May 10th, 2010
The Czechs by Hugh Agnew
The Czechs
by Hugh Agnew
Being half Czech, I was hoping that this book would give me an interesting history of the Czech people. Unfortunately the book is far from interesting and although it does cover the history it does it in a way that can only be described as boring at best. It is apparent (at least it seems that way) that the author did not do much research into the early history of Bohemia or at least didn’t care to spend much time writing about it.
The first half of the book bounces from ruler to ruler without making it clear what is going on and how it is effecting the Czech people. Rulers capture or marry to get this territory or that but the author just moves on without making it clear exactly what is going on. Bohemia was part of the Holy Roman Empire but the author fails to describe what is going on there or what is going on in Europe in general. For example, the events leading up to Second Defenestration of Prague that started the Thirty Years War is so poorly described that the reader is left wondering why exactly the three gentlemen were tossed out the window.
The reason for this seems to be that the author’s main interest is the 20th century especially the most recent period starting with the 1990′s. The events starting with World War I are described in detail while the period prior to that is mostly skimmed through. This is not necessarily a bad thing but the book does make the claim to be a history of the Czechs and the land of the Bohemian Crown. If the author had a more interesting writing style I would have given the book 4 stars but I found it mostly a struggle to get through. Writing a history that covers 1,000 years does require the ability to make your subject interesting. Unfortunately the author mostly lacks that ability.
