Základy moderní Evropy. Lekce z kulturní historie

jiří hanuš

Title in English: The Foundations of Modern Europe. Lessons in cultural history

This next volume of the Munice edition, the eighth in the series, has a wide thematic range. It reflects on man embedded in the structures of time and space, confronted by changing values, social institutions, religion, nature and understanding the future. By emphasizing the cultural and historical contexts, it offers a unified framework for today's fragmented Western society.

Cultural history is both a multidisciplinary and an interdisciplinary field that offers a remedy to the current fragmentation of historical research. It seeks to grasp what is difficult to define yet essential in the past: it studies transformations of culture in the broadest sense, reflects on social values, and interprets symbols. Its closest neighbouring disciplines include anthropology, literary history, and art history, while more distant neighbours range from sociology and ethnology to bibliography, geography, archaeology, and even ecology and biology. Publications that could be described as cultural‑historical can be found as early as the eighteenth century; however, the field did not fully establish itself until the last quarter of the twentieth century. Today, it represents an exceptionally stimulating arena for any historian with a philosopher’s soul.

Jiří Hanuš (born 1963) is a historian and editor whose research focuses on nineteenth‑century history, the history of historiography, and the history of Christianity. He serves as Vice‑Rector of Masaryk University for human resources policy, academic affairs, and culture, teaches at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University, and is a member of staff at its Department of History. In addition, he is affiliated with the Center for the Study of Democracy and Culture (CDK), where he, among other activities, serves as editor of the journal Kontexty.

Munice [“ammunition”] is a new popular science series of Masaryk University Press. It brings current topics from natural, social, and human sciences in an accessible form and fresh graphic design. Munice is our contribution to your lifelong learning. Great for high-school graduates planning to go to university and for professionals looking beyond the horizons of their specialisation. Munice is knowledge packed so carefully and densely that you will easily finish each volume in one go on a train from Brno to Prague. Or on a plane to Barcelona. Munice gives space to erudite and charismatic personalities who will engage you with the most current topics. Munice is a window into the knowledge produced at our university.