A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 41. (2002)

CSÍKI Tamás: Zemplén vármegye dualizmus kori rajza (Egy 19. század végi szöveg értelmezéséhez)

DESCRIPTION OF ZEMPLÉN COUNTY DURING THE AGE OF DUALISM Recently have appeared in Hungarian historiography discussions about historical narration, moreover, authenticity of historical facts and sources. The conclusions argued that the possibilities of knowledge of the past varied widely from authors to authors or works. According to above mentioned points of view this study takes up the book entitled Zemplén county, wich was written by Ballagi Géza in 1893. The first chapter introduces author touching upon his family, descent, education and political view that have an effect on his approach. (Ballagi recognized the importance of local communal histories and brought together personal observation, statistics and archival researches.) The next chapters cite the text of author that offered several interconnected opportunities. First the study describes circumstantially Zemplén county at the end of 19 century. The nature geography (climate, conditions of soil) and the demographical circumstances of the region, the distribution of the population according to nationality and religiousness, the course of assimilation, the economical structure of the settlements (moreover level of agricultural production and even the formation of the livestock farming), the administration, public health and education will be explained here. Second, the describe of this region provides an opportunity to obtain a clearer picture of the author (of his personality, mentality, parochialism) and practice of his historiography (combination of publicism, describe of land, economic literature and scientific historiography). Tamás Csíki 146