Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1984 (12. évfolyam, 39-42. szám)

1984 / 39-40. szám

HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

No. 39-40 ISSN: 0194-164X SPRING-SUMMER, 1984

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. 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.0. Box 1084, New Brunswick, N. J. 08903. Annual Subscription in the U.S.A. $5.00. Abroad $7.00. Current single copy $3.00; back issues $3.50 each.

BOOKS (Continued)

Bodolai, Zoltán. HUNGARICA; A Chronicle of Events and Personalities from the Hungarian Past. Hungária Publishing Co., 18 Finch Avenue, Concord, N.S.W., 2137, Australia, 1983.368 pages (164 in English and 104 in Hungarian), maps, tables, biblio, illus. $9.50 paper.

This bilingual text reads like some periodical’s “Today’s People” column, aiming the spotlight at historical events and personalities chosen at random by their anniversaries. The volume presents a historical mosaic reflecting on most every aspect of Hungarian culture. E.g., among the 17 events which have their anniversaries in the month of January, listed are: the commemoration of Hungarian immigrants on Australia's Foundation Day; Petofi’s birthday in 1823; a military victory gained at Pozsony in 1052; Kossuth’s address to the U.S. Senate in 1852; the massacre of several hundred Székelys at Mádefalva in 1764; the return of the Holy Crown of St. Stephen from the U.S. to Hungary in 1978; the destruction of the 2nd Hungarian Field Army at the River Don in 1943; etc. Written in distinguished English and good Hungarian, the volume will be found useful for Hungarian language and culture courses aimed at strengthening ethnic identity.

Cadzow, John F., Andrew Ludanyi, and Louis J. Elteto, eds., TRANSYLVANIA: the Roots of Ethnic Conflict. Kent State U. Press, Kent, OH 44242, 1983. vi + 368 pages, appendixes, maps, footnotes. $32.50 cloth.

Transylvania is a historic region within the Carpathian Basin of East Central Europe. It’s Hungarian name is Erdély. The Romanian call itTransilvaniaorArdeal, and the Germans refer to it as Siebenbürgen. Throughout the past 1,000 years Transylvania experienced most of the problems that beset multicultural societies. At times it overcame them in exemplary fashion as during its golden age when the principality was the chief center of Hungarian culture while the greater part of the country was under Ottoman occupation and when declaring the equality of the Hungarian, German, and Székely (Szekler) “nations” within its borders. At times, human weakness devised systems inappropriate for the solution of such problems. Presently, the Romanian ethnic group creates an unhealthy imbalance among minorities, especially in relation to the Hungarian ethnic group which constitutes the largest ethnic minority within European countries. A solution to the problems must be quite complex, because the composite groups are not merely “ethnic minorities, but significant linguistic, and cultural blocks that differ from the

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majority population in historical and religious traditions.” This book, based on papers presented at a symposium on Transylvania (May 1979) at Kent St. U., is an attempt to describe the present conditions under which the Romanian effort is exerted toward the establishment of a nation-state rather than a multicultural setting for all peoples of Romania. The 14 essays, written mostly by historians, are grouped into four sections: L.S. Domonkos, L.J. Elteto, and B.K. Király examine interethnic relations from the Middle Ages through the 18th Century; J. Held, P. Body, I. Deák, E.W. Stroup, and S.B. Vardy focus on the historical period when ethnic groups polarized politically; P. Pastor, S. Fischer-Galati, and S.D. Kertesz analyze the impact of World War I and II on the region; and A. Ludanyi, E. Illyés, and B. Veress describe the cultural context of majority-minority relations in contemporary T ransylvania.

Cadzow is the director of the Ethnic Heritage Program at Kent St. U.; Ludany is prof, of political science at Ohio Northern U.; and Elteto is chairman of the Dept, of Foreign Languages at Portland St. U.

Chase-Dunn, Christopher K. ed. SOCIALIST STATES IN THE WORLD-SYSTEM. Sage Publications, 275 South Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA90212,1983.304 pages, diagrams, charts, tables. $28.00 cloth; $14.00 paper.

This collection of essays had been written in an activist Marxist frame of reference discussing the theoretical aspects of a socialist economic world-system and the role of socialist states therein. Illustrations are given through seven case studies: Soviet, Chinese, Cuban, Jamaican, Thai/Kampuchean, Vietnamese, and East Central European. The latter chapter was written by Arpad Abonyi (lecturer in politics, Queen’s U., Kingston, Canada) with only seven references to the Hungarian scene. The author asserts that after a good many years of emulating the Soviet model, East Central European socialist states “reintegrated specific industrial sectors into theglobal technological and financial networks,” i.e., have become “functional parts of the world capitalist system.” The study aims at examining the contradictions generated in the course of indigeneous development, and concludes that “Soviet-type industrialization in East Europe has had to be augmented by capitalist sources of growth... It would seem, therefore, that the socialist world-system is withering rather than emerging.” The concluding chapter of the book written by the editor is an appeal for the promotion of the transition to world socialism. “This should not be taken as a call for devoting all energy to the global level of organization. Indeed, the victory of global socialism is undoubtedly off in the long run, and in the meantime socialists must continue to do as well as they can in households, neighborhoods, communities, firms, cities, nation-states, and international regions.”

The editor is assist, prof, of social relations at Johns Hopkins U.

Dawisha, Karen and Philip Hanson eds., SOVIET-EAST EUROPEAN DILEMMAS; Coercion, Competition, and Consent. Holmes and Meier, 30 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003 (in behalf of the Royal Institute of International Affairs), 1981. xiii + 226 pages, tables. $27.50 cloth, $11.50 paper.

The essays in this volume are revised versions of papers presented in 1979-80 to a Chatham House study group on

NO. 39-40, SPRING-SUMMER 1984 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER