Metrics
68 Record Views
Journal article
What the Western Portion of Northwest Florida Knew about the Birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918: A Case Study of Information Accessibility in Small- town and Rural America
Kosmas : journal of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU)], Vol.1(1), pp.41-56
10/12/2013
Abstract
Excerpt- The creation of Czechoslovakia, as a result of the First World War, was the culmination of national awakening movements among Czechs and Slovaks that were typical in the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth century in the Balkans and East-Central Europe. Few Americans, in the years from 1914 to 1918, knew much about the historical developments of the many ethnic groups between the Baltic and the Black Sea, but most were aware of some of the events related to the establishment of Czechoslovakia, along with other border changes that took place in Europe in the wake of the First World War. Like many small towns of America that had limited concentrations of Czechs, Slovaks, or other immigrants from the Baltics, East-Central Europe, and the Balkans, the inhabitants of the western portion of Northwest Florida knew only some of the sensational aspects of the state’s creation. Their main source of news was the Pensacola Journal, published in Pensacola, the county seat of Escambia County, Northwest Florida’s largest city and the host of a naval base. The Milton Gazette, from the small city of Milton, which lies less than 25 miles to the east of Pensacola and is the county seat of Santa Rosa County, also was a source of news for some.1 Nevertheless, of all the newspapers in the region, the Pensacola Journal was by far the most important. Not only did it have a following in Escambia County but in other parts of Northwest Florida, including Okaloosa County, with its county seat of Crestview and its coastal community of Fort Walton Beach. The Pensacola Journal even had a “Fort Walton Page” that catered specifically to readers in that town. There were other newspapers in the area, but either no copies of them exist, or they contain little or no information about the Czechs and Slovaks.
Details
- Title
- What the Western Portion of Northwest Florida Knew about the Birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918
- Publication Details
- Kosmas : journal of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU)], Vol.1(1), pp.41-56
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences
- Identifiers
- 99380522596906600
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities; History and Philosophy
- Language
- English