Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1977 (5. évfolyam, 13-15. szám)
1977 / 13. szám
says that the “social and occupational distribution of the population have fundamentally altered ...but many values and attitudes from the past have been carried into the present.” He describes the role of a new bourgeoisie which is quite aware that it is “fulfilling a vital role in the national economy and that the state has a stake in their continued operations.” The second section of the volume is on the control of information (censorship); and the third section on the Soviet attemptto resolve its nationality problems. The volume is part of Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government, and it is the seventh of eight volumes of papers from the Conference. General editor is Roger E. Kanét. Dr. Shapiro is Prof, of Political Science at Manhattanville Coll.; Dr. Potichnyj is Prof, of Political Science at McMasterU.; and Dr. Held is Assoc. Prof, of History at Rutgers U. Somogyi, Ferenc and Lel Somogyi. FAITH & FATE: A Short Cultural History of the Hungarian People Through a Millenium. Kárpát Publishing Company, 1017 Fairfield Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44113.1976. 208 pages, maps, illustr. $7.95 cloth, $5.95 paper. Mainly in response to the recently expressed need for information on “roots,” the authors prepared this volume as a bicentennial project in the “Reference Books of Hungarian Self-Knowledge” series of the publisher. Itcannotand it does not claim scholarly standing, but rather strives for popular acceptance as an ethnic text. As the authors say: “This book is dedicated to those of Hungarian ancestry who do not speak or read the language anymore, or do so only falteringly, but who still hold a special place in their lives for the history, culture and tradition of their heritage.” Although no references are given in the text, the appendix contains a chronology of historical events, lists of Hungarian and Transylvanian rulers, saints, Noble-prize winners, and a bibliography for further study. Dr. Somogyi is an educator and writer residing in Medina, Ohio, and Lel Somogyi is a graduate student at Case Western Reserve U. Stoil, Michael Jon. CINEMA BEYOND THE DANUBE: The Camera and Politics. Scarecrow Press, P.O. Box 656, Metuchen, NJ 08840. 1974. 208 pages, illustr. $6.00 cloth. The author tries to combine film criticism with political and social analysis. He describes the role of cinema in expressing ideology before and after World War II, and explains why and how East European film directors produced good and bad films. He concludes that “all genre of the motion picture are strongly influenced by the political climate in which the picture was filmed.” He tries to demonstrate it by dividing the time span under consideration into the “nationalist period of 1908-1945” and the postwar era. In the pre-war era the “Classic Communist Cinema of 1919-1929” and the “Stalinist Cinema of 1929-1946” are discussed in separate chapters. The postwar years are divided into “Cinema in the Cold War, 1945-1954,” the “Soviet Cinema Since Stalin, 1954- 1971,” and the “Cinema as Critic.” Special chapters are devoted to the socialist film industry, to fantastic and utopian films, and to the interaction between film and ideology. A list of works available in English, and an index of East European films and a general index conclude the volume. Hungarian references are many. Bela Kun and Miklós Jancso received BOOKS (Continued) special sub-chapters, and considerable space is devoted to István Székely’s Rakosci [sic] March. We learned also that the first Dracula film was made in Hungary in 1921. When the region of what the author calls Eastern Europe is treated as a cultural unit, itwasdominated by the “Orthodox religion.”We also would like to file a plea for diacritical marks, which change the meaning of Hungarian words. Scarecrow Press, please, notice. The author is a member of the American Film Institute. Tihanyi, Leslie C. A HISTORY OF MIDDLE EUROPE; From the Earliest Times to the Age of the World War. Rutgers U. Press, 30 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. 1976. 289 pages, maps, genealogical tables. $16.50 cloth. Middle Europe is but another term for the region between the Soviet Union and western Europe. Most of the writing on the region has been criticized as having nationalistic or ideological bias. The author tries to avoid these traps, and according to John C. Campbell’s foreword he shows “sympathy and understanding” for all nations and peoples of the area. He begins by trying to establish links between prehistory and history, then approaches the historical periods by contrasting the region’s development with that of western Europe. “In the west the Roman Empire was never fully replaced as a controlling agent either by the Carolingian or by the Holy Roman Empire. In the middle zone, on the other hand, there was an unceasing succession of controlling empires afterthe fall of Rome, not only Carolingian and Holy Roman, but also Byzantine, Ottoman, Habsburg, Romanov, and Hohenzollern." In the twentieth century, "The third Reich and after its collapse the Soviet Union became contemporary additions to the unceasing succession of controlling empires__On liberating the area from the occupying Nazi forces, the Soviet armies followed the example set by the Austrians in driving out the Turks at the end of the seventeenth century.” The author does not approach his subject only in terms of political power. To the contrary, most of his observations and analyses are put into cultural-geographical, geopolitical, and social contexts. German expansionism toward the East, the contrast between the landlocked middle zone and the coastal regions are examples of the geopolitical approach. Chapters on religious determinants of history, on such social factors as peasant wars, on the Jewish problem, and discussion of forceful ideas which had decisive impact on the development of the region, especially those of nationalism and socialism, as well as the political and human effects of repeated and continuous subjugation are only a few of the frames of references which enable the reader to understand the social dynamics underlying political history. The author recently retired from the American Foreign Service. Vardy, Steven Bela. MODERN HUNGARIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY. Columbia U. Press, 440 West 110 Street, New York, NY 10025.1976. 333 pages, notes, appendix. $16.50cloth. No. 17 in the East European Monographs Series of the East European Quarterly. The preface indicates that “The aim of this study is to present a comprehensive view of the development of Hungarian historical sciences from the eleventh to the middle of the twentieth century.” But while summarizing and analyz(Continued on page 6) NO. 13, 1977 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER 5
