Just Don’t Make Noise, Gentlemen! Czech Society in the 1850s

This work’s title includes a quote attributed to František Palacký, the most significant Czech historiographer of the 19th century, by the radical democrat Josef Václav Frič during the funeral of Karel Havlíček on 1st August 1856. It thus involves three of the most significant individuals of the time who also became symbols of the period.

The statement is about the developments in the Czech Lands in the 1850s. The 1850s are commonly, albeit inaccurately, referred to as Bach's absolutism and are traditionally interpreted with an emphasis on repression or, on the other hand, on economic development (the two-faced state). This book attempts a more comprehensive and differentiated view.

This interpretation is separated into three larger units (“Revolutionary Ideals”, “The Experienced Reality” and “The Post-Revolutionary Strategy”), which are then divided into individual chapters. The book also includes an analysis of the fundamental literature.

The period covered in this book is not even a dozen years. It is considered a bridge between the revolutionary events of 1848 and 1849 and the time after the constitutional renewal in 1861 when a new order began to form and asset itself.

People did not forget the events of the revolutions before the 1850s, specifically that their voice can be heard, and they can have hope, but only when they can assert themselves through expanding their knowledge and their abilities if they do not give up and if they actively seek out and use all their opportunities.