Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1978 (6. évfolyam, 16-18. szám)
1978 / 16. szám
HSN no. 2, pp. 4-5), investigates Hungarian ethnography, its origin, subject matter, and methods of research. Sozan is offering this analysis in a European context outlining the relationship of European ethnography and ethnology to American anthropology in terms of conceptual content and of methodology. He follows the development of Hungarian ethnography from its roots in the Enlightment's quest for humanistic progress and empirical methods, through the formative years of 19th century nationalism when ethnography became deeply involved in the pursuit of ethnogenetic studies and the study of contemporary peasantry. Sozan leads the reader from the contributions of Matyas Bel in the 17th century, through the advent of national ethnography (1848-1896), through its golden age (1889- 1919), to its modern diversification and expansion in the 20th century. This volume provides basic reading for any scholar interested in the sociology of the social sciences in Hungary. The author is Assoc. Prof, of Sociology-Anthropology at Slippery Rock State College, Pennsylvania. Spencer, Donald S. LOUIS KOSSUTH AND YOUNG AMERICA; A STUDY OF SECTIONALISM AND FOREIGN POLICY 1848-1952.. U. of Missouri Press, 107 Swallow Hall, Columbia, MO 65201. 1977. 203 pages, illust., biblio. $12.50 cloth. After describing Kossuth’s tour through America, Spencer chronicles the foreign policy debates and discusses Kossuth’s mission in the framework of the deepening division between the North and the South. When Kossuth arrived in the U.S. in 1852, he found a good portion of the American public idealistically in favor of interventionist policies. It was a rare era of American history in which the people paused “to examine the philosophical dimensions of their relations with the outside world.” Both the idealistic and the realistic policies won expression, but all were overshadowed by the issue of slavery. “So completely had slavery contaminated the nation’s politics, in fact, that radicals from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line could plausibly define every public question as a corollary of the slavery issue,” including those represented by Kossuth. He tried to straddle the issue. When he failed, he left the country quietly, and Hungary remained under the Habsburg heel. The author is Assist. Prof, of History at the U. of Montana. Stroup, Edsel Walter. HUNGARY IN EARLY 1848; The Constitutional Struggle against Absolutism in Contemporary Eyes. Hungarian Cultural Foundation, P.O. Box 364, Stone Mountain, GA 30086. 261 pages, biblio, illustr. $8.80 paper. No. 11 in the Program in East European and Slavic Studies of the State U. of New York, College at Buffalo. This book describes and evaluates the constitutional and related social developments during the early efforts for meaningful progress in 1848. “The fundamental issue of the early Hungarian 1848 is seen as the nation’s constitutional struggle with Habsburg absolutism. . At the stake was the establishment of an equitable relationship of a Hungary with the rest of the Habsburg Monarchy.” The author reevaluates the events with keen attention to sequence and finds that the data does not seem to support the views expressed by current Hungarian Marxist historians. In fact, he concludes that his data “greatly modify the frequently encountered distortions BOOKS (Continued) and suppositions contained in English language references concerning the attitudes, participation, and interrelationship of Hungary's major historic classes during this struggle for reform.” A foreword by Prof. Steven B. Várdy points out that the “positive view of the Revolution as a whole has remained unchanged for close to 130 years, the assessment of the roles of individuals, groups, political factions and social classes has varied considerable.” He believes that Stroup presents “the other side” well in an honest search for truth. The author is a doctoral candidate at the U. of Akron. Szabad, György. HUNGARIAN POLITICAL TRENDS BETWEEN THE REVOLUTION AND THE COMPROMISE (1849-1867). Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1977. 184 pages, tables, biblio. $11.00 cloth. After briefly setting the stage by describing the Marxian perception of the Hungarian society and its transformation in the middle of the 19th century, the author presents a thorough picture of the political dynamics of the 1848 revolution and the 1867 compromise. The thesis is that the compromise was a pact between two governments, which left large segments of the population dissatisfied with its content. Hungary would have been better off by listening to Kossuth who opposed the compromise and advocated cooperation with Hungary’s nationalities in some kind of a Danubian federation, which could have successfully resisted Habsburg oppression. Szabad found that the forces supporting an independent, multinational and democratic Hungary were stronger than usually assumed by historians, and that the compromise had less support than believed. The volume is published as no. 128 in the Studia Historica series of the HAS. Széplaki, Joseph comp. HUNGARIANS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA; A Bibliography. Holdings of the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota, 826 Berry Street, St. Paul, MN 55114, 1977. 113 pages, illust. $6.00 paper. The volume represents the Hungarian American holdings of the Immigration History Research Center with some additional entries pertinent to the topic and placed in the main library of the university. It contains 916 entries (700 books, 198 serials, and 18 manuscripts). Steven B. Vardy (Duquesne U.) says in the foreword of the volume that after years of inertia, a new emphasis on ethnic studies is reflected in the establishment of library and archival collections. The present volume, though restricted to the holdings of a single institution, still constitutes the most comprehensive one on the topic to date. The author is former acquisition librarian and assist, prof, of the U. of Minnesota. Telek, J. HISTORY OF HUNGARY AND HUNGARIANS, 1848-1971; A Select Bibliography. Vol. I. Published by the compiler; distributed by Pannónia Books, P.O. Box 1017, Postal Station "B”, Toronto, Ont. Canada M5T 2T8. 1972, republished with corrections in 1977.346 pages. $25.00 cloth; $15.00 paper. According to the compiler, this is an attempt to list publications relating to Hungarian history between 1848 and (Continued on page 6) NO. 16, 1978 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER 5
