{"product":{"product_id":"1403969299","title":"History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival","price":"20.99","image_url":"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41g+tAQK+FL._SL500_.jpg","url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1403969299"},"comments":[{"body":"There is a [Book](https://www.amazon.ca/History-Slovakia-Struggle-Survival/dp/1403969299) about the history of Slovakia","subreddit_name":"polandball","author":"Please-let-me"},{"body":"It's quite a hard question, because even in Slovak language the best history book doesn't exist. It all depends which point of view is your favourite, because even if all those books contain correct facts, they usually put emphasis on different things.\r\n\r\nFor example, [A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival](https://www.amazon.com/History-Slovakia-Struggle-Survival/dp/1403969299) is a good book, but the title tells you what's important for author.\r\nA struggle for survival or road to independence, well it is a totally legitimate viewpoint of history.\r\n\r\n\u0026gt;While paying tribute to Slovakia's resilience and struggle for survival, it describes contributions to European civilization in the Middle Ages; the development of Slovak consciousness in response to Magyarization; its struggle for autonomy in Czechoslovakia after the Treaty of Versailles; its resistance, as the first Slovak Republic, to a Nazi-controlled Europe; its reaction to Communism; and the path that led to the creation of the second Slovak Republic.\r\n\r\nThere is another book that is also very good, [A concise history of Slovakia](https://www.amazon.com/concise-history-Slovakia-historica-Slovaca/dp/8088880424). This book have intentionally a totally different viewpoint of history.\r\n\r\n\u0026gt; Emphasis is placed on long-term continuity or discontinuity (political systems, elites, historical consciousness and so on), on integration into wider units and exchanges of cultural influences between the individual ethnic groups. The conception of the book opposes the teleological view of Slovak history as the \"road to the nation’s own state\".\r\n\r\n\r\n","subreddit_name":"Slovakia","author":"flaryon"},{"body":"As I haven't been in Slovakia in more than 6 months, I can't think of any off the top of my head, but it shouldn't come as a surprise. Slovakia was always considered to be within Hungary's lands (Hungarian kings were crowned [St Stephen's crown] in Bratislava for a time) and Bohemia was more autonomous/in the Habsburgs hands (hence Prague having a large German speaking population).\r\n\r\nAt least that was how I understood it. For a closer look, I think it is crucial to examine Slovak history since it's written properties and cultural adaptations are newer than that of the Czechs (it was Czech Lutheran missionaries who brought literacy to the masses in the 19th Century)\r\n\r\nI can reccomed [\"A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival\"](http://www.amazon.com/History-Slovakia-The-Struggle-Survival/dp/1403969299). It must, however, be read with some historigraphical scepticism as a.) it's written by a Slovak expat b.) English books about Slovakia are scarce c.) a book isn't quite enough, you need the tangible evidence of actually being there to see the potency of some of the author's claims.\r\n\r\nI love Slovaks, I love Slovakia, but they (and this is largely based off of my ex and her friends) have an aversion to Austrians and German speakers in general.\r\n\r\nOf course I might be wrong in all of this, so please, instead of downvoting me, contribute to the discussion!\r\n\r\nedit: I have no idea how accurate this is, but I found it[Hungarian Loanwords in the Slovak Language III (S-Ž) Supplement](http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/handle/10077/3696)-- and \r\n[The linked pdf]\r\n(http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/3696/1/Rocchi%20Hungarian%283%29.pdf)","subreddit_name":"europe","author":"FerrisWinkelbaum"}]}