Abstract
The review deals mainly with the theoretical and methodological ambition of this latest synthesis of the history of the Czech Land in the "long" 19th century. Despite the title, the book's staple is not the concept of modernization.
Rather, the author chooses the metaphor of a game to describe social interactions in a changing society, although even its use is not consistent. The author does not arrive at a fundamental interpretive reassessment; the traditional social/educational elites are seen as the political and social determinants, and the emancipatory movements of the time are interpreted as the result of their actions.