Czech and Slovak History Subject of Ference Lecture
SALISBURY, MD---Dr. Gregory C. Ference, professor of history in Salisbury State University’s Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts, recently gave the plenary talk at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library Czech and Slovak History Culture Conference.
Ference’s presentation, “The Czech and Slovak 20th Century in Retrospect: 1918-1938,” covered Slovak life under the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to World War I and the Czecho-Slovak Liberation movement during the war that resulted in the creation of a Czechoslovakia. The two-day conference featured scholars from various institutions of higher learning from across the United States, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
The last session of the meeting featured the ambassadors of Slovakia and the Czech Republic talking about NATO’s impact on the Czech Republic and what steps Slovakia must take for entry. The moderator of this panel was the noted scholar and writer Michael Novak, the director of Social and Political Studies of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.
The conference took place in Cedar Rapids, IA, and was sponsored by the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library; Kirkwood Community College (IA); Marquette Bank and the University of Iowa Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies.
Besides presenting at this conference, Garland Press recently published seven of Ference’s articles: The Treaty of Paris of 1856, ending the Crimean War; Ottokar Czernin, a Bohemian nobleman and last foreign minister of Austria-Hungary; Josip Frank, a nineteenth century Croatian political leader; The Convention of Munchengratz, strengthening ties between Austria and Russia in the 1830s; The Budapest Convention of 1877, a secret agreement between Austria and Russia concerning the Ottoman Empire; Alois Jirasek, the Czech writer, and The Murzsteg Agreement, an accord between Austria and Russia for maintaining peace in the Balkans in the early 20th century.
These items appeared in the Encyclopedia of Modern East Europe 1815-1989, edited by Richard Frucht of Northwest Missouri State University.