This original collection of essays offers an account of key moments and themes in the history of the Czech Lands from the ninth century to the fall of socialism in 1989. The essays, commissioned specially for this volume, are almost all written by prominent scholars teaching and researching in the present-day Czech Republic, and there is no comparable book in English on the subject. Topics range from the great Bohemian courts of the medieval and early modern periods, to the nationalist revival, and the dramatic ethnic upheavals of modern times.