Explores aspects of the Czech "National Revival," the process of the Czechs forming a "modern nation" through a Fichtean moral revival, a period the author describes as lasting from 1774 to 1848, through the analysis of four studies, published between 1948 & 1999 & two other works published in 1997 & 2001, including the following: (1) Felix Vodicka, Pocatky krasne prozy novoceske (The Beginnings of Modern Czech Literary Prose 1948); (2) Julius Dolansky's Stopami buditelu (In the Footsteps of the Awakeners 1963); (3) Vladimir Macura's Znameni zrodu (Birth Sign 1983); (4) Miroslav Hroch's Na prahu narodni existence (On the Threshold of National Existence 1999). The cultural value of the Czech language is emphasized as well as the threat that big business poses for the Czech language & literature. The four historians of the revival studied here are reacting in varying degrees to T. G. Masaryk's Ceska otazka (The Czech Question 1989 1895). All of the books reveal that issues of the National Revival & Masaryk are still current & reflect a sense of crisis & a mistrust in the Czech capability to achieve democracy as well the Western concept of democracy tied to the market. L. A. Hoffman