Přehled o publikaci

The paper examines the American experience of František Matouš Klácel (1808–1882), a Czech philosopher, theologian, and prominent figure of the Czech National Revival, as an early Central European engagement with American political and cultural identity. Klácel emigrated to the United States in 1857, motivated by Enlightenment ideals and an idealized vision of America as a land of liberty, democracy, and social progress. His decade-long stay, particularly within Czech immigrant communities in Iowa, confronted him with a society shaped by slavery, materialism, and a pragmatic understanding of democracy that often conflicted with his philosophical expectations. Drawing on Klácel’s letters, essays, and published reflections, the study traces his intellectual shift from idealistic admiration to critical reassessment. Rather than rejecting America outright, Klácel came to view it as a flawed yet instructive political experiment that exposed the limits of national mythologies and Enlightenment universalism. The paper argues that Klácel’s American writings anticipate later Central and Eastern European critiques of American exceptionalism and represent a valuable, yet largely overlooked, contribution to nineteenth-century transatlantic intellectual history.