Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1975 (3. évfolyam, 6-8. szám)

1975 / 7. szám

HUNGARIAN jgf?STUDIES m NEWSLETTER

No. 7 Spring 1975- published three times a year -Editor: Dr. Bela C. Maday

Journal Review Editor: Dr. Enikó M. Basa Corresponding Editor: Dr. Lorant Czigany (London) Communications concerning content should be sent to the: EDITOR, HSN 4528 - 49th STREET, N.W.

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20016

Subscription in the United States: $3.00; abroad $4.00. Current single copy $1.00; back issues $1.50 each. Communications concerning subscriptions and circulation should be sent to:

HUNGARIAN RESEARCH CENTER AMERICAN HUNGARIAN FOUNDATION 177 SOMERSET STREET P.O. BOX 1084

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. 08903

which the peoples of Central Europe would form a federal or confederal state on the Swiss model.

The volume contains parts of the Slovak memorandum to the Hungarian parliament in 1861; the text of the Hungarian armistice of 1918; a summary of the presentation of the Hungarian peace delegation at Paris; a statement by Henri Beraud; a letter addressed by King Bela IV to Pope Innocent IV in 1252; and a bibliography concentrating mainly on French sources. A note received from the office of the former French Prime Minister Pierre Mesmer says that he read this book “with great interest priortohis official visit to Budapest. While disputing sómé of your arguments and without accepting all your conclusions, he recognizes none the less the just nature and power of your essential thesis.”

Extracts from the preface to the French edition by General Ingold introduce the author who fought against the Nazis in France and North Africa and earned knightship as Commander of the Legion of Honor and Companion of the Order of Liberation.

Fekete, Ma'rton. PROMINENT HUNGARIANS: Home and Abroad. London: FeheV Hollo Press (3 Back Lane, London NW 3), 1973. 480 pages,$4.00, paper.

After a successful first edition published in 1964, the author presents a Who’s Who-type reference book with some 4,400 biographical sketches of prominent Hungarian politicians, scientists, writers, and artists. The opus is different from Hungarians in America (see HSN no. 3) inasmuch as it includes data on Hungarians from abroad and Hungary proper. Thus, one can find biographical sketches of Janos Kadar as well as of Ferenc Nagy; of General Lajos Czinege as well as of General Ferenc Farkas de Kisbarnak; of Ilona Dajbukat and of Edward Teller. Recently deceased persons are entered only by their name and date of birth and death.

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Every member of the elite has a short, ten to twelve line entry, except Gyula Ortutay who is privileged by a column plus. This explains how the author was able to present 4,400 sketches on 480 pages. Statistics on the distribution of entries by occupation and geographic location, as well asZip Codes, and a list of abbreviations would have been useful additions to the otherwise functional tome.

Jelavich, Barbara. THE HABSBURG EMPIRE IN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, 1814-1918. Hamden,Conn.: Shoestring Press (995 Sherman Avenue, Hamden, CT 06514) 1974. 190 pages, maps, appendix, $7.50 cloth.

This is a reprint of the edition published in the Rand McNally European History series in 1959. Jelavich presents a diplomatic history surveying the Habsburg Empire’s external relations in a critical period ending in its destruction. She points to the opposition between a conservative centralist elite and liberal centrifugal forces represented by at least eleven national groups. The revolutions of 1848 are treated in a separate chapter, and the abortive efforts of the Hungarian nation are given a succint summary. More extensive discussion of the role of Hungary are given in chapters on “The Unification of Germany: The Ausgleich,” “The Period of Equilibrium,” and in “From the Bosnian Crisis to World War I.” A concluding chapter details the Habsburg position in World War I and the events that orchestrated the final dissolution of tf]e empire.

The author is Prof, of History at Indiana U., and among others has written Russia and the Rumanian National Cause, 1858-1859, and coauthored with Charles Jelavich The Balkans in Transition (1974).

Kelemen, Pal. HUSSAR’S PICTURE BOOK. From the Diary of a Hungarian Cavalry Officer in World War I. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana U., 1972. 208 pages, $8.00 cloth. Available from Arpad Academy, 1450 Grace Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44107.

This book is exactly what its title promises, a diary of a Hungarian reserve officer who spent over four years in various assignments at various theaters of operation during World War I. There are no pictures except for A. Mayer’s Reconnoitering Patrol on the jacket. Though a collection of loosely connected episodes, the volume may serve as a source for sociological interest in the era. The author was wounded in Galicia and he contracted malaria in the Balkans, but his most severe conflict was not with the enemy but with an allied German officer. His observations on the human aspects of war are keen and critical, his attitudes deeply humane, at times prudishly so. His notes cover a wide range of scenes from romance and wild parties to morbid suffering and defeat. Historical notes precede each chapter and seek to put the episodes into historical perspective. The author is widely acclaimed as a major pioneer in the art of the Americas and has written seven books, translated in many languages, on pre-Columbian, colonial, and modern art.

Kertesz, Stephen D. and M.A. Fitzsimons (eds.) DIPLOMACY IN A CHANGING WORLD. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press (51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, CT 06880) 1974. 407 pages $16.75, cloth.

This is a reprint of the 1959 edition published by the U. of NO. 7, 1975 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER