Karel Nováček; Miroslav Melčák; Ondřej Beránek; Lenka Starková

The book examines the destruction of the architectural heritage in Mosul perpetrated by Islamic State between 2014 and 201. It identifies which structures were attacked, the ideological rationale behind the destruction, and the significance of the lost monuments in the context of Mosul’s urban development and the architectural history of the Middle East. This methodologically innovative work fills an important gap in the study of both current radical movements and the medieval Islamic architecture of Northern Iraq.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: Heidelberg Springer
ISBN: 978-3-030-62635-8

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Miroslav Šedivý

The aim of this monograph was to analyze the Italian response to international insecurity in the years 1830-1848

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: Wien - Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
ISBN: 978-3-7001-8705-9

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František Gabriel; Lucie Kursová; Petr Kočár; Romana Kočárová; Libor Petr

The study is based on an analysis of a town castle and its relationship to the dominion. It attempts to model the landscape before settlement and the subsequent development of the settlement in the various stages of settlement. From a methodological point of view, it deals with the problem of the often neglected relationship between archaeological research and building historical research. Analyzes of both approaches suggest different models of individual parts of the castle building, which offer several interpretive possibilities of its communication scheme. The development model is presented in its entirety and in the summary.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
ISBN: 978-80-261-1020-0

Vladimír Havlík

The book offers a new perspective on emergence and its role within a hierarchical emergent ontology. Emergence is understood here as a universal principle, as universal as the principle of evolution. Traditional dichotomies of emergence are here overcome and unified, allowing for the application of a single, universal principle of emergence across different disciplines. As examples of its practical applicability in both explanation and prediction, this new approach is applied to three different scientific fields: cellular automata, quantum Hall phenomena, and neural networks of the mind. It is proven that the resulting metaphysics of hierarchical emergent ontology plays a fundamental role in unifying science, a hitherto impossible task under classical reductionism.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: Praha Filosofia
ISBN: 978-80-7007-703-0

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Miloš Ševčík

The monograph examines Louis Cazamian’s writings on the nature of humour. It shows how they tie into Bergson’s theory of the comic as a contrast between life and automatism and into Bergson’s remarks on humour as a special type of comic linguistic transposition. However, it emphasizes that Cazamian’s thinking leads to an original theory. Cazamian assumes that humour has a status that is both artistic and comic. While the artistic status of humour stems from the fact that humour emphasizes the multifaceted character of reality, its comic status arises from ridiculing the inability to respect this character of reality.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: Praha Karolinum
ISBN: 978-80-246-4979-5

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Ludwika Jończyk; Aneta Gołębiowska - Tobiasz

The monograph analyses the origin of artefacts (the elements of attire and equipment of an armed merchant, from the Volga Upland in Bulgaria), unusual for north-eastern Poland and found during the excavations in Szurpiły in the Suwałki Region. It is an interesting journey along the trade routes of the early Middle Ages, which links culturally different and geographically distant regions of Europe.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: Warszawa Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
ISBN: 978-83-235-4908-6

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Miroslav Breitfelder

Práce se zabývá vztahem Štábu vůdcova zástupce resp. jeho nástupkyně, tedy Stranické kanceláře, k sudetským Němcům a jejich politickým i nepolitickým organizacím zejména od roku 1933. To logicky zahrnuje i případné zásahy služebny do vztahů československo – německých, ovlivnění událostí kolem Mnichova a následného vytváření sudetoněmecké župy, stejně jako boj o výlučné tohoto úřadu postavení právě na daném území.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
ISBN: 978-80-261-1005-7

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Vladimír Naxera; Petr Krčál

This book contributes to the discussion about the instrumental use of history. It analyses two examples of public festivities related to the events and legacy of the final stage of World War II. The first of these commemoration events is the Liberation Festival in Pilsen, a public event celebrating the liberation of Pilsen in 1945. The second event is the celebration of the Slovak National Uprising anniversary, held annually in Banská Bystrica. The analysis focuses on the manner in which public commemorations of historical events are used and instrumentalised by contemporary political elites. Prior to the political and social relevance of the analysed events, the narratives they produce are transcending into the cultural and commercial spheres.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: Berlin Peter Lang
ISBN: 978-3-631-84536-3

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Ladislav Čapek; Lenka Sedláčková; Rudolf Procházka; Zdeňka Měchurová; Karel Slavíček; Kateřina Těsnohlídková; Tereza Zemancová; David Zimola; Jiří Orna

The catalogue of the exhibition The Triple Life of Ceramics seeks to guide the reader through the life cycle of medieval ceramics, from their production, use, and extinction to the phase of their rebirth in archaeological research and subsequent professional processing and evaluation. The aim is to introduce the general public to one of the most common archaeological sources in all its beauty through the eyes of archaeologists, museologists, conservators, and curators, based on the example of common utility ceramics from the High and Late Middle Ages, i.e., from the 13th to 15th century.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
ISBN: 978-80-261-1009-5

Věra Tydlitátová

The monography deals with the animal world in the Tanakh and in its interpretations from antiquity to the present. The basic biblical text that defines the relationship between man and animals is the mandate from God to rule over his creation (Gn 1, 28). In Europe’s long history, this mission has been interpreted as the right to exploit and benefit from nature. Many Christian theologians as well as enlightened intellectuals often widened the insurmountable gap between man and other creatures and have justified the right to cause suffering to animals. Various streams of contemporary Judaism are rethinking biblical bioethics and bringing new interpretations of the Tanakh and Talmud in response to the environmental crisis. Contemporary thinkers are looking for new ways to heal the world: Tikkun Olam. There are (sometimes radical) demands for civilized human behavior towards animals. The search for harmony between the traditional ritual commands of the Torah and bioethics in the 21st century is a great challenge and inspiration for contemporary Judaism.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
ISBN: 978-80-261-1060-6

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Ondřej Chvojka; Martin Kuna; Petr Menšík; Roman Křivánek; Andrea Němcová; Tereza Šálková; Jiří Beneš; Kristýna Budilová; Alexandra Kloužková; Peter Koník; Jaromír Kovárník; Antonín Majer; Milan Metlička; Jan Novák; Jaroslav Pavelka; Vladimír Prokop; Barbora Strouhalová; Petr Šída; Joachim Zuber

During a surface artefact survey at the Březnice u Bechyně ca- dastre, near Tábor, at the beginning of 2005, Jiří Beneš, Jiří Boček and Jaromír Ernekr from Bechyně discovered a hitherto unknown archaeological site. At that moment, no one had any idea how significant these finds had just been. However, during the sub- sequent field surveys and the test pitting in the summer of the same year, it became clear that it was not a typical agricultural settlement with a few standard settlement features typical for southern Bohemia. The sunken feature captured by the first exca- vation clearly belonged to the category of the specific ‘trenches’ 1, already known from other southern and western Bohemian and southern German sites of the Late and Final Bronze Ages. Howev- er, as it subsequently turned out, nowhere else were these trench- es captured in such an abundant number as at the Březnice site. During further fieldwork, which took place there between 2005 and 2009 and in 2019, the Late Bronze Age settlement in Březnice provided not only the most extensive set of finds from the later phase of the Late Bronze Age in southern Bohemia but also brought various other types of data sets associated with im- portant research questions. The need to process the obtained data and an effort to address at least some of the related issues led us to set up a grant project2, which was implemented from 2018 to 2021 and which resulted, inter alia, in publishing this book.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: České Budějovice - Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích
ISBN: 978-80-261-1083-5

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Gamze Tanil

Reflecting the concerns over environmental sustainability, there has been an increasing focus on the protection of our water resources and on the proper management of our waste. Our economic growth can only be sustainable when it does not represent a threat to human health and to fauna, flora, and eco-system in the long-term. A long-term resilience, new business and economic opportunities, and environmental sustainability can be achieved through circular economy model that offers us a world of opportunity to rethink and redesign our economic activities and consumption patterns. With an aim to give the reader a new perspective on this issue, this book covers European Union’s water and waste management legislation and the Czech Republic’s transposition of this legislation, and includes a comparative analysis of the performances of the EU Member States on the implementation of new water and waste management policy strategies.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: Lanham Lexington Books
ISBN: 978-1-79363-387-3

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Jan Váně; František Kalvas

In this monograph, we build on our studies that combine two formats of approach to the research. Applied research predominates over basic research. Their common subject of interest is the issue of homelessness, which is associated with a specific place, namely the city of Pilsen. The first chapter, ‘Introduction’, presents the reader the book structure and the basic research terminology in the area of homelessness. The Chapter Two, ‘The Phenomenon of Homelessness’, reflects the research that we carried out in 2013–2014. This study is the result of our first stronger and more extensive research input into the homeless environment. We realised the second research topic presented here in the Third Chapter, ‘Latent Homelessness’, in 2014–2015. This appears in the second chapter. This is a follow-up study on ‘Manifest Homelessness’. The Fourth Chapter, ‘Mapping Needs, Satisfaction and Expectations, and Prediction of Developments in the Area of Social Services in Pilsen’, brings forth research from 2016. In carrying out the research, we sought to provide data on the basis of which it would be possible for the city to set long-term plans for working with socially needy groups. The aim, therefore, was to provide a representative sample of the population of the City of Pilsen in order to ensure the efficient use of funds in providing assistance to persons seeking social inclusion or preventing possible social exclusion. Attention was therefore paid not only to the homeless (obvious/latent), but also to other groups that are at risk of homelessess. The individual chapters show how the reception of the homeless theme gradually settled in the agenda of the City of Pilsen and gradually became more topical. This contributed to the need not only for follow-up studies but also for extended-themed studies. The third chapter is an example of this. The Fifth Chapter, ‘When respondents are asked about what reasons led to their homelessness, what do they mean when they choose the category ‘other’ as their response?’, brings forth research conclusions from 2018, which were, contrary to previous procedures, implemented strictly on the basis of qualitative methods. The main goal was to verify some of the uncertainties in the research results of ‘Latent Homelessness’. The final chapter of this publication (Chapter Seven), ‘Does Higher Deprivation Increase Religiosity? Case Study of Homeless people in Pilsen’, is related to the applied research that is included in this book. While collecting data in an environment of apparent homelessness, i.e. in the environment of a group of people who mostly do not ask for anything because of unavailability, we took the opportunity to investigate whether the deprivation theory applies to the religiosity of the actors and what role religiosity plays in the lives of homeless people.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
ISBN: 978-80-261-0849-8

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Vladimír Naxera

The aim of the presented publication is to analyze the patterns of corruption being used as a topic within the communication strategies of (selected) Czech political actors in the last 30 years (i.e. 1990–2019). The main question related to the purpose of this book is the following: How (from qualitative and quantitative points of view) has the use of corruption changed in the communication of Czech politicians across the period under review? The more general meaning of the whole text and research is an effort to understand the transformation of anti-corruption rhetoric and, thus, the (often not very effective) efforts to fight corruption, or the failure to translate anti-corruption rhetoric into anti-corruption practice. In essence, this can help us better reflect on some processes and the development of post-revolutionary Czech politics.

Year of publication: 2021
Publisher: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
ISBN: 978-80-261-1004-0

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Jaroslav Valkoun

The monograph is focused on the problems Great Britain, the Dominions and the constitutional transformation of the British Empire, 1907–1931 with special regard to the Statute of Westminster.

Rok publikace: 2021
Publisher: New York Routledge
ISBN: 978-0-367-65447-4

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