Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1979 (7. évfolyam, 19-22. szám)
1979 / 19-20. szám
HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER No. 19-20 Spring, 1979 Published by the Hungarian Research Center of the American Hungarian Foundation in four numbers as three issues annually: Winter, Spring (two numbers included), and Autumn. Founder and editor: Bela Charles Maday. Journal editor: Enikő Molnár Basa. Corresponding editor: Lorant Czlgany (London). Communications concerning content should be addressed to the Editor, 4528-49th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20016. Communications concerning subscriptions, advertising, and circulation should be addressed to American Hungarian Foundation, 177 Somerset Street, P.O. Box 1084, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. Annual subscription in the U.S.: $4.00: ABROAD: $5.00. Current single copy $1.50; back issues $2.00 each. BOOKS Bennett, Linda A., PERSONAL CHOICE IN ETHNIC IDENTITY MAINTENANCE: Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in Washington, D.C. Ragusan Press, 936 Industrial Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303, 1978. 218 pages, maps, tables, biblio. $10.00 paper. There is little Hungarian relevance in the data of this modest but impressive volume (only three of the informants were born in Hungary), hence, the reader may wonder why the review? It is reviewed, because the approach to the subject, the methodology, and the findings are applicable to the Hungarian ethnic groups in the U.S., and could be emulated by Hungarian-oriented scholars. “This study” says the author, “was undertaken to learn something of the patterns of ethnic identity among individuals for whom the decision to maintain or discard ethnic identity is primarily a matter of personal choice, with relatively minimal pressure brought to bear by the environment in which they live.” She investigates ethnic identity patterns to provide clues to the relationship between socialization, decision-making, and values, as they affect the behavior of immigrants of southern Slavic origin. We would like to know of any contemplated Hungarianrelevant study of similar nature. The field seems to be wide open for social scientists. The author is Assist. Research Prof, at the George Washington U. Medical Center. Chászár, Edward, DECISION IN VIENNA; The Czechoslovak-Hungarian Border Dispute of 1938. Danubian Press, Astor, FL 32002,1978. 165 pages, maps, documents, biblio. $12.00 paper. The author has focused his scholarly research for some time upon the Czechoslovak-Hungarian border dispute (see HSN 18, p. 5-6). He says that “the literature on the ‘Vienna Award,’ which followed shortly after the 1938 Munich Agreement and in a political sense connected to it, is rather sparse. Most of the material pertaining to this somewhat unusual arbitration is scattered in documents, memoirs, books and articles which are historical or political, rather than legal in nature." Consequently, while it would have been relatively easy to produce a purely historical account of the event, he has pursued his examination from the viewpoint of international law, a more difficult task. “The legal approach, emphasized here, should explain why a number of sources, ideological and polemical in nature, have not been utilized at all, but merely mentioned" in works preceding this volume. The 72 pages of documents testify to the thoroughness of research. All are translated into English, with the exception of notes exchanged between Prague and Budapest which have been retained in the original French; and a note of the German Government to the Hungarian Government dated October 30, 1938, which has been retained in German. The author is Prof, of International Law at Indiana State U. of Pennsylvania. DOCUMENTED FACTS AND FIGURES ON TRANSYLVANIA, comp, by the Danubian Research Centre and the Transylvanian World Federation under the supervision of Albert Wass de Czege, moderator. Danubian Press, Astor, FL 32002. 80 pages, maps, appendix, biblio. $5.00 cloth; $4.00 paper. The stated purpose of this volume is to provide basic area information on Transylvania with special focus on the grave minority problems. The compiler compares the status of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania with that of Californians if they were hypothetically occupied by Mexico. In such a case Americans would not be regarded as a “national minority” residing within the borders of Mexico but rather as subdued Americans separated from their homeland. From such a status emanate most of the grievances and injustices of contemporary Transylvania. After a brief geographical sketch, the compiler presents a historical chronology beginning with 440 B.C. and extending to the present. After short comments on culture and population, "grievances and legitimate demands” are presented and options for solutions are given. The appendix holds excerpts from the Romanian Constitution, testimonies of witnesses to the injustices, declarations and transcripts of U.S. Congressional hearings concerned with human rights issues. The compiler is a well known author of numerous books and president of Danubian Press. Du Nay, Andre, THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE RUMANIAN LANGUAGE. Jupiter Press, 360 MacLaren Lane, Lake Bluff, IL 60044, 1977. A supplement to Forum Linguisticum 2:1 (August 1977). 275 pages, maps, tables, diagrams, biblio. $7.00 paper. (No. 3 in the Edward Sapir Monograph Series in Language, Culture, and Cognition.) The controversy over the origin and development of the Romanian language continues inconclusively. The argument, which has strong political and emotional implications, centers around claims presented in historical and linguistic contexts. One side, which has the support of official Romania, claims that Romanian has been spoken in the area of present-day Romania ever since the Roman colonists withdrew from Dacia in the 3rd century, while the other side finds no evidence to such a claim, and points to documents which put the appearance of the Romaninans in the Lower Danube region in the second half of the 10th century. According to Robert A. Hall Jr's foreword to the volume, the absence of reliable data from the post-imperial period (3rd to 10th centuries) leaves the proponents of the Daco-Roman argument with little or no documentation. “Dr. Du Nay has sifted and weighed the relevant material with thorough and objective scholarship, making it evident that the ‘non-Dacian’ hypothesis must be taken seriously and reckoned with." The study first discusses history of the region, then dominant hypotheses in regard to the development of Romanian north of the Lower Danube with a critical analysis of the theory of continuity. The author (pseudonym) is a prominent scholar of the Romanian language. 2 NO. 19-20, 1979, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
