Studies in Hungarian History

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.