Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1983 (11. évfolyam, 35-38. szám)

1983 / 37. szám

Magocsi, Paul R. comp. A Guide to Newspapers and Periodicals. Toronto: Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto, 1983. 42 pages, illus. N.p.

This guide contains a list of over 400 reels of microfilm, comprising complete or nearly complete runs of 175 newspapers and journals of western Ukrainian provenance published between 1848 and 1918. Most of the journals are in Slavic languages but some Hungarian language journals published in Uzhhorod (Ungva'r) such as Felvidék, Kárpáti Hirnök, Magyar Kárpát, and Ungvári Hírlap, as well as an entry for Ukránia published in Budapest are included. The bulk of the material was microfilmed from the holdings of the Austrian National Library (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) in Vienna, others from various libraries in Europe and the U.S. The collection is a donation to the U. of Toronto by Peter Jacyk. The comp, is a research fellow at the Ukrainian Research Inst., Harvard U. □

STUDIA HI3TORICA. Most all of our readers are familiar with the journals ('acfaj published by the various institutes of the HAS. E.g., Acta Orientalia or Acta Ethnographica. These acta are important outlets for Hungarian scholars and facilitate insight into Hungarian scientific life in general. The essays of the journals are printed in various world languages in addition to Hungarian, and most of them have abstracts in another language. Some institutes of the HAS publish additional journals or series specializing in the substantive

DISSERTATION*

Lazar, Thomas Frank (U. of California, Los Angeles, 1982) Land Reforms, Public Health Policy and the Family in Rural Hungary: A Study of Directed Social Change. 321 pages. Microfilm and xerox no. DA8229685.

The study assumes a “systems relationship” between families, broader societal structures, and various processes of social and economic development. Accordingly, change in one component of the system can reorder priorities and existing patterns, and establish new bases for interaction among participants. Directed social change policies, such as land reforms, family planning, civil rights, and health care legislation, can create pressures on family to modernize. Two major societal legislative acts of recent years that involved rural communities were the Land Act of 1967, and the Public Health Act of 1972. The first declared the desirability of identifying land ownership with land use and provided a step-by-step introduction of cooperative ownership of land as a condition of further progress toward a socialist agriculture. The second declared that every citizen is entitled to free medical care. It further provided that persons under 35 years of age could not be married unless they provide proof of having had consultation with a physician. The author conducted fieldwork in the villages of Decs and Sárpilis in Tolna County, to examine the impact of the above legislation on family structure and composition and to provide information concerning emerging social and economic factors affecting rural familial organizations in the process of modernization.

'Abstracts are usually based on those published in Dissertation Abstracts international. Microfilm and xerox copies of the original full dissertation may be obtained, when indicated, from Xerox University Microfilm 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106. When ordering, use the number shown.

fields of their members. In the following we attempt to sample these important sources by presenting references to ten English language publications in the Studia Historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae series, distributed by Akadémiai kiadd’ in 1980. The number preceding each title refers to the publication’s number in the series. □

No. 133. E. Polya, in The Contracts in theTryptichs Found in Transylvania and their Hellenistic Features. (16 pages, $1.50 paper) reports on Roman wax tablets found in Transylvania between 1786 and 1855 in small gold mines near Verespatak (Rosia Montaná). The tablets were prepared in duplicates, one sealed into a container, the other left outside for the inspection of anyone. The tablets contain mainly legal contracts and reflect on the legal practices of the area in Roman and post-Roman times. Characteristic features of Hellenistic common law appear repeatedly in the documents when one of the contracting parties is Greek. □

No. 138. Zs.P.Pach reports in The Transylvanian Route of Levantine Trade at the Turn of the 15th and 16th Centuries

(35 pages, $3.00 paper) of findings following research on the Hungarian aspects of medieval Levantine trade (See Etudes Historiques Hongroises, Budapest, 1975. Vol. I, pp. 283-307.) He tries to establish the volume of trade, identify the middlemen, and trace the movement of the spices not absorbed in southern Transylvania. □

No. 140. L. Makkai in Agrarian Landscapes of Historical Hungary in Feudal Times, (16 pages, $1.50 paper) says that 14th century Hungary had applied the best of European agricultural practices and had undergone a social transformation: from freemen of different status and from slaves there emerged a feudal structure with a nobility, an urban middleclass, and serfs. The peasantry was free of seignoral bonds and included a considerable segment of noble smallholders. In the 15th century many rural residents moved to urban market centers, while agriculture and animal husbandry diversified. Hence, the Carpathian Basin remained a stabilized agrarian landscape in spite of an undesirable division between rural and urban populations. □

No. 145. a'.R. Várkonyi in ‘Ad Pacem Universalem’; the International Antecendents of the Peace of Szatmár (36

pages, $3.00 paper) discusses the settlement of the war between Hungary and Transylvania on the one hand and the Habsburg dynasty on the other. The treaty which ended the seven-year war in 1711 was not included into the overall European peace efforts. It was based on a compromise between the dynasty and the Hungarian Estates, something like a domestic bargain. The author evaluates the attempts made by the various European powers to establish a peaceful relationship between the Hungarians and the dynasty. He takes issue with a narrow interpretation of the antecedents of the treaty. He feels that the history of the treaty was an intrinsic part “of the history of international efforts made for international peace, andthe European balance of power.” □

No. 146. I. Ka'llay Management of Big Estates in Hungary Between 1711 and 1848 (24 pages, $2.20 paper), analyzes the history of the government (management) of large estates as it related to ownership, and says that the existence and function of estate management was guaranteed by central governmental authority and “served direct oppression.” The scope of the authority encompassed not only economic management tasks but a score of functions of public administration. □

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NO. 37, AUTUMN 1983, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

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