Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1999 (16. évfolyam, 55-57. szám)

1999 / 55-57. szám

commenced merger negotiations with the leadership of another “national” Hungarian fraternal association, the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. The latter made return to the Hungarian ethnic symbols a precondition for merging. They suggested that the unified association manifest its Hungarian origin in its name also. However, this attempt at unification failed in 1982 due to its rejection by the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America.

Both the confrontation of the individual interests of the leaders, and the prevailing public belief in the Hungarian ethnic communities, that the William Penn Association gave up too much of the Hungarian and the fraternal traditions, turned the majority of the HRFA against the merger. Those who opposed the merger saw their opposition justified when the William Penn Association was joined by the Catholic Knights of Saint George, a fraternal aid association founded by German immigrants.

With this merger in 1983 of the latter two associations the social base and ethnic composition of the membership of the William Penn Association changed. The modified Constitution,however still stressed general fraternal activities in addition to the insurance business.

This transformation of 1983 coincided with the end of the nearly 20 years reign of the president, which also meant the end of a well established personal power-network based on brilliant organizing talent and on division of interests. Since then, the presidency has changed hands a number of times. The amendment of the Constitution, which transferred the election of the president from the Convention to the Board of Directors, transformed the Association into a potential battlefield of different interest groups.

The future of the William Penn Association-as a Hungarian ethnic institution, - like the future of other fraternals, - raises more concern than hope. However, until today it is a fact that this Association is one of the major supporters of the Hungarian heritage programs and the American Hungarian Foundation.

In the course of the last 110 years, it bacame the largest Hungarian founded fraternal association in America (by 1955 with 80,000 members). Its existence represented one of the chief trends in the history of immigrant Hungarians in the United States. Sociological history may be tracked down in its documents: the history of their characteristics, of their strenuous workers existence, of the conflicts endured by them in the course of the shaping and the changing of the forms and function of the immigrants’ communities. The history of the Association also portrays the efforts made by its members and the Association to adapt themselves to the new surroundings. The failures and successes of their historical past are exploitable experiences for future generations, too. Thus, we ought to offer grants for competitions in order to promote the study of these experiences and make people acquainted with them. Julianna Puskás

BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS:

RECENT AND NEW

In the revived recent issues of the Hungarian Studies Newsletter we indicated that we would attempt to make up for the reviews we missed during the past eleven years. The number of such works is legion and will require the assistance of everyone who reads our Newsletter. Please bring to our attention the titles of books you think we should review and also let us know if you would be willing to review some of these works. The main criteria should be

William Penn Association (Continued)

that the books have "staying power” as contributions to Hungarian studies, are still available for purchase, and are written in English or Hungarian.

Bakó, Elemér. Ed. MAGYAROK AZ AMERIKAI EGYESÜLT ÁLLAMOKBAN: ÖT ÉVSZÁZAD VÁLOGATOTT TÖRTÉNETEI, 1583-1998 iHungarians in the United States: Five Centuries of Selected Historical Essays] in A VILÁG MAGYARSÁGA (Hungarians of the Worldl Introduced by László Papp. Budapest: Magyarok Világszövetsége Nyugati Régiója, 1998. Pp. 154.

The book under review is one of the volumes in a series initiated by the World Federation of Hungarians, which in the course of time will have many similar volumes. It is partially an anecdotal history of the Hungarians in the United States, and partially a book of facts on their most noted institutions, publications and personalities.

The volume starts with an introduction by László Papp, the Founding President of the American Branch of the Hungarian World Federation, and currently the President of the Western Region of the Budapest-based Hungarian World Federation. This is followed by the editor’s preface, and then by nearly two dozen short essays of unequal length and of diverse nature about the Hungarian American past. Together these twenty-odd essays cover over four centuries that span the period between the arrival of Stephen Parmenius of Buda in 1583 and the year 1998. Some of these essays have already appeared in print elsewhere, others were delivered as speeches on various occasions, while still others were written specifically for this volume.

The essays cover such topics as the tragic life of Stephen Parmenius (pp. 12-13), the fascinating adventures of Captain lohn Smith (pp. 14-16), Prince Ferenc Rákóczi's connections to the New World (pp. 20-24), Sándor Bölöni-Farkas’s travels in early nineteenth-century America (pp. 28-31), Ágoston Haraszthy’s role as the “father” of Californian viticulture (pp. 32-39), Louis Kossuth's tour of the United States and its significance for American- Hungarian relations (pp. 40-42), and many others. In addition to these topics, the editor also included some useful statistical tables on Hungarian immigration to the United States and Canada (pp. 52-53), President Harry Truman’s 1952 letter to the American Hungarian Federation and to Hungarian Americans in general (pp. 72-73), as well as a list of Hungarian Nobel laureates and those who should also have received the Nobel Prize.

The documentary section of the volume includes a list of Hungarian Catholic and Protestant churches, religious institutions and associations, Hungarian schools, scout troops and various cultural and political organizations as well as a selection of Hungarian-American newspapers, periodicals, and radio and television stations in the United States (pp. 95-154).

While this book is not a synthetic history of the Hungarian American past, it does give us a glimpse into some of the important slices of the past. The enclosed essays are interesting, reliable and delightful to read. This itself is a major achievement, for - as stated by the author himself - those who are engaged in writing about the Hungarian American past are fully aware of the embryonic nature of basic research in this area. For this very reason, it is virtually impossible to produce a comprehensive synthetic work that could satisfy the essential requirements of respectable historical scholarship.

While the enclosed essays are reliable and useful, the situation is less so with the documentary section, where the enclosed information is often dated and somewhat confused. Associations and

(Continued on page 7)

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NO. 55-57, SPRING/SUMMER/AUTUMN 1999, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER