Robert Nemes – författare

Another Hungary tells the stories of eight remarkable individuals: an aristocrat, merchant, engineer, teacher, journalist, rabbi, tobacconist, and writer. All eight came from the same woebegone corner of prewar Hungary. Their biographies illuminate how the region's residents made sense of economic underdevelopment, ethnic diversity, and relations between Christians and Jews. Taken together, their stories create a unique picture of the troubled history of Eastern Europe, viewed not from the capital cities, but from the small towns and villages.Through these eight lives, Another Hungary investigates the wider processes that remade Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century. It asks: How did people make sense of the dramatic changes, from the advent of the railroad to the outbreak of the First World War? How did they respond to the army of political ideologies that marched through this region: liberalism, socialism, nationalism, antisemitism, and Zionism? To what extent did people in the provinces not just react to, but influence what was happening in the centers of political power? This collective biography confirms that nineteenth-century Hungary was no earthly paradise. But it also shows that the provinces produced men and women with bold ideas on how to change their world.

Tracing the complex process by which Budapest became a Hungarian city, Robert Nemes offers an open-ended picture of nation-building and urban development. In 1800, the towns of Buda, Pest, and Óbuda—which would later unite to form Budapest—were dusty, provincial, and largely German-speaking. By century's end, Budapest had become a burgeoning metropolis, a capital, and a manifestly Hungarian city. Few nineteenth-century cities grew as rapidly, and in none was nationalism woven so tightly into the urban fabric.The Once and Future Budapest explores Hungarian nationalism in daily events and maps its inroads into every corner of urban life. Drawing upon newspapers, memoirs, and other largely untapped sources, Nemes shows how the national idea influenced painting, architecture, literature, and music, as well as dress and the names of streets, shops, and even children.The Hungarian national movement gave many residents of Budapest their first taste of politics. By focusing on reading clubs, ballrooms, streets, and other urban spaces, Nemes explains how ordinary men and women participated in, made sense of, and helped define modern national movements. The campaign to nationalize Budapest had a dark side as well, for it often involved intolerant language, exclusionary practices, violent street demonstrations, and vandalism.The influence of nineteenth-century nationalism endures in Budapest and can be seen in the city's art, architecture, and culture. The Once and Future Budapest will appeal to all who are interested in this city and its rich, varied past.