Historian Josef Polišenský, his Studies at the Archival School and the Consequences

Abstract

In 1937, while still a student of history at Charles University, historian Josef Polišenský enrolled in a course at the State Archive School. He put his experience from this school to good use in his historical work.

In 1958 he published Otázky studia obecných dějin, where he systematically compiled sources on general history in the Czechoslovak archives. For this work, he was severely criticised by František Graus, who described Polišenský's approach as a deterrent example of "archival historiography".

The study deals with this dispute, which nevertheless did not go beyond the milieu of the Faculty of Arts.

Keywords

• Josef Polišenský
• State Archival School
• world history
• archival sources
• František Graus
• methodological dispute