Hungary's Long Nineteenth Century: Constitutional and Democratic Traditions in a European Perspective: 1
Author(s): László Péter (Author), Miklós Lojkó
Publisher: Brill
Publication Date: 23 Mar. 2012
Language: English
Print length: 500 pages
ISBN-10: 900422212X
ISBN-13: 9789004222120
Book Description
László Péter, whose fourteen carefully selected essays are edited in this posthumous collection, was an indefatigable seeker of the most appropriate terminological modelling and narrative reconstruction of Hungary’s late nineteenth and early twentieth century progress from an essentially feudal entity into a modern European state. The articles examine thorny subjects, such as the growing tensions between the nationalities living within the multi-ethnic kingdom; language rights; autocracy, democracy and civil rights in Hungary perceived in a wider European context; the concept of the ‘Holy Crown’; the army question; church-state relations; the role of the intellectuals; and the changing British perception of Hungary. The central focus of the author’s microscope is reserved for a substantive re-evaluation of the Settlement between Hungary and the Austrian Empire in 1867, which had a decisive impact on the eventual fate of the old kingdom of Hungary and of the rest of Central Europe.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Twenty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain the time has come for historians of Hungary and the surrounding countries to reflect on the conclusions of this thoughtful life’s work in their own research. An edition of the author’s collected essays could provide help in this project.” András Cieger, in The Hungarian Historical Review 1, no. 1-2 (2012): 245-252.
“An emigré of the 1956 revolution, László Péter, master of Hungarian constitutional history did not live long enough to see this volume published. Its publication is the result of the devoted and meticulous work of his younger Hungarian colleague, Miklós Lojkó. Comprised of fourteen chapters, all published earlier but re-written, in cases extensively, this volume is somewhat surprisingly Péter’s first English-language book. Most of the essays address the constitutional development in nineteenth-century Hungary. One way or another, Péter’s writings were diametrically opposed to contemporary Hungarian historiography, having a social historical character, influenced or even dominated by Marxism. He questioned some established myths of Hungarian history, but Hungarian historians of the nineteenth century have been reluctant to accept his interpretations.” Istvan Szijarto in
Austrian Studies, November 2013
About the Author
László Péter (1929-2008), author, D.Phil. (1965) in History, University of Oxford. Lecturer in, later professor of, Hungarian History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London (1963 to 1994, the year of his retirement). He published extensively on nineteenth-century Hungarian constitutional history, including “Die Verfassungsentwicklung in Ungarn” in Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848-1918 series (Der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2000.)
Miklós Lojkó, editor, Ph.D. (2001) in History, University of Cambridge. Associate Professor of Modern History at the Central European University and at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. He has published widely on British diplomacy and economic policy towards Central and South-eastern Europe during the interwar years, including Meddling in Middle Europe: Britain and the ‘Lands Between’, 1919-1925, (Central European University Press, 2006).
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