Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1980 (8. évfolyam, 23-26. szám)
1980 / 25. szám
HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER No. 25 ISSN: 0194-164X Autumn, 1980 Published quarterly by the Hungarian Research Center of the American Hungarian Foundation: Winter, Spring (two numbers included), and Autumn. Founder and editor: Bela Charles Maday. Journal editor: Enikő Molnár Basa. Corresponding editor: Lorant Czigany (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.A. $4.00. Abroad: $5.00. Current single copy $2.00; back issues $2.50 each. BOOKS (Continued) to the efforts of the Third World countries to catch up with the industrialized part of the world. The volume concludes with a discussion of inflationary theory, price theory, and price policy. The latter is concerned with the correlation between power structure and price structure. The author is head of the National Material and Price Management Office in Budapest. Bihari, Otto. THE CONSTITUTIONAL MODELS OF SOCIALIST STATE ORGANIZATION. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó', 1979. 372 pages. $30.00 cloth. This book is conceived in the framework of “socialist legal science,” and concerns “interrelationship among society, law and the state institutions” in Marxist terms. A “model” is chosen and compared to various socialist constitutions in order to analyze on a comparative basis the evolution and characteristics of socialist state structures. One chapter is devoted to the development of Soviet models, and one to the theoretical supremacy of popular representation. The chapter on the contemporary interpretation and form of the unity of legislative and executive powers, and another on the checks and balances of governmental structure may be of special interest to political scientists, while economists will find the chapter on constitutional and extra-constitutional forms of economic planning of interest. Ecsedy, István. THE PEOPLE OF THE PIT-GRAVE KURGANS IN EASTERN HUNGARY. With contributions by S. Bököny, G. Duma, A. Marcsik, and D. Virágh. Budapest: Akade'miai Kiadó', 1979. 148 pages, maps, tables, settlement name list, biblio, illus. $25.00 paper. A volume in the series of the Fontes Archaeologici Hungáriáé. Eastern Hungary is dotted with thousands of barrows hiding the remnants of prehistoric people, who lived about 4,000 years ago. The graves also contain artifacts and in most instances pieces of ochre and traces of red paint clods of mineral origin. Hence, their name “ochre-grave culture” or “pit-grave (Yamnaya) culture” or “kurgan culture.” Archaeologists and physical anthropologists were able to identify these people as of steppe origin who appeared in the Carpathian Basin at the time of the Copper Age. Though the relative chronology of the pit-grave kurgan history is a matter of unsettled controversy among experts, the thorough analysis of burials enables archeaologists to present some new hypotheses in regard to the migration of the earliest Pontic nomadic tribes, and to speculate about the relationship between pit-grave peoples inside and outside the Carpathian Basin, as well as about their religious beliefs and rites. A more critical question, that of the relationship of pit-grave people to other inhabitants of the Basin, has not received much enlightenment from these excavations and studies. Friss, István ed. ESSAYS ON ECONOMIC POLICY AND PLANNING IN HUNGARY. Budapest: Corvina Kiadó, 1978. 279 pages, tables. $4.20 paper. Eight authors present four essays and an introduction on the Hungarian economy during the past 35 years. “The first study discusses questions concerning Hungarian standard of living policy. Its authors are Robert Hoch and Janos Kovács, scientific section heads of the Institute of Economics, HAS, and János Tímár, professor at the Karl Marx U. of Economics in Budapest. The second study, by József Derein, deputy chairman of the National Planning Office, deals with questions of Hungarian industrial policy. The third study analyzes the principal questions of the evolution and further development of Hungarian agriculture. Its authors are Bela Csendes, head of department of the National Planning Office, and Mrs. Béla Pálovics, his associate. Finally, the fourth study, by Márton Tardos, head of department of the Institute for Economic and'Marketing Research of Budapest, discusses some problems of Hungarian balance of payment policy,” says Friss in his introduction. Since the essays are intended for the Englishspeaking reader-at-large, documentation has been omitted, thus limiting their use for scholarly research. Juhász, Gyula. HUNGARIAN FOREIGN POLICY 1919-1945. Budapest: Akade'miai Kiadó', 1979. 356 pages, biblio., $25.00 cloth. This volume is a translation and revised edition of the author’s original book on the subject (Magyarország külpolitikája 1919-1945, Kossuth Kiadd, 1969). Revisions made on the earlier text were mainly based on the sources made public by the British Foreign Office since the publication of the Hungarian volume. The secret negotiations between Britain and Hungary were analyzed on the basis of this new information, as were the intentions and plans of the Western Allies concerning the future of Hungary. The volume also delineates Hungarian foreign policy as influenced by the lasting psychological damages caused by the Trianon Peace Treaty and resulting in efforts to revise the treaty, i.e. toward the recovery of lost territories and preserving “law and order,” i.e. the existing conservative form of socio-political structure. T. Sakmyster, reviewing the Hungarian edition in 1972, said that this volume “is an admirable and valuable contribution to the study of recent Hungarian history,” and that the author has produced a balanced account of interwar diplomatic history of Hungary with reflections on overall European history of the period. I. Deak calls the volume “an original study.” Under “Sources and References” the author presents an extensive annotated bibliography. The author is a member of the I nstitute of History of the HAS. Kállai, Gyula. THE PEOPLE’S FRONT MOVEMENT IN HUNGARY. Budapest: Corvina Kiadó', 1979. 304 pages. About Ft. 62.00 paper. This is a collection of essays presented as papers in meetings or published in various periodicals (mainly newspapers) in Hungary, and dealing with the role a political umbrella organization can play in the process of implementing the policies of the communist party. It is not a scholarly volume and it does not pretend to be one. Rather it is an (Continued on Page 3) 2 NO. 25, AUTUMN, 1960, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
