This book looks at the problems connected with the modernization of a Central European state and its development from a feudal to a civil society. Using the history of Hungary over the last 150 years as a model, the author sheds light on political, social and economic trends in the region as a whole.

Péter Hajdu examines the cultivation of the Classics as an intellectual framework and crucial ingredient of the western aspect of Hungarian national identity. This book approaches the relationship of modern Hungarian culture to classical heritage from the various viewpoints of identity politics, education, translation history, scholarship, and its impact on literature. When the Hungarian nation-building project developed ideas of national identity, it necessarily incorporated the historical narrative according to which the Hungarians arrived at their current homeland in the Middle Ages, and only later did it adopt European culture. The duplicity of a mostly imagined Asian, pagan, barbaric or nomadic culture, and a Western, Christian, civilized identity, deeply rooted in European culture, has played and continues to play a role in the Hungarian discourse. Hajdu also studies the gradual disappearance of classics from the Hungarian school education since the 19th century, which has been accompanied by fervid political debates. However, over this period, translations of classical texts paradoxically became more frequent and popular with the decline of a classical education, even though fewer readers had access to the original texts. Despite this change, the translation strategies tended to remain school-bound. The knowledge of classical literature still leaves traces on Hungarian literature, which Hajdu explores using examples from nineteenth-century novels and contemporary poetry. This book sheds light on a topic of classical reception that has remained largely unexplored in this part of Europe, but one which has an incredibly rich history, culture and literary tradition.

During the 1884 inauguration of the Royal Hungarian Opera House in Budapest, political elites staged a gala concert in the auditorium while the angry crowd, excluded from this ceremony, demonstrated on the street. In 1917, the crowds queuing to a Béla Bartók premiere needed to be forcibly held back. The book follows the history of the contested institution through a series of scandals, public protests, repertoire controversies and their representation in the urban press of the time. Such conflicts often led to larger issues that concerned the Opera House as a music institution, the birth of the modern public sphere and the modern audience. Thereby, the book calls for a critical rethinking of the cultural history of Budapest and Hungary in the late Habsburg Monarchy.

After the shock of the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, which Hungarians perceived as an unfair dictate, the leaders of the country found it imperative to change Hungary?s international image in a way that would help the revision of the post-World War I settlement. The monograph examines the development of interwar Hungarian cultural diplomacy in three areas: universities, the tourist industry, and the media?primarily motion pictures and radio production. It is a story of the Hungarian elites? high hopes and deep-seated anxieties about the country?s place in a Europe newly reconstructed after World War I, and how these elites perceived and misperceived themselves, their surroundings, and their own ability to affect the country?s fate. The defeat in the Great War was crushing, but it was also stimulating, as Nagy documents in his examination of foreignlanguage journals, tourism, radio, and other tools of cultural diplomacy. The mobilization of diverse cultural and intellectual resources, the author argues, helped establish Hungary?s legitimacy in the international arena, contributed to the modernization of the country, and established a set of enduring national images. Though the study is rooted in Hungary, it explores the dynamic and contingent relationship between identity construction and transnational cultural and political currents in East-Central European nations in the interwar period.

This book explores the memory of the First Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, which proved crucial for communist Hungarian political culture in the twentieth century. Apor approaches the topic in an innovative way, focusing on the understudied aspects of European memory cultures. Offering great insights on how a dictatorship remembers and the concept of authenticity, Apor’s study integrates the broad range of processes through which history is sought to be rendered authentic. The volume successfully reveals the crooked history of the retrospective revisions of the iconic First Republic between the years of its 30th and 40th anniversary, 1949 and 1959.

This lively collection of essays is a fine blend of political, social and cultural history, setting Hungary's development within the context of Central Europe as a whole and thus providing an important comparison with the development of other countries in the region. At the same time, through his exploration of historical trends, Professor Gero sheds valuable light on the processes of contemporary political and social thought.

A contemporary analysis of the people, cultures, and society within the regions that make up Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture sheds light on modern-day life in the 16 nations comprising Eastern Europe. Going beyond the history and politics already well documented in other works, this unique three-volume series explores the social and cultural aspects of a region often ignored in books and curricula on Western civilization. The volumes are organized by geographic proximity and commonality in historical development, allowing the countries to be both studied individually and juxtaposed against others in the region. The first volume covers the northern tier of states, the second looks at lands that were once part of the Hapsburg empire, and the third examines the Balkan states. Each chapter profiles a single country—its geography, history, political development, economy, and culture—and gives readers a glimpse of the challenges that lie ahead. Vignettes on various topics of interest illuminate the unique character of each country.