Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - Tibor Giant: The Role of Calvinism in President Wilsotis Relationship to Hungary during World War 1

arguments actually holds water and before progressing to the details of Wilson's Hungarian connections these issues need to be cfarified. Wilson's academic writings and his wartime utterances and policies hardly prove his expertise in (Austro-) Hungarian matters. True, in four of his academic writings he addressed the problems of the Monarchy and Hungary but his output is far from convincing. His first such piece was an early essay on Bismarck in which he did not even mention Hungary and dealt with the Habsburg Empire only superficially.

6 Written in 1889, The State

, Wilson's next piece discussing the Monarchy, is considered to be one of the highlights of his academic career. It is a lengthy exposition on the theory and practice of the state during human history; and it was within this frame of reference that the would-be President discussed Austria-Hungary and offered an

— especially by contemporary American standards

—impressive account of the dualist system. That he paid little if any attention to detail was manifested in his rather strange interpretation of the 'rule of the Magyar gentry' in the separate sub-section on Hungary. That notwithstanding, this fifteen-page section in The State remains Wilson's longest, best and most quoted piece on (Austria-) Hungary.

7 In 1908 in Constitutional Government in the United States Wilson compared the Magna Carta of England and the Golden Bull of Hungary in a way which makes one feel that he should have left the question alone: For all she made a similar beginning, Hungary did not obtain constitutional government, and England did. Undoubtedly the chief reason was that the nobles of Hungary contended for the privileges of a class, while the barons of England contended for the privileges of a nation, and that the Englishmen were not seeking to set up any new law or privilege, but to recover and reestablish what they already had and feared they should 6 Prince Bismarck" in: Arthur Stanley Link, et al., eds., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. 66 vols. (Princeton, 1966—94) 1: 307—14. (Hereafter: WWPs). 7 Thomas Woodrow Wilson, The State. Elements of Historical and Practical Politics. rev. ed. (Boston, 1904): 334—48. (Hereafter: Wilson, The State). 37