of a century later. It is as if the World War (only later referred to as the “First”) is now only commemorated by the moss-covered memorials to the fallen on our village greens.
Yet it is an exceedingly interesting and colourful period – although grey and black predominate on the colour scale, only covered at the very end of the war by the colours of the new republic's flag. The fact that these new colours were originally only two is just one of many little-known facts you will read about in this book.
However, the life of the common person is only exceptionally linked to state symbols or representatives, and so – after the necessary historical introduction dealing with the causes of the war, its course and key personalities, and the Czech anti-Austrian resistance – you can begin to read the chapters on what the Czechs read during the war, how they amused themselves in their (still rare) moments of rest, what they travelled by, what they ate and how they dressed, what life was like in the city and in the countryside, what children and women experienced during the war days, how Czech culture and the Czech school system developed despite the difficult times, or how the position of the church and family and sexual relations changed. Special attention is paid to those who – mostly against their will – put on the Austrian uniform, as well as to the Czech war economy and the national minorities in our territory.
We therefore believe that the sixth volume of the Český ČAS Edition will, in a readable form, “scrape the moss from forgotten memorials” and illuminate for younger readers in particular the difficult years in which our independence was born.