The subject of this dissertation is the ways in which the Czech radical nationalist parties (the National Socialists and the various Progressive parties) changed Czech political culture during the era of universal manhood suffrage in the Habsburg Monarchy (1907-1914). These parties, especially the National Socialists, transformed the prevailing political style in Bohemia to such a significant degree that by 1914 their mass based and highly confrontational politics had drawn a number of the larger Czech parties into a tactical alliance with the radicals. Further, the success of this new style of politics made possible the rapid rise of the National Socialists from the status of a fringe party in the elections of 1901 to the largest urban political party in Bohemia in terms of votes received in 1911.

The rise of the National Socialists and their radical allies also resulted from the radicals' promotion of their particular version of "nation" in the Czech national discourse. The radical national discourse combined a social program that had broad appeal with urban workers, small shop keepers, and low level officials, with an adamant position on national issues such as language, education, and the Bohemian state right that appealed to those in Czech society, whether worker or bourgeois, who were dissatisfied with the efforts of the more established Young Czech and Social Democratic parties in the Czech nation's struggle with the Habsburg state and the Bohemian Germans. The willingness, even eagerness of the Czech radicals to attack their opponents, whether Czech, German or Habsburg, in the strongest terms and in every available forum for political activity ultimately led to the radicalization of urban Bohemia along lines dictated much more by the National Socialists than by the supposedly more powerful Young Czech and Social Democratic parties.

This study relies on manuscript collections in Prague and Vienna, an extensive review of the radical press, and of the parliamentary speeches and other public expressions of the radical program offered by Czech politicians. Because this essay also examines the radicals' political style, particular attention is paid to the rhetorical strategies of the radical parties.