Abstract
The first part (Small Towns) is, in fact, largely an ethnographic study of the life and functioning of a South Bohemian small town (Kardašova Řečice at the northern edge of the Třeboň Basin, population 2, 000) since the beginning of the twenties century, as the author knew of it from his grandparents' stories. It describes traditional farming and crafts, the way of realting to plants and animals, changes in the fauna and flora of the Třeboň region in the past century, local folklore, the annual cycle of celebrations and feasts, folk medicine, traditional cooking, and the lives of women and children in the Habsburg Monarchy and the way they changed, The author also deals with local developments after the break-up of the monarchy, during both world wars and interwar Czechoslovakia, and after the Communist coup d'etat.
Based on his own memories he brings to life the 1960s and 1970s, both in this town and in nearby Jindřichův Hradec, events of 1968 as they took place on the local level, the so-called "normalisation" of 1970s, and elementary and secondary education of that time. He pays attention to contemporary expectations of science, for instance pertaining to space research or Lysenkoist biology, but also to the structure of society and power during the Communist regime, and links this to recollections of medical care, eating habits, transport and travel, environmental protection, and leisure activities of the time.