Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1982 (10. évfolyam, 31-34. szám)
1982 / 33. szám
HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER No. 33 ISSN: 0194-164X AUTUMN, 1982 Published quarterly by the Hungarian Research Center of the American Hungarian Foundation: Winter, Spring (two numbers included), and Autumn. Founderand editor: Bela Charles Maday. Journal editor: Susan M. Nagy. 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, N.J. 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) Kabdebo, Thomas, comp. HUNGARY. World Bibliography Series, vol. 15. Robert L. Collison, general editor. American Bibliography Center - Clio Press, Riviera Campus, 2040 Alameda Padre Serra, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. LVI + 281 pages, map. $34.75 cloth. This volume has 1094 annotated entries on the most important Hungarian works dealing with the geography, history, economy, and politics of Hungary; and with Hungarian culture and social organization. The titles are 96% English, 3% other Western languages, and 1% Hungarian. According to the publisher, this volume provides the only consistently annotated Hungarian catalogue in English,” and it undoubtedly provides the Hungarian oriented researcher with a timely tool. A 53 page long introduction attempts to sketch a highly condensed cultural/historical background of Hungary and includes such helpful items as a list of the outstanding poets and writers. The introduction also reflects on Hungarian publication trends and states that Hungary is about the fourth country in Europe when ranked by bookper-head average, “making it a bookish country.” The introduction is followed by a useful glossary of first names, geographical terms, institutions and their acronyms, as well as general Hungarian terms for the non-Hungarian speaking reader. The main body of the volume is topically organized, and is followed by a composite index of authors, titles, and subjects. It conforms to the general format of the series wh ich tries to provide an interpretation “of each country that will express its culture, its place in the world, and the qualities and background that make it unique.” The complier is social science librarian at the John Rylands U. Library of Manchester, and honorary lecturer in military studies at the U. of Manchester, England. Károlyi Széchényi, Ilona. [Countess Victor Károlyi, nee Ilona Széchényi] THE PENDULUM SWINGS. American Hungarian Literary Guild, Rt. 1, Box 59, Astor, FL 32002, 1980. 198 pages, illus. $15.00 paper. World War II ended some 37 years ago and the history and cost-effectiveness of social destruction in Eastern Europe has yet to be chronicled. We really do not know what the transformation had cost in dollars and in human terms. The destruction had been almost total at the top of the social pyramid, yet many have survived it. What happened to the members of Hungarian aristocracy? How many died prematurely in combat, in prison, in flight, and in the efforts of resettlement? How many “made it” and remained at the upper echelons of the society in which they settled? How many did not make it and what has become of them? Nobody, to our knowledge, has taken a comprehensive look at the fate of abolished social classes and their members. The book before us is certainly not such a volume. It focuses on the flight and life of a handful of Károlyis and Széchényis during the most trying times of World War II and thereafter. But through one family’s fate the reader is inclined to generalize about the motivation of actions and the depth of emotions and sufferings. It is a deeply human story observed and written by a member of a family that had played a leading role in Hungarian history. The author, born in 1898, lives in London and is a portrait painter who credits her survival to this artistic skill. László, Ervin and Joel Kurtzman eds. EASTERN EUROPE AND THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER; Representative Samples of Socialist Perspectives. Pergamon Press, Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsdorf, NY 10523, 1980. xiii + 107 pages, tables. $17.50 cloth. This volume is one of 17 books which make up the NIEO (New International Economic Order) Library, published by the CEESTEM (Center for Economic and Social Studies of the Third World). In the winter of 1976-77 the United Nations Institute for Training and Research initiated a series of inquiries into problems and opportunities associated with the establishment of the NIEO as conceived by CEESTEM. The concern of this volume lies with analysis of the views, positions, and practices of selected socialist countries toward a new and more equitable economic order and its ramifications in the political and social spheres. The Hungary-related chapter, Hungary and the Third World: A Case Study of Trends and Policies of Cooperation written by Mihály Simái (Inst, for World Economics, Budapest) details the interrelations between the Hungarian and world economies pointing out some of the adjustments the Hungarian economy must perform if it were to promote the equitable goals set by the economists of CEESTEM. Changes in the direction and content of foreign trade and cooperation will demand adjustments in the national economy. Such adjustments have been taken into consideration in the 1981-85 five year plan, during which Hungary will try to reduce or completely halt production in certain goods and will rely instead on imports from a few developing countries such as Vietnam and India. The editors are the principal executives of the project on the NIEO. Lendvai, Pal. THE BUREAUCRACY OF TRUTH; How Communist Governments Manage the News. Burnett Books/Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301, 1981. 285 pages, tables, biblio notes. $24.75 cloth. Practitioners of crosscultural communication face various pitfalls. For one thing, concepts expressed by identical symbols may have quite different, frequently contradictory, meanings when used across ideological barriers. “Peace” e.g., can have a variety of meanings depending on where and by whom it is used. One conceptual area in which most confusion persists is communication itself. Think of what constitutes “news” and how it is managed in the West and in the Communist world. That “news” means something different to the Western mind than to the Communist mind, has not been very clearly understood in the West. The volume is concerned with the countries of Eastern Europe and compares the use of mass media, the concept of newsworthiness, censorship, and the prospects of a freer exchange of information in terms of the Helsinki agreement. The author says that 2 NO. 33, AUTUMN 1982, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEW5 LETTER
