Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1976 (4. évfolyam, 9-12. szám)
1976 / 11. szám
HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER BOOKS Lukacs, John. THE LAST EUROPEAN WAR: SEPTEMBER 1939 - DECEMBER 1941. Anchor Press/Doubleday, 501 Franklin Avenue, Garden City, NY 11531, 1976. 562 pages, illustr., biblio., $15.00 cloth. This book is not about Hungary specifically but about the historical drama in which Hungary was a minor actor, which nevertheless shaped its future decisively. It is about the history of “the beginning of the final demise of the European state system that has lasted at leastthree hundred years.” It is about the social and intellectual settings and dynamics in which these events have taken place; and about Hitler, who came excruciatingly close to winning the war at this point of history. It is also about errors and misconceptions inferred and proclaimed by earlier historical accounts in regard to personalities and events of these two fateful years. Lukacs takes issue with widely accepted myths and documents his case thoroughly. The first part of the book contains many little-known facts and unusual insights into the political and military events of the period. The second part is a rare piece of cultural history, an attempt to show the sentiments of the people, the convergences of thoughts and beliefs and their effect on the course of history. In regard to Hungary, Lukacs shows that the disinterest of the West in Central Europe goes back much beyond the signing of the Yalta Agreement. “When the question of Hungarians under Czechoslovakian rule came up, soon after Munich, the British and the French governments expressed their disinterest.” “Only two days after the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviet and the Polish governments, brought about through British mediation, an editorial in the London Times (1 August 1941) said: ‘Leadership in Eastern Europe can fall only to Germany or Russia. Neither Great Britain nor the United States can exercise, or will aspire to exercise, any predominant rule in these regions.’” During the same year Stalin produced a draft agreement about how Europe should look after the war, replete with secret protocols again. They are very interesting in retrospect. They tell us volumes about Stalin the practical statesman as opposed to his mythical image as a world revolutionary. They sum up the Russian attitude toward Europe for most of the twentieth century. They are very similar to the propositions of Tsarist diplomacy during the First World War: an Eastern Europe dominated by Russia, a Western Europe presided over by Britain, and a weak and divided Germany between.” He says that “it was Churchill, among all of the statesmen of the Second World War, who best understood and respected the importance of EDITOR'S CORNER When reading John Lukacs’ brilliant volume, The Last European War, one gets the rare sensation of intellectual delight which occurs when sharing in a discovery. But when you try to identify the subject of discovery, the new data which caused this sensation, you find that almost all (though definitely not all) facts presented in this book have been known and written about in the estimated 60,000 publications which have concerned themselves with this subject since World War II. So, you ask yourself “What is different about this volume?” After a little more contemplation you discover the secret: you are exposed to a different perspective. A perspective in which the same old data look entirely different, opening up new vistas and leading to new conclusions, which the customary frames of reference could not accomplish. To some extent it is the role of the HSN to provide a frame of reference for looking at the interdependence of the Hungarian scene with the world at large, emphasizing the human element, the cultural factors in a world where history has been accepted as the history of rulers, where economics has been identified with statistics, and in which social dynamics have been equated with social structure. The HSN does not editorialize and does not publish critical reviews, but it tries to report on relevant data at the broadest scale possible. This is why we include works which reflect the human element in scholarship and science, though they are considered as quasi-scientific at times. Such selection, nevertheless, enables the reader to draw his own conclusions and pursue them in his own frame of reference. There are many among our readers who send us information for publication or comment on the form and content of the HSN. Still, we are not satisfied with knowing the evaluation of this small group alone, and we are planning to solicit the reaction of most of you through a questionnaire to be included in the next issue. Look for it! / /• The editors express their appreciation to Ivan Halasz de Beky, Paula K. Benkart, Kalman Bognár, Helen J. Fedas, Alexander Fenton, András Ludanyi, Janos Miska, Joseph Széplaki and Jeno Vegh for extending assistance and/or encouragement toward the production of this issue. The Editor independent small states in Europe.” As to the social structure of Hungary he says that American and British historians often describe it as “feudal.” “This is largely (Continued on page 2)
