Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1981 (9. évfolyam, 27-30. szám)
1981 / 30. szám
Ml /ul AMGRICAN HUNGARIAN FOUNDATION HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER BOOKS Seton-Watson, Hugh and Christopher. THE MAKING OF A NEW EUROPE: R[obert] W. Seton-Watson and the Last Years of Austria-Hungary. U. of Washington Press, Seattle, WA 98105,1981. 470 pages, maps, biblio. $50.00 cloth. For decades Hungarians mainly blamed Czech politicians, especially Masaryk and Benes, for manipulating persons of the Allied leadership in favor of the dissolution of the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy. Among them was R.W.Seton-Watson (1879-1951), who had his own ideas of a new Eastern Europe and pursued them with enthusiasm. He tried first of all to persuade the British government to put his ideas into effect, and not without success. The book, in addition to contributing to the history of the last years of Austria- Hungary and the creation of the successor states, it also demonstrates the influence “which a private individual could exercise on public policy in the first half of this century.” R. W. Seton-Watson desired to preserve the monarchy, but “when the choice between maintenance of the monarchy and support of its component nations could no longer be avoided, he chose the latter cause.” His sons admit that “after sixty years it is easy to see what went wrong with the new order established in Central and Eastern Europe by the victory of the Allies and the disintegration of the Habsburg monarchy. I n each of the new states there prevailed a narrow official nationalism, very similar to the official nationalism of the Magyarizers in Dualist Hungary between 1867 and 1918: this applies even to Czechoslovakia, where political institutions and political climate both were more liberal and humane than in neighboring states. Every state was on bad terms with most or all of its neighbors, and either had claims on their territory or faced claims from them on its own.” The volume is based on Seton-Watson’s private papers, and the pages of his weekly periodical, The New Europe. It is a most significant publication for all Hungarianists. Hugh Seton-Watson is prof, of Russian history at the U. of London; Christopher Seton-Watson is lecturer in politics at Oxford U. Bodor, Ferenc, ed. NOMAD NEMZEDEK; Ifjúság és Ne'pmüve'szet Magyarorsza'gon 1970-1980. [NOMADIC GENERATION: Youth and Folk Art in Hungary, 1970-1980.] Ne'pmüvele'si Intezet, Budapest Corvin te'r 8, Hungary 1251, 1981. 142 pages, illus., n.p., paper. This book was compiled for the Seventh Danubian Folkore Festival, the Second International Folklorism Conference, and “The Youth and the Folk Art in Hungary 7970-7980”exhibition. Designer was Zsuzsanna Albert. Idealists of each generation hope to leave behind lasting proof of their contribution toward a better world. The postwar generation had an unusually difficult task in clari-NO. 30, WINTER 1981-1982, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER tying its ideals. Strong foreign influence, accelerated industrialization and urbanization created asocial environment of uncertainties in which the old was condemned and the new was yet to be formed. This album attempts to present the efforts of the postwar generation in locating, under the veneer of the new, the lasting traditional values and forms of expression which may be preserved and perpetuated for the future. It tries to present the dynamic aspects of folklorism and the intensive involvement of the youth in such activities as folk music, dance, pottery, weaving, wood cutting, shelter building. It is an effort of self-expression of a rather heterogeneous group encompassing a much larger stratum than one generation. Some 230 black and white pictures are accompanied by an English/Hungarian bilingual text of which, we regret to say, the English portion is unpalatable. Kosztolnyik, Z(oltan) J. FIVE ELEVENTH CENTURY HUNGARIAN KINGS: THEIR POLICIES AND THEIR RELATIONS WITH ROME. East European Monographs no. 79, distributed by Columbia U. Press, 562 West 113 Street, New York, N.Y. 10025, 1981. 237 pages, biblio. $20.00 cloth. The purpose of this study is to acquaint the reader with the policies of Hungarian kings before and after settlement, with special attention given to King Stephen I and to Bishop Gerard (Gellert) of Csanád. The study is based on contemporary documents and conclusions drawn thereof. It begins with a discussion of the origins of the Hungarians as portrayed in Hungarian and Byzantine chronicles, frequently quoting the original Latin text (at times without English translation). Early in his treatise the author comes to the conclusion that at the time when the Hungarians settled in the Carpathian Basin, they were “a partly Israelitish” people. This observation which is likely to provoke some arguments is based on the Chronicon pictum, (Képes Krónika), a fourteenth century Hungarian chronicle in Latin. Accordingly, Hunor and Magor “led the Magyars on a raid against the territory of their neighbor, (in the region of the sea of Azov) Prince Bereka, and kidnapped Bereka’s wives and his grandsons. Two of the captured women were daughters of Dule of the Alans, a Scythian prince, and Magor and Hunor took them to wife. The Chronicon pictum relates the following about the raid: ‘the Magyars came upon the wives and the grandsons of Bereka by chance, abiding in the wilderness, without [mature] males, in tents, while they were keeping the festival of the trumpet and were dancing to the accompaniment of the tambourine. The language of the Chronicon pictum here suggests the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. It suggests that, since they were celebrating in Jewish fashion a Jewish feast, the women captured by Magor and h is party were of Jewish faith.” It would be unfair to overlook the rather original interpretations of the era which fills the remaining pages of the volume in which the substantive text covers 109 pages, documentation and notes 80 pages, a bibliography 24 pages, and a bibliographical essay (Continued on Page 2)
