Masaryk and Pekař: Their Conflict over the Meaning of Czech History and its Metamorphoses

Abstract

As an historian, the factual background of the conflict between T. G. Masaryk and Josef Pekař (1870–1937) is of deeper interest to me than the divergent ideas it mirrors or the dialogue between these two men. Much that was written about their exchange of views years ago is practically unknown today. Things have reached a point where disciples of Jan Patočka describe Pekař’s views as religious and Masaryk’s, by contrast, as ‘national’. This shows that even students of a learned philosophy professor can only rely upon instinct, and on the traditional tendency of Catholic thinkers to rally round Pekař and his works, when they discuss the past.