Studies in Hungarian History – serie

The Hungarian defeat to the Ottoman army at the pivotal Battle of Mohács in 1526 led to the division of the Kingdom of Hungary into three parts, altering both the shape and the ethnic composition of Central Europe for centuries to come. Hungary thus became a battleground between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires.In this sweeping historical survey, Géza Pálffy takes readers through a crucial period of upheaval and revolution in Hungary, which had been the site of a flowering of economic, cultural, and intellectual progress—but battles with the Ottomans lead to over a century of war and devastation. Pálffy explores Hungary's role as both a borderland and a theater of war through the turn of the 18th century. In this way, Hungary became a crucially important field on which key debates over religion, government, law, and monarchy played out. Reflecting 25 years of archival research and presented here in English for the first time, Hungary between Two Empires 1526–1711 offers a fresh and thorough exploration of this key moment in Hungarian history and, in turn, the creation of a modern Europe.

The Hungarian defeat to the Ottoman army at the pivotal Battle of Mohács in 1526 led to the division of the Kingdom of Hungary into three parts, altering both the shape and the ethnic composition of Central Europe for centuries to come. Hungary thus became a battleground between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires.In this sweeping historical survey, Géza Pálffy takes readers through a crucial period of upheaval and revolution in Hungary, which had been the site of a flowering of economic, cultural, and intellectual progress—but battles with the Ottomans lead to over a century of war and devastation. Pálffy explores Hungary's role as both a borderland and a theater of war through the turn of the 18th century. In this way, Hungary became a crucially important field on which key debates over religion, government, law, and monarchy played out. Reflecting 25 years of archival research and presented here in English for the first time, Hungary between Two Empires 1526–1711 offers a fresh and thorough exploration of this key moment in Hungarian history and, in turn, the creation of a modern Europe.

After World War II, a new community of elite emerged in Hungary, in spite of the communist principles espoused by the government. In Luxury and the Ruling Elite in Socialist Hungary, György Majtényi allows us a peek inside their affluence.Majtényi exposes the lavish standard of living that the higher echelon enjoyed, complete with pools, Persian rugs, extravagant furniture, servants, and groundskeepers. They shopped in private stores stocked with expensive meats and tropical fruits just for them. They benefited from access to everything from books, telephone lines, and international travel to hunting grounds, soccer games, and even the choicest cemetery plots. But Majtényi also reveals the underbelly of such society, particularly how these privileges were used as a way of maintaining power, initiating or denying entry to party members, and strengthening the very hierarchies that communism promised to abolish.Taking readers on a fascinating and often surprising look inside the manor homes and vacation villas of wealthy post–World War II Hungarians, Majtényi offers fresh insight into the realities of patriarchy, loyalty, gender, and class within the communist regime.

After World War II, a new community of elite emerged in Hungary, in spite of the communist principles espoused by the government. In Luxury and the Ruling Elite in Socialist Hungary, György Majtényi allows us a peek inside their affluence.Majtényi exposes the lavish standard of living that the higher echelon enjoyed, complete with pools, Persian rugs, extravagant furniture, servants, and groundskeepers. They shopped in private stores stocked with expensive meats and tropical fruits just for them. They benefited from access to everything from books, telephone lines, and international travel to hunting grounds, soccer games, and even the choicest cemetery plots. But Majtényi also reveals the underbelly of such society, particularly how these privileges were used as a way of maintaining power, initiating or denying entry to party members, and strengthening the very hierarchies that communism promised to abolish.Taking readers on a fascinating and often surprising look inside the manor homes and vacation villas of wealthy post–World War II Hungarians, Majtényi offers fresh insight into the realities of patriarchy, loyalty, gender, and class within the communist regime.

For more than two centuries, Hungarians believed they shared an ethnic link with people of Japanese, Bulgarian, Estonian, Finnish, and Turkic descent. Known as "Turanism," this ideology impacts Hungarian politics, science, and cultural and ethnic identity even today. In Go East!: A History of Hungarian Turanism, Balázs Ablonczy examines the rise of Hungarian Turanism and its lasting effect on the country's history. Turanism arose from the collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary, when the nation's intellectuals began to question Hungary's place in the Western world. The influence of this ideology reached its peak during World War I, when Turanian societies funded research, economic missions, and geographical expeditions. Ablonczy traces Turanism from its foundations through its radicalization in the interwar period, its survival in emigrant circles, and its resurgence during the economic crisis of 2008. Turanian notions can be seen today in the rise of the extreme right-wing party Jobbik and in Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán's party Fidesz. Go East! provides fresh insight into Turanism's key political and artistic influences in Hungary and illuminates the mark it has left on history.

For more than two centuries, Hungarians believed they shared an ethnic link with people of Japanese, Bulgarian, Estonian, Finnish, and Turkic descent. Known as "Turanism," this ideology impacts Hungarian politics, science, and cultural and ethnic identity even today. In Go East!: A History of Hungarian Turanism, Balázs Ablonczy examines the rise of Hungarian Turanism and its lasting effect on the country's history. Turanism arose from the collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary, when the nation's intellectuals began to question Hungary's place in the Western world. The influence of this ideology reached its peak during World War I, when Turanian societies funded research, economic missions, and geographical expeditions. Ablonczy traces Turanism from its foundations through its radicalization in the interwar period, its survival in emigrant circles, and its resurgence during the economic crisis of 2008. Turanian notions can be seen today in the rise of the extreme right-wing party Jobbik and in Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán's party Fidesz. Go East! provides fresh insight into Turanism's key political and artistic influences in Hungary and illuminates the mark it has left on history.

As the sun set on June 8, 1969, a group of teenagers gathered near a massive tree in a main square of Budapest to mourn the untimely death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. By the end of the evening, sirens blared, teens were interrogated, and the myth of the most notorious juvenile gang in Budapest was born. The origin of the Great Tree Gang became an elaborately cultivated morality tale of the dangers posed by allegedly rebellious youths to the conformity of communist communities. In time, governments across Cold War Europe manufactured similar stories about the threats posed by groups of unruly adolescents. In Children of Communism, Sándor Horváth explores this youth counterculture in the Eastern Bloc, how young people there imagined the West, and why this generation proved so crucial to communist identity politics. He not only reveals how communism shaped youth culture, but also how young people shaped official policy.A fascinating read on the power of youth protest, Children of Communism shows what life was like for the first generation to have been born under communism and how one evening spent grieving rock and roll under a tree forever changed lives.

As the sun set on June 8, 1969, a group of teenagers gathered near a massive tree in a main square of Budapest to mourn the untimely death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. By the end of the evening, sirens blared, teens were interrogated, and the myth of the most notorious juvenile gang in Budapest was born. The origin of the Great Tree Gang became an elaborately cultivated morality tale of the dangers posed by allegedly rebellious youths to the conformity of communist communities. In time, governments across Cold War Europe manufactured similar stories about the threats posed by groups of unruly adolescents. In Children of Communism, Sándor Horváth explores this youth counterculture in the Eastern Bloc, how young people there imagined the West, and why this generation proved so crucial to communist identity politics. He not only reveals how communism shaped youth culture, but also how young people shaped official policy.A fascinating read on the power of youth protest, Children of Communism shows what life was like for the first generation to have been born under communism and how one evening spent grieving rock and roll under a tree forever changed lives.

Between 1956 and 1963, the United Nations grappled with the "Hungarian question"; namely, what it should do about the events and aftermath of the country's 1956 Revolution. Cold War tensions, anxieties over the concurrent Suez crisis, and ignorance and indifference about Hungary influenced how UN member states responded to this "internal affair" and its potentially dangerous effects on international relations. Diplomacy and Disregard draws upon previously inaccessible documents, including UN archival materials, Hungarian government and secret service papers, and personal collections held by UN officials across the globe, to reveal the UN's contradictory rhetorical and practical responses to the Hungarian Revolution. Through detailed overviews alongside case studies of individual diplomats and specific controversies, András Nagy traces the UN's reactions to Hungarian and Soviet authorities' blocking of resolutions and denunciation of the UN as an enemy power, its need to use the International Committee of the Red Cross as a channel for its humanitarian aid, and its inability to legitimize revolutionary leaders and allow them to represent and act on Hungary's behalf. Reports riddled with inconsistencies, failures to call emergency sessions and fulfill information requests, and lackluster responses to known acts of terror and espionage demonstrated that even at its highest levels of leadership, the UN was not only unable to intervene against the Soviet-supported government but was often unwilling to do so. Diplomacy and Disregard provides an unprecedented look at the global reach and consequences of Hungary's 1956 Revolution and at how the UN's action and inaction during this political crisis ultimately defined its ability to maneuver the Cold War's fraught political landscape and live up to the ideals of its charter.

Between 1956 and 1963, the United Nations grappled with the "Hungarian question"; namely, what it should do about the events and aftermath of the country's 1956 Revolution. Cold War tensions, anxieties over the concurrent Suez crisis, and ignorance and indifference about Hungary influenced how UN member states responded to this "internal affair" and its potentially dangerous effects on international relations. Diplomacy and Disregard draws upon previously inaccessible documents, including UN archival materials, Hungarian government and secret service papers, and personal collections held by UN officials across the globe, to reveal the UN's contradictory rhetorical and practical responses to the Hungarian Revolution. Through detailed overviews alongside case studies of individual diplomats and specific controversies, András Nagy traces the UN's reactions to Hungarian and Soviet authorities' blocking of resolutions and denunciation of the UN as an enemy power, its need to use the International Committee of the Red Cross as a channel for its humanitarian aid, and its inability to legitimize revolutionary leaders and allow them to represent and act on Hungary's behalf. Reports riddled with inconsistencies, failures to call emergency sessions and fulfill information requests, and lackluster responses to known acts of terror and espionage demonstrated that even at its highest levels of leadership, the UN was not only unable to intervene against the Soviet-supported government but was often unwilling to do so. Diplomacy and Disregard provides an unprecedented look at the global reach and consequences of Hungary's 1956 Revolution and at how the UN's action and inaction during this political crisis ultimately defined its ability to maneuver the Cold War's fraught political landscape and live up to the ideals of its charter.

Throughout the nineteenth century, Hungary's government steadily dismantled obstacles that kept its rapidly expanding Jewish communities from enjoying the full benefits of citizenship. The state's concerted efforts to "Magyarize" Jews promoted Hungarian language, culture, and sensibilities, but did not officially require Jews to abandon their faith. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews converted to Christianity during this era, with conversion rates continuing to rise even as Judaism gained full legal equality.Jewishness and Beyond addresses the apparent contradiction between these two trends. Despite the egalitarian promises and laws of Hungary's liberal nationalist government, the administration and traditional elites as a whole maintained a persistent bias against Jews that spurred particularly high conversion rates among the community's upper echelons. While Christians never forgot converted Jews' origins and increasingly thought of them in racialized terms, they also valued and generally rewarded conversion and the symbolic gesture of baptism. Conversion was an uneven and ever-shifting process in which gender and occupation played key roles, and where the actual percentage of converts within the total Hungarian Jewish population contrasted sharply with both Christian and Jewish perceptions of its frequency and spread.Jewishness and Beyond, which can be read as an introduction to the identity dilemmas of Hungarian Jews in the age of emancipation, reveals the motivations and strategies behind the conversions of Hungarian Jews, the complex reactions within and outside of their communities, and converts' own grappling with conversion's expected and unforeseen outcomes.

Throughout the nineteenth century, Hungary's government steadily dismantled obstacles that kept its rapidly expanding Jewish communities from enjoying the full benefits of citizenship. The state's concerted efforts to "Magyarize" Jews promoted Hungarian language, culture, and sensibilities, but did not officially require Jews to abandon their faith. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews converted to Christianity during this era, with conversion rates continuing to rise even as Judaism gained full legal equality.Jewishness and Beyond addresses the apparent contradiction between these two trends. Despite the egalitarian promises and laws of Hungary's liberal nationalist government, the administration and traditional elites as a whole maintained a persistent bias against Jews that spurred particularly high conversion rates among the community's upper echelons. While Christians never forgot converted Jews' origins and increasingly thought of them in racialized terms, they also valued and generally rewarded conversion and the symbolic gesture of baptism. Conversion was an uneven and ever-shifting process in which gender and occupation played key roles, and where the actual percentage of converts within the total Hungarian Jewish population contrasted sharply with both Christian and Jewish perceptions of its frequency and spread.Jewishness and Beyond, which can be read as an introduction to the identity dilemmas of Hungarian Jews in the age of emancipation, reveals the motivations and strategies behind the conversions of Hungarian Jews, the complex reactions within and outside of their communities, and converts' own grappling with conversion's expected and unforeseen outcomes.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, three trailblazing women's associations emerged from the Austro-Hungarian middle class: Vienna's Allgemeiner österreichischer Frauenverein (AöF) and Budapest's closely linked Nőtisztviselők Országos Egyesülete (NOE) and Feministák Egyesülete (FE). Spearheaded by educated professional women, these groups championed progressive and often radical ideals, forging robust international connections with other women's movements. However, the shifting political landscapes in Austria and Hungary eventually led to their decline and near-erasure from history.In Progressive Women's Movements in Austria and Hungary, Dóra Fedeles-Czeferner dives deeply into these movements, transcending conscribed national narratives to uncover the daily workings of these Austrian bourgeois-liberal and Hungarian feminist organizations. She reveals how they both influenced and were influenced by international activism. Unlike their contemporaries in the Christian-Social and Socialist Democratic women's movements, the AöF, NOE, and FE operated independently of official political parties, leveraging the influential connections of their leaders and using strategic publicity to garner support. Despite their mutual inspirations and connections, these organizations had significant differences. They varied in their origins, their ability to engage rural members, and their strategies for achieving their goals.Fedeles-Czeferner employs entangled history methodologies to examine these organizations' foundations, key figures, memberships, objectives, and activities from the beginning of the 20th century until the beginning of the 1920s. By challenging regional narratives that have marginalized these radical women's movements, she reconnects Austria-Hungary's pre-war feminist past to its transnational roots, revealing their true historical significance.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, three trailblazing women's associations emerged from the Austro-Hungarian middle class: Vienna's Allgemeiner österreichischer Frauenverein (AöF) and Budapest's closely linked Nőtisztviselők Országos Egyesülete (NOE) and Feministák Egyesülete (FE). Spearheaded by educated professional women, these groups championed progressive and often radical ideals, forging robust international connections with other women's movements. However, the shifting political landscapes in Austria and Hungary eventually led to their decline and near-erasure from history.In Progressive Women's Movements in Austria and Hungary, Dóra Fedeles-Czeferner dives deeply into these movements, transcending conscribed national narratives to uncover the daily workings of these Austrian bourgeois-liberal and Hungarian feminist organizations. She reveals how they both influenced and were influenced by international activism. Unlike their contemporaries in the Christian-Social and Socialist Democratic women's movements, the AöF, NOE, and FE operated independently of official political parties, leveraging the influential connections of their leaders and using strategic publicity to garner support. Despite their mutual inspirations and connections, these organizations had significant differences. They varied in their origins, their ability to engage rural members, and their strategies for achieving their goals.Fedeles-Czeferner employs entangled history methodologies to examine these organizations' foundations, key figures, memberships, objectives, and activities from the beginning of the 20th century until the beginning of the 1920s. By challenging regional narratives that have marginalized these radical women's movements, she reconnects Austria-Hungary's pre-war feminist past to its transnational roots, revealing their true historical significance.

From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the Capetian House of Anjou was one of Europe's most significant ruling dynasties, with dominions extending across the continent from the French province that gave them their name to the kingdoms of Hungary and Poland. The House of Anjou was the tie that bound together these diverse countries with varying levels of development, divergent institutions, and far-flung geographies. The Angevins in Hungary 1301–1395 traces the lives and reigns of three generations of this dynasty: Charles I (Charles Robert) of Hungary; his son Louis I, who, in addition to succeeding his father in Hungary, also won the Polish throne and occupied that of Naples; and Louis's daughters, Mary, Queen of Hungary, and Hedvig, Queen of Poland. Author Enikő Csukovits presents more than just the Angevin dynasty's activities in Hungary, however. She explores the Angevins' reign over Hungary within several important contexts: the family's control of Naples, as well as several other Italian city-states and communes; the changing relationships between the Italian and Hungarian branches of the dynasty; the Hungarian Angevins' sovereignty over Poland; and the role Angevin Hungary played as a regional power in the fourteenth century.By examining these diverse Anjou territories with the Kingdom of Hungary in the center, The Angevins in Hungary 1301–1395 provides a new understanding of how these territories were managed, the networks of connections that determined their fates, the characters of the relationships between these countries and provinces, and the similarities and differences between these entities' institutions.

From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the Capetian House of Anjou was one of Europe's most significant ruling dynasties, with dominions extending across the continent from the French province that gave them their name to the kingdoms of Hungary and Poland. The House of Anjou was the tie that bound together these diverse countries with varying levels of development, divergent institutions, and far-flung geographies. The Angevins in Hungary 1301–1395 traces the lives and reigns of three generations of this dynasty: Charles I (Charles Robert) of Hungary; his son Louis I, who, in addition to succeeding his father in Hungary, also won the Polish throne and occupied that of Naples; and Louis's daughters, Mary, Queen of Hungary, and Hedvig, Queen of Poland. Author Enikő Csukovits presents more than just the Angevin dynasty's activities in Hungary, however. She explores the Angevins' reign over Hungary within several important contexts: the family's control of Naples, as well as several other Italian city-states and communes; the changing relationships between the Italian and Hungarian branches of the dynasty; the Hungarian Angevins' sovereignty over Poland; and the role Angevin Hungary played as a regional power in the fourteenth century.By examining these diverse Anjou territories with the Kingdom of Hungary in the center, The Angevins in Hungary 1301–1395 provides a new understanding of how these territories were managed, the networks of connections that determined their fates, the characters of the relationships between these countries and provinces, and the similarities and differences between these entities' institutions.

How do political parties integrate propaganda into ordinary citizens' lives? After coming into power in 1948, the communist Hungarian Workers' Party (MDP) drew on tried-and-true Soviet methods of political outreach, mobilizing a network of agitators to circulate communist ideology and report their observations back to party leadership. These agitators produced maps, searched homes, and taught "petty bourgeois" self-criticism and "party-conform" love and hate.Making the Hungarian Communist studies communist propaganda through the everyday actions of these rank-and-file agitators, offering a nuanced portrait of mass mobilization. Through extensive archival research and personal interviews, Heléna Huhák traces the formation of the agitators' network, the training they received, and the often-gendered language they used to connect communist ideology to people's lived experiences. As the dialogue between the state and ordinary citizens developed through these interactions, the boundaries between political issues and private family life began to blur for both citizens and agitators: far from the state's initial vision of one-way political influence, homes also became a space for advocacy, complaint, and bargaining. Communist Hungary was thus shaped not only by propaganda, but also by the experiences and interests of agitators and even "agitated people." By focusing on the negotiations between local party functionaries and ordinary people, Making the Hungarian Communist reveals how the practices of agitation and propaganda mutually shaped Hungarian society and politics.