Prague entered the First World War as the third city of the Habsburg empire, but emerged in 1918 as the capital of a brand new nation-state, Czechoslovakia. Claire Morelon explores what this transition looked, sounded and felt like at street level. Through deep archival research, she has carefully reconstructed the sensorial texture of the city, from the posters plastered on walls, to the shop windows' displays, the badges worn by passers-by, and the crowds gathering for protest or celebration. The result is both an atmospheric account of life amid war and regime change, and a fresh interpretation of imperial collapse from below, in which the experience of life on the Habsburg home-front is essential to understanding the post-Versailles world order that followed. Prague is the perfect case study for examining the transition from empire to nation-statehood, hinging on revolutionary dreams of fairer distribution and new forms of political participation.

Long-listed, 2025 First Book Prize, The Royal Historical Society

Co-winner, 2025 Lizabeth Cohen Prize for the Best Book on Cities and Political Power, Urban History Association

Winner, 2025 Lynn Hollen Lees Book Prize, Urban History Association

Co-winner, 2025 Book Award, Czechoslovak Studies Association

Honorable Mention, 2026 Stephen White Prize, British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies

‘A brilliantly fresh reading of Prague’s streets and the lives of its diverse inhabitants during and after the First World War. Morelon weaves a vibrant narrative, drawing on people’s sensory experiences to expose the revolutionized character of daily life. Reaching beyond nationalist tropes, she analyzes the changing dynamics of popular patriotism, neighborhood loyalties, expectations of empire, and of the daily struggle to survive.’

Pieter M. Judson - author of The Habsburg Empire: A New History

‘With a deft pen, a humane gaze, and a myriad of sources ranging from letters, official reports, newspapers, memoirs, novels, and photographs, Morelon has succeeded in doing what no one has so far: she has made us feel what it was like for women, children, and men to walk, sit, listen, stand, wait, oversee, protest, complain, starve, threaten, and celebrate on the streets of Prague from the times of empire to the shaky first days of republic. After reading her tale of East Central European urban war and postwar, the traumas of Prague’s early twentieth century become more understandable, more pitiable, and, yes, even more foreboding.’

Dominique Kirchner Reill - author of The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire

‘Morelon re-narrates the birth of a new Czechoslovak Republic from the perspective of Prague’s streets, where war and revolution were sensory experiences. Streetscapes of War and Revolution makes an original and brilliant contribution to the history of East Central Europe, war and revolution, and urban life in the twentieth century.’

Țară Zahra - author of Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics between the World Wars

'wonderfully atmospheric.'

Anna Parker Source: Times Literary Supplement