Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1983 (11. évfolyam, 35-38. szám)
1983 / 35-36. szám
/V I I / vi I AMGRICAN HUNGARIAN FOUNDATION HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER BOOKS Anger, Per. WITH RAOUL WALLENBERG IN BUDAPEST: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. Trl. from Swedish by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. Preface by Elie Wiesel. Holocaust Library, 216 West 18 Street, New York, NY 10011, 1981.187 pages, illus. maps, biblio. $8.95 cloth; $4.95 paper. This book is a first-hand account about the heroic role of neutral diplomats saving thousands of Jews during the fateful months of German occupation of Hungary between March 1944 and January 1945. It is most of all a testimony to the rescue operations conducted by the author and his good friend Ranul Wallenberg. Together with other diplomats of neutral countries, such as Swiss consul Charles Lutz, and Apostolic Nuncio Angelo Rótta, they saved thousands of persons from deportation, deprivation, and certain death. The author provides an insight into the conditions which existed during the German occupation, and compares rescue operations of 1944 with those in 1956 when he was assigned to the Swedish Embassy in Vienna. He raises but really does not answer the question why did the Russians arrest Wallenberg. He concludes “I do not know what place Raoul Wallenberg occupies in the history of his people; but I do know the place he occupies in ours: it is a place reserved fora man embodying ourthirst for justice and dignity and above all our quest for humanity.” The author is a member of the Swedish diplomatic corps. Bak, János M. and Bela K. Király eds. FROM HUNYADI TO RÁKÓCZI: WAR AND SOCIETY IN LATE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN HUNGARY. Brooklyn College Press, distributed by Columbia University Press, 562 West 113 Street, New York, NY 10025,1982. xiv + 542 pages, maps, diagrams. $27.50 cloth. (Brooklyn Coll. Studies on Society in Change, no. 12; War and Society in Eastern Central Europe, no. 3; and East European Monographs no. 104). EDITOR'S CORNER In a special announcement on page 16, the Salgo-Noren Foundation is inviting applications for an American Studies Visiting Professorship at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. For this application, American studies is interpreted as including not only the humanities but also social sciences, including such fields as economics and business management related broadly to American studies. One anticipates that this professorship at a major Hungarian university shall offer unique opportunities in teaching and the ability to further develop this experiment. I am much obliged to the following persons who made meaningful contributions to the content of this issue: Martin M. Kovács, Margit Serényi, Bela Vassady, Jr., and Deborah L. Wince. The Editor The reader is introduced to the main subject through the first two chapters authored by the editors. The remaining 27 chapters are focusing on individual events and personalities relevant to the main thrust. The first group of 10 essays discusses the late medieval Hungarian society and war to the battle of Mohács in 1526. It includes studies on medieval Hungarian castles, peasants and the arms, the personality and political/military role of János Hunyadi, the mercenary army of King Matthias, the Hungarian-Croatian border defense system, politics and defense in the Jagellonian period, and the impact of Mohács as a turning point of Hungarian history. Another group of 9 chapters concentrates on salient post-Mohács events, on the continuous Ottoman wars, the anti-Habsburg insurrections of István Bocskai and ImreThököly.the rule of Gábor Bethlen of Transylvania, and on a discussion of education and the arts in contemporary Transylvania. The last group of 8 papers bears the title “For God, Freedom and Fatherland: The War of Independence of Ferenc II Rako'czi,” and comprises studies on the role of the peasantry, on Rákóczi’s strategic decisions, problems of logistics of his armies, his war in the context of European power politics, Hungarian-Russian relations, and the defense of the Austrian border against both the Ottomans and the Hungarian insurgents. The volume contains also reference aids in terms of a chronology, a name index, and a gazetteer. The academic affiliation of the contributors is included in the volume. János Bak is assoc, prof, of history at the U. of British Columbia, and Bela K. Király is prof, of history at Brooklyn Coll. Buchholz, Arnold ed SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES IN THE INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORK: Organization, Financing and Political Relevance. Transnational Publishers, P.O. Box361 Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522,1982.95 pages. $15.00 cloth. This small volume gives an overview of Soviet and East Central European studies in the West, more specifically in the U.S., Great Britian, France, Israel, Japan, West Germany, and in the field of international cooperation in general. The papers included were presented at the Second Congress of the International Committee for Soviet and East European Studies, held at Garmisch, West Germany, in 1980. Each essay describes the organization of relevant activities in one of the countries, including their funding and links between politics and research. Though Hungary has no special treatment in the volume, general observations pertaining to the field are applicable to Hungarian studies. The authors feel that studies of the Soviet Union and East Central European countries may have reached their limits of growth, which seems paradoxical when demand for their output is on the increase. However, the demand seems to be for improved quality based on research with new methodologies, interdisciplinary and international cooperation. A list of 17 affiliated organizations and titles of other selected papers of the congress conclude the volume. (Continued on Page 2) NO. 35-06, SPRING-SUMMER 1983 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
