Climax or Beginning? Modernity, Central Europe and the Great War












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            * Climax or Beginning? Modernity, Central Europe and the Great War
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            From a young age I have had an avid interest in the big events of the past hundred years. 

            that don’t need stating, it’s quite obvious that the Great War was one of those events. Th
            conference “Climax or Beginning? Modernity, Central Europe and the Great War” held in Prag
            of Arts, Charles University on the 24th and 25th of October was thus truly fascinating, an

            opportunity to attend.
            What strikes me as unique about this particular conference is the manner in which it analy
            the aspects of the war that are most commonly overlooked. Everyone wants to hear about the

            attrition and the dead man’s land; no one thinks to examine the more human side of war, as
            two-day conference did.

            I personally attended on the first day of the conference as the issues of gender and relig
            to war that were on programme then were two that particularly fascinated me from my own pe
            all the discussions that day were interesting, I found that the various speakers of the ea

            session regarding the volatile issue of sexism during World War 1 were fascinating. The fi
            from Prague were particularly excellent in their analysis of what was considered, in the t
            War, the “weaker sex”. While the men were out fighting and dying in the trenches, women we

            munitions factories and staying at home with families, no matter what they themselves may 
            While I was aware of this from my own education, what I had never considered before was ho
            felt. It is truly amazing to consider the strides we have made from that time to our own, 

            most skilled military figures of the 21st century have been women.
            I also found that the talks on religion during the later morning lecture block were quite 
            It was amazing to consider that before World War 1, over 90% of the population of the terr

            as Czech Republic identified themselves as Roman Catholic. The decline of the Roman Cathol
            favour of the Czechoslovakian national Christian churches, the Evangelical Church of Czech
            Czechoslovak Hussite Church, after the foundation of Czechoslovakia was something which ab

            my attention and I found it all remarkable.
            I dare not focus on these specific talks to undermine the other speakers of the day; all w
            the experience was truly harrowing. The discussions on science, the arts, migration and th

            political map of Central Europe are by no means belittled as they were all equally as intr
            presence of local history on the day was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect o
            human stories of war, on a microscopic scale rather than the macroscopic, inhuman facts an

            so often bombarded with as we read through our history books. The entire day was truly an 
            on a finishing note I would like to congratulate all who were involved in the weekend for 
            an insightful, informative conference.