Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1999 (16. évfolyam, 55-57. szám)
1999 / 55-57. szám
difficulties that Hungary faced in her struggles to preserve her integrity as a nation, and with respect to the recording of events leading up to the abortive bid for an armistice, the Lakatos account may well be judged one of the most definitive yet in print. Howard M. Layton Mitchell, Ralph. AZ EGYESÜLT ALLAMOK ALKOTMÁNYA: TÖRTÉNET, DOKUMENTUM, MUTATÓK. |The Constitution of the United States: History, Document, Guidel Ed. Gábor Hamza, Trans. Tamás Balázs et. al. Budapest: Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, 1998. Pp. 1-251. ISBN 963-18-9216-6 The Hungarian edition of Ralph Mitchell's The Constitution of the United States is a welcome addition to the "literature," that is available to Hungarians interested in the United States. Until a few years ago, very little appeared in Hungary about American politics. Even after the collapse of Communist regimes in 1989, little appeared aside from translations of popular literature (e.g. Puzo’s Godfather, Robbin Cook's Fever, etc.) One of the first analyses on American politics translated into Hungarian was Alexis DeTocqueville's Democracy in America. However, this was a retrospective analysis on the American system as it appeared to a perceptive Frenchmen at the beginning of the 19th century. More recently, some Hungarian works have begun to appear on American politics that take into account more contemporary developments including Monica Levintsky’s escapades in the White House. However, the present work is particularly significant because it provides Hungarians with a good translation of the American Constitution with commentary provided by Ralph Mitchell and a new introduction for the Hungarian audience by Gábor Hamza. Together, this is an important supplementary text for students who study the government and the political system of the United States. This text is significant for one other reason: it has been published by Hungary’s largest textbook publisher. The text is number eight in a series of books for university students. In this role it will probably become an important supplementary text for classes in comparative politics as well as courses focused on the U.S. political system. While the book includes the original English text as well as the translation of the Constitution, it also has a very useful index and a glossary of terms. Although Mitchell’s appearance in Hungarian is a cause for celebration, there are two minor errors and one neglected feature of the Constitution that can perhaps be remedied by the editor before the next edition of the book. The minor errors can both be found in Hamza's introduction. The first (p. xvii) is probably a typo, but in need of correction. It states that the XVlIIth Amendment of 1913 established the direct election of Senators. This should be changed to XVIIth Amendment. The second, (pp. xx-xxi) includes a misinterpretation of Congressional opposition to FDR’s Court Packing Plan in 1937. This paragraph states that Congress opposed this plan because it would strengthen the Supreme Court. The exact opposite is the case, they feared that the existing balance between the three branches would be undermined if FDR would be able to dilute the Court with the simple addition of more justices. Finally the one constitutional issue that received least attention in Hamza's introduction, but was the most important American contribution to Constitutional thinking, was the effective centralization of power without obliterating the component parts, the "states” of the new political "Union." In other words: Federalism. It would seem to me that this issue of "balancing" local interests with an effective "central authority" is the key to selfBOOKS (Continued) government in democracies that are concerned about the devolution of power: "government of, for, and by the people." In the USA we recommend this book to all those who are involved in the study of comparative politics, particularly the politics of East Central Europe in transition. It is illuminating both in what the commentary ignores and what it emphasizes, in Hungary we recommend it to all active citizens. a.l. Orvos, Mária and Judit Szerb (Eds.) MAGYAR NEMZETI BIBLIOGRÁFIA: KÜLFÖLDÖN MEGJELENŐ HUNGARIKUMOK; KÖNYVEK, ÚJ PERIOD1KUMOK IHungarian National Bibliography: Hungarian Studies Sources Abroad; Books and Periodical Literaturei, Vol. I. (1990) Budapest: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, 1998. Pp. iii-LXVH 1-242. HU ISSN 1219-8536. $12. For close to a decade we have been missing the valuable series of the Hungarian National Bibliography that provided the listings of Hungarian studies related to publications beyond the borders of Hungary. Volume one, including the publications appearing prior to 1990, was finally published in 1998 by the Széchényi National Library, under new parameters, but with the same commitment to standards and precision that we have come to expect from this institution. This long delay is due to the desire to make the reference work compatible with the needs of the new electronic database compilations. According to the introduction to this bibliography, it contains Hungarian publications which appeared within five years of 1990 either as books or edited volumes and are listed in Hungarian library collections. It also provides periodical listings either of Hungarian or foreign language reviews of books and records. These bibliographic entries are generally very concise. Every word contains extensive information within the two-sentence entries. This is the case, because this bibliography is a very ambitious undertaking. It covers bibliographic entries from thirty-two countries, whose bibliographies sometimes fail to identify sources as part of Hungarian Studies. The professional literature identifies four subcategories of Hungarian studies: documents published on the territory of Hungary, sources and publications appearing in the Hungarian language, books or articles by Hungarian authors, and works written about Hungary. The latter three categories can appear in any part of the world. The currently reviewed bibliography deals with the latter sources. The comprehensiveness of the bibliography is limited by the dependence of the editors on the collections available in Hungary. Being aware of the financial limitations of most Hungarian libraries, we have to assume that the bibliography cannot be allcomprehensive. In spite of this, the present compilation fills a significant gap. On the one hand, it guarantees the continuation of the bibliographic series that was discontinued in 1989, which existed from 1971 and 1972 respectively in Hungarika Irodalmi Szemle (The Literary Review of Hungarian Studies) and Külföldi Magyar Nyelvű Kiadványok (the Hungarian Language Publications Outside of Hungary). On the other hand, it again makes it possible to follow Hungarian studies publishing activity beyond the borders. This is a major contribution, as it helps to overcome the extensive geographic dispersal of Hungarian studies sources, as well as keeping track of the translation and publication of Hungarian authors in a global context. The format of this bibliography follows closely the established international standards. Anyone who has worked with computer(Continued on page 10) NO. 55-57, SPRING/SUMMER/AUTUMN 1999, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER 9
