Josef Kalousek: A Half-Forgotten First Professor of Bohemian History at Prague University
Josef Kalousek: A Half-Forgotten First Professor of Bohemian History at Prague University

Summary/Abstract: Josef Kalousek (1838–1915) was appointed as the first teacher of Bohemian history at the University of Prague, at first associate and then full professor (1882 and 1885). His academic career differed significantly from the usual standards. During his university studies and afterwards, he was forced to make a living as a journalist. This brought him close to Old Czech politicians František Palacký and his son-in-law František Ladislav Rieger. At their instigation, he began to study the history of the State Law of Bohemia. This subject, together with the theses on the important role of the peasant class in Czech history, became the basis of his postdoctoral university teaching qualification (1871). Kalousek always embraced the idea that scientific objectivity can be compatible, with minor corrections, with Palacký’s and Rieger’s concept of Czech national unity. Like Palacký, he firmly believed that the main direction in which history is going is ultimately decided by the human ability to control one’s actions by high motivations. At the University of Prague, however, he did not become a leading personality, even though he initiated research on economic and social history and was a historian considering more general theoretical and methodological issues. He can be probably best described as a person moving ‘between the streams’ of what was then the Czech historiography.

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