Masaryk's "The New Europe"

The text of The New Europe (1918) is analyzed in this article both on its own terms, that is, as a war-time work of T. G. Masaryk formulated with a specific propagandistic aim within the framework of a campaign of resistance, but also with regard to a longer-term discussion of Czech political thinking on the subjects of national identity and statehood. In its assessment of both this narrower framework and the wider one, the article affirms Masaryk's exceptional ability to argumentatively transfer theoretical points of departure to the needs of political propaganda. It was this very ability that enabled Masaryk to transform his status and role from that of an influential commentator with little political influence in the pre-war years into an indubitable and practically unquestioned authority not only in the field of theoretical discussion, but also in Czech politics as such. It cannot be said that Masaryk's interpretation of the discussion going on in Czech circles regarding the conception of nation and statehood was the only possible or correct one. But it proved to be acceptable during that period of time from the point of view of both foreign allies and domestic society, thus confirming itself alone as the basis of the concept of victory and victors, which it was possible to elaborate into the more general ideological framework of future Czecho-slovak state doctrine.