Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1982 (10. évfolyam, 31-34. szám)
1982 / 34. szám
/V II / VJI AMERICAN HUNGARIAN FOUNDATION HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER BOOKS Evans, R.J.W. THE MAKING OF THE HABSBURG MONARCHY, 1950-1700: AN INTERPRETATION. Clarendon Press, Oxford U. Press, 16-00 Pollitt Drive, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410, 1979. xxiii + 531 pages. $49.00 cloth. Works on the destruction of the Habsburg Monarchy abound, but studies on its genesis are scarce. This volume is concerned with the broad intellectual movements ofthe 16th century which facilitated the generation and maintenance of such a multicultural political unit as the Habsburg Monarchy, and it also investigates the evolution of this entity in terms of cultural history rather than in that of power politics and military events. In this approach, integral parts of the Monarchy, such as Hungary and Transylvania assume as much relative weight as any other part, including Austria. In the first part of the study, the author is concerned with the principal intellectual currentsofthe time; in the second part, he probes the forces of cohesion in an ethnically highly diversified society illustrating his theses with case studies including one on Hungary. In the third part, the author ventures into discussing some cultural forces seldom noted in historical treatises investigating the role of magic, astrology, and witchcraft. K. Hitchins, reviewing the volume (Ragusan Research Bulletin no. 2, June 1980) says that “in Hungary ... a community of interest between the dynasty, the Catholic Church, and the aristocracy fell into place, but here the persistence of Calvinism, the tradition of the Hungarian Constitution, and the refusal of the Catholic clergy to subordinate the Church to Habsburg cosmopolitanism prevented the court from establishing the same degree of absolutism as in Bohemia . . We have here an abundance of ideas and a sharpness of argument that combine to offer new perspectives on the foundation of modern Central Europe.” Fekete, János. BACK TO THE REALITIES: Reflections of a Hungarian Banker. Budapest: Akadémiai kiadó, 1982. 359 pages. $35.00 cloth. This volume comprises 34 essays representing articles, studies, and lectures prepared during the past 15 years by the most knowledgeable men of the field in Hungary. Twenty-two of the essays deal with contemporary international economic and monetary issues, and 12 essays with similar issues in Hu ngary, especial ly with the reform of the system of economic control and management. Discussed are the main economic and financial realities and how they affect the Hungarian economy. The author is deeply committed to factual knowledge and says that no success can be expected in the absence of a policy based on facts. He credits the success of Hungarian reforms to the recognition of the realities of the international economic environment and of NO. 34, WINTER 1962-83, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEW5LETTER 10 YEARS Aldous Huxley once said that he had peeked into the future, and it did not work. But it still does. Some of my good friends said ten years ago that a newsletter of the HSN character could not last. But it did. And I hope it will continue to serve and please you during the years to come. At the tenth anniversary of publication it may be appropriate to recall our original pledge: to inform you about the wide variety of scholarly activities related to Hungarian studies in the English language. Well, some of us feared that there won’t be sufficient material to fill the pages of the newsletter. In fact, we could report on only about 3/5 ofthe available publications, due to lack of space, time, and money. We reported on 355 Hungarian-relevant books, on 65 doctoral dissertations, and we selected 342 articles and papers for review, mainly from professional journals. Now, that we feel reassured of having done something useful, we would like to thank all those who contributed to the success of the HSN. We will need your continuous support, and that of new readers, as well. domestic political and economic conditions. Hungary reorganized its agriculture into large-scale farming, in the early 1960s, introduced the present economic management system in 1968, but then viered off to unrealistic illusions in the mid-1970s, only to return to realities in the 1981-85 Five- Year-Plan. In view of the prevailing international monetary chaos, the author proposes first the establishment of regional currency zones before a world-wide order could be created. He says that “while the world is based partly on a socialist and partly on a capitalist social system, and both systems are developing according to their own laws, there are not two world markets, there are no ‘capitalist and socialist’ machines and products, but only good or bad machines, modern or obsolete products, irrespective of the social system of their countries of origin.” For Hungary he recommends a temporarily slowdown in growth of disposable income, the promotion of export-oriented use of foreign credit, harmonization of domestic and international prices, and in general the maintenance of an internal-external equilibrium. This is certainly a most informative, comprehensive, and important volume on the state ofthe Hungarian economy in a world context (whether one agrees with the theses or not) that came to our attention in recent years. This should not come as a surprise to the reader, since the author, after holding various key positions in the government, is now first deputy president of the Hungarian National Bank and a prolific writer of books and articles in the field of economics, in addition of being one of the principal architects of the present system. (Continued on Page 2)
