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Cambridge Concise Histories
A Concise History of Hungary
This book offers a comprehensive thousand-year history of the land, people, society, culture and economy of Hungary, from its nebulous origins in the Ural Mountains to the 1988 elections. It tells above all the thrilling story of a people who became a great power in the region and then fought against--and were invaded by--Ottomans, Germans and Soviets. The Hungarian people preserved nevertheless a continuous individuality through their Ural-born language and a specifically Hungaro-European culture.
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First published January 1, 1980
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About the author
Miklós Molnár
28 books6 followersHungarian Historian & publicist.
Molnáer was influential in the field of central european identity & international relations.
Molnáer was influential in the field of central european identity & international relations.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 18, 2025
The Concise History series, published by Cambridge University Press, provides readers with a quick, accessible way of getting to know a country or region with which one may not be familiar. Before moving to Hungary for a six-month residence there in 2011, I turned to Miklós Molnár’s A Concise History of Hungary, one of the volumes in the series. In the 2001 edition that I read, this book provided a very fine and helpful introduction to a country that I was going to call home for about half a year.
Molnár is a native of Hungary who taught for many decades in Switzerland. Those background details imply an interesting life story, and we’ll get to that in a moment. Let me say first that A Concise History of Hungary does well at guiding the reader through the twists and turns of Hungarian history – starting with the Magyar people’s migration down from Central Asia, and moving forward through the formation of a Hungarian kingdom. Any visitor to modern Budapest will see quickly that figures like King Saint Stephen (Hungary’s first Christian king, who ruled from 1001 to 1038) and Matthias Corvinus (the “Raven King” who ruled from 1458 to 1490) are strongly revered figures in contemporary Hungary. Just walk over to Heroes’ Square in Budapest and take a look at the statues.
But calamity overtook Hungary with the Hungarians’ defeat by Ottoman forces in the disastrous Battle of Mohács in 1526. Hungary became a divided kingdom, with the Ottoman Empire ruling over much of the country (including Budapest), the Hapsburg empire ruling another part, and an uneasy Hungarian kingdom holding the eastern half of the country. Amid those circumstances of instability and division, Molnár tells us, “Two major events plunged the entire country into turmoil. The first was the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, bringing significant cultural benefits. The second, equally consequential, was the beginning of the prolonged struggle against Habsburg domination” (p. 107).
Molnár’s discussion of this period of cultural ferment made me think about a couple of observations from my own time in Hungary. It was striking to read that there was a time when Protestantism and Reformation thinking were highly popular in Hungary, considering that most of the country is Catholic today. The big religious edifices that one sees in most of Hungary today – Saint Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest, or the twin-spired Cathedral of Our Lady in Szeged where I lived – are Catholic.
But when I visited Debrecen, the second-largest city in Hungary, the community’s pride in its Protestant heritage was evident. Several residents proudly told me of how Debrecen was once known as “the Calvinist Rome” for the city’s prodigious production of documents celebrating and defending the Protestant faith. Molnár’s book, which I read before travelling to Hungary, prepared me well for the things I would see and experience throughout the country.
The Hapsburg presence that began with the catastrophic Hungarian defeat at Mohács would loom large through much of subsequent Hungarian history. There were attempts to throw off the Hapsburg yoke – most notably, the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49. The revolution was defeated, and “A wounded Hungarian society now faced a new ordeal” – one in which “cruel military repression” was followed by a “civil administration [that] descended upon them like a millstone” (p. 200). To this day, Hungarians will not click beer glasses together when toasting – because they remember how Austrian officers clicked their beer glasses to celebrate their quashing of an independent Hungarian state.
Yet the failed 1848 revolution did much to establish a sense of Hungarian national identity. And within twenty years, due to a series of setbacks that the Austrians experienced, what Molnár calls “The great turnabout of 1867” created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary – “a totally new state system composed of two constitutionally distinct entities, but united under the sovereign’s sceptre and sharing governmental institutions – a characteristic that rendered it more than a personal union. Dualism was, for the moment, the optimal solution for safeguarding both the Magyars’ sense of identity and the [Hapsburg] dynastic sovereignty” (p. 208).
The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary is a strange thing to contemplate. For the first time in its history, Hungary was (half of) a major world power. For decades, watchers of world politics asked themselves, “What will Austria-Hungary do?”, the same way they would have wondered aloud what France or Germany or Great Britain or Russia would do. They were all empires, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they all played their cards together, at the same geopolitical table, for 50 years. It is regarded by many Hungarians as a high point in the country’s history, as chronicled by historian John Lukacs in his book Budapest 1900 (1988).
And then came the calamitous 20th century. The devastation of the First World War was followed, for Hungary, by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon that deprived the country of two-thirds of its territory. Lingering resentment over Trianon was among the factors that led too many Hungarians to support Hitler and the Nazis. Molnár is unflinching in setting forth the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust, and he knows whereof he speaks; the book’s back-cover blurb mentions that Molnár “was imprisoned in a forced labour camp by the Nazis in 1944.”
Hungary, in the aftermath of the Second World War, experienced the imposition of a communist system of government by the Soviet Union. Molnár speaks aptly when he states that “when Hungary became a single-party state and proclaimed the dictatorship of the proletariat, it became a Soviet state which did not speak its name” (p. 301). The Magyar nation was ruled by the singularly harsh regime of Mátyás Rákosi, who made Hungary a land where secret police might take one off to the labour camps at any time – without warning, without even the formality of a charge.
Yet there was a breath of hope with the rise of Imre Nagy, who replaced Rákosi as prime minister in 1953. “Nagy’s patriotic warmth and his speech – part professorial, part rural – rendered him the first popular Communist politician”; and his popularity earned him the jealousy and the enmity of Rákosi. Molnár writes sympathetically of the efforts of Nagy – “a man alone, rejected by party officials and without a governmental machinery worthy of the name.” Still, “Confident of his position, Nagy relied on the power of the word and on public opinion” (pp. 306, 308).
It was around this time, in 1954, that author Molnár – again, according to the book’s back-cover blurb – “became editor of the communist newspaper Irodalmi Ujság (‘Literary Gazette’)”. My sense, as I read this section of A Concise History of Hungary, was that it was a time rather like that of glasnost and perestroika in the U.S.S.R. during the 1980’s – with reformers in the ascendancy, while revanchists in the background waited for an opportunity to re-impose the old oppressive system.
All that social ferment had its ultimate outlet in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. After a brief interlude of hope, the revolution was crushed by the Red Army. Imre Nagy, who took a leadership role in the revolution, was executed; today, a monument of Nagy on a bridge stands in Budapest, to mark the career of a man who, when the chips were down, chose his people over the government that he had served. That highly informative back-cover blurb informs me that “following the fall of Imre Nagy [Molnár] left Hungary as a refugee in 1957.”
From that time, János Kádár led the communist government of Hungary. His rule, while authoritarian, was, in some ways, not quite as harsh as what people experienced in Romania or Czechoslovakia or the German Democratic Republic. Some of the friends I made in Hungary back in 2011 used to joke that “We were the happiest barrack in the socialist camp.”
But then came the fall of the Berlin Wall, and of the entire Iron Curtain. A final chapter, titled “1990 – A New Departure” sets forth the dramatic nature of what I heard many Hungarians call simply “the political change.” Molnár, who “has taught and lectured in Switzerland and – since 1990 – in Hungary itself” (there’s that back-cover blurb again), concludes by writing that he has tried to tell Hungary’s 1100-year story “sine ira et studio” (“without passion or prejudice”, from the Roman historian Tacitus), and adds that “If he did so without hiding his feelings of affection, then let he who is immune throw the first stone” (p. 155).
I am not immune. I love Hungary, on the basis of my six months’ residence there back in 2011, and I hope to return someday. And the Hungary-bound international visitor who wants a quick, helpful overview of the country that they will be visiting would do well to take up Miklos Molnár’s Concise History of Hungary.
Molnár is a native of Hungary who taught for many decades in Switzerland. Those background details imply an interesting life story, and we’ll get to that in a moment. Let me say first that A Concise History of Hungary does well at guiding the reader through the twists and turns of Hungarian history – starting with the Magyar people’s migration down from Central Asia, and moving forward through the formation of a Hungarian kingdom. Any visitor to modern Budapest will see quickly that figures like King Saint Stephen (Hungary’s first Christian king, who ruled from 1001 to 1038) and Matthias Corvinus (the “Raven King” who ruled from 1458 to 1490) are strongly revered figures in contemporary Hungary. Just walk over to Heroes’ Square in Budapest and take a look at the statues.
But calamity overtook Hungary with the Hungarians’ defeat by Ottoman forces in the disastrous Battle of Mohács in 1526. Hungary became a divided kingdom, with the Ottoman Empire ruling over much of the country (including Budapest), the Hapsburg empire ruling another part, and an uneasy Hungarian kingdom holding the eastern half of the country. Amid those circumstances of instability and division, Molnár tells us, “Two major events plunged the entire country into turmoil. The first was the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, bringing significant cultural benefits. The second, equally consequential, was the beginning of the prolonged struggle against Habsburg domination” (p. 107).
Molnár’s discussion of this period of cultural ferment made me think about a couple of observations from my own time in Hungary. It was striking to read that there was a time when Protestantism and Reformation thinking were highly popular in Hungary, considering that most of the country is Catholic today. The big religious edifices that one sees in most of Hungary today – Saint Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest, or the twin-spired Cathedral of Our Lady in Szeged where I lived – are Catholic.
But when I visited Debrecen, the second-largest city in Hungary, the community’s pride in its Protestant heritage was evident. Several residents proudly told me of how Debrecen was once known as “the Calvinist Rome” for the city’s prodigious production of documents celebrating and defending the Protestant faith. Molnár’s book, which I read before travelling to Hungary, prepared me well for the things I would see and experience throughout the country.
The Hapsburg presence that began with the catastrophic Hungarian defeat at Mohács would loom large through much of subsequent Hungarian history. There were attempts to throw off the Hapsburg yoke – most notably, the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49. The revolution was defeated, and “A wounded Hungarian society now faced a new ordeal” – one in which “cruel military repression” was followed by a “civil administration [that] descended upon them like a millstone” (p. 200). To this day, Hungarians will not click beer glasses together when toasting – because they remember how Austrian officers clicked their beer glasses to celebrate their quashing of an independent Hungarian state.
Yet the failed 1848 revolution did much to establish a sense of Hungarian national identity. And within twenty years, due to a series of setbacks that the Austrians experienced, what Molnár calls “The great turnabout of 1867” created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary – “a totally new state system composed of two constitutionally distinct entities, but united under the sovereign’s sceptre and sharing governmental institutions – a characteristic that rendered it more than a personal union. Dualism was, for the moment, the optimal solution for safeguarding both the Magyars’ sense of identity and the [Hapsburg] dynastic sovereignty” (p. 208).
The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary is a strange thing to contemplate. For the first time in its history, Hungary was (half of) a major world power. For decades, watchers of world politics asked themselves, “What will Austria-Hungary do?”, the same way they would have wondered aloud what France or Germany or Great Britain or Russia would do. They were all empires, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they all played their cards together, at the same geopolitical table, for 50 years. It is regarded by many Hungarians as a high point in the country’s history, as chronicled by historian John Lukacs in his book Budapest 1900 (1988).
And then came the calamitous 20th century. The devastation of the First World War was followed, for Hungary, by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon that deprived the country of two-thirds of its territory. Lingering resentment over Trianon was among the factors that led too many Hungarians to support Hitler and the Nazis. Molnár is unflinching in setting forth the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust, and he knows whereof he speaks; the book’s back-cover blurb mentions that Molnár “was imprisoned in a forced labour camp by the Nazis in 1944.”
Hungary, in the aftermath of the Second World War, experienced the imposition of a communist system of government by the Soviet Union. Molnár speaks aptly when he states that “when Hungary became a single-party state and proclaimed the dictatorship of the proletariat, it became a Soviet state which did not speak its name” (p. 301). The Magyar nation was ruled by the singularly harsh regime of Mátyás Rákosi, who made Hungary a land where secret police might take one off to the labour camps at any time – without warning, without even the formality of a charge.
Yet there was a breath of hope with the rise of Imre Nagy, who replaced Rákosi as prime minister in 1953. “Nagy’s patriotic warmth and his speech – part professorial, part rural – rendered him the first popular Communist politician”; and his popularity earned him the jealousy and the enmity of Rákosi. Molnár writes sympathetically of the efforts of Nagy – “a man alone, rejected by party officials and without a governmental machinery worthy of the name.” Still, “Confident of his position, Nagy relied on the power of the word and on public opinion” (pp. 306, 308).
It was around this time, in 1954, that author Molnár – again, according to the book’s back-cover blurb – “became editor of the communist newspaper Irodalmi Ujság (‘Literary Gazette’)”. My sense, as I read this section of A Concise History of Hungary, was that it was a time rather like that of glasnost and perestroika in the U.S.S.R. during the 1980’s – with reformers in the ascendancy, while revanchists in the background waited for an opportunity to re-impose the old oppressive system.
All that social ferment had its ultimate outlet in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. After a brief interlude of hope, the revolution was crushed by the Red Army. Imre Nagy, who took a leadership role in the revolution, was executed; today, a monument of Nagy on a bridge stands in Budapest, to mark the career of a man who, when the chips were down, chose his people over the government that he had served. That highly informative back-cover blurb informs me that “following the fall of Imre Nagy [Molnár] left Hungary as a refugee in 1957.”
From that time, János Kádár led the communist government of Hungary. His rule, while authoritarian, was, in some ways, not quite as harsh as what people experienced in Romania or Czechoslovakia or the German Democratic Republic. Some of the friends I made in Hungary back in 2011 used to joke that “We were the happiest barrack in the socialist camp.”
But then came the fall of the Berlin Wall, and of the entire Iron Curtain. A final chapter, titled “1990 – A New Departure” sets forth the dramatic nature of what I heard many Hungarians call simply “the political change.” Molnár, who “has taught and lectured in Switzerland and – since 1990 – in Hungary itself” (there’s that back-cover blurb again), concludes by writing that he has tried to tell Hungary’s 1100-year story “sine ira et studio” (“without passion or prejudice”, from the Roman historian Tacitus), and adds that “If he did so without hiding his feelings of affection, then let he who is immune throw the first stone” (p. 155).
I am not immune. I love Hungary, on the basis of my six months’ residence there back in 2011, and I hope to return someday. And the Hungary-bound international visitor who wants a quick, helpful overview of the country that they will be visiting would do well to take up Miklos Molnár’s Concise History of Hungary.
July 15, 2011
This is a highly informative book on a most interesting topic. The history of Eastern and Central European countries is not well-known in the West and should be. The history of Hungary is fascinating so this book should be gripping from the start. Sadly it is let down by a poor translation (from French but presumably from the original Hungarian?). Sentence structures can be convoluted and awkward and, as a result, the flow of history is sometimes enigmatic and a lot of the time you have to re-read, re-construct, parts in order to make sense of events. I was disappointed because I felt there was a good book in here...somewhere.
January 4, 2013
The book offers what the title says: a concise history of Hungary. If you're interest in the country goes beyond that of a tourist, I would recommend you give it a read. The back cover gives a rather good summary of what's in the book itself: "This book offers a comprehensive thousand-year history of the land, people, society, culture and economy of Hungary, from its nebulous origins in the Ural Mountains to the 1988 elections. It tells above all the thrilling story of a people who became a great power in the region and then fought against--and were invaded by--Ottomans, Germans and Soviets. The Hungarian people preserved nevertheless a continuous individuality through their Ural-born language and a specifically Hungaro-European culture."
The book reads remarkably well for a non-fiction historical book. The subject is fact heavy and certainly complicated, but the reader is maneuvered through all over a thousand years of eventful history quite well. The writing style is relatively light, which certainly aids understanding of the subject. Also helpful are the occasional translation and/or explanation of Hungarian names and expressions and I truly appreciated the writers skepticism towards the presented historical facts surrounding the communist era. He made an effort to underline the claims of both camps (communist and non-communists) and the underlining the facts that seem most likely to be correct. It leaves the book with a feel of a fairly objective and complete history of a country, it's culture and it's people, which is still readable.
In addition Molnár doesn't shy away from some painful questions and issues. A good example is 'the gypsy problem'. He touches it only lightly - although their presence features in the entire book - as it's fairly recent history, but clearly states the problem its difficulties and the recent (failed) government policies on dealing with it. It's honest, refreshing and very helpful if you're trying to understand the culture and the people.
I read the book as a fairly new resident to the country and I feel I understand Hungarians and Hungarian culture a lot better now that I have. It's still a history book however, so I wouldn't advise it as light evening reading before bed.
The book reads remarkably well for a non-fiction historical book. The subject is fact heavy and certainly complicated, but the reader is maneuvered through all over a thousand years of eventful history quite well. The writing style is relatively light, which certainly aids understanding of the subject. Also helpful are the occasional translation and/or explanation of Hungarian names and expressions and I truly appreciated the writers skepticism towards the presented historical facts surrounding the communist era. He made an effort to underline the claims of both camps (communist and non-communists) and the underlining the facts that seem most likely to be correct. It leaves the book with a feel of a fairly objective and complete history of a country, it's culture and it's people, which is still readable.
In addition Molnár doesn't shy away from some painful questions and issues. A good example is 'the gypsy problem'. He touches it only lightly - although their presence features in the entire book - as it's fairly recent history, but clearly states the problem its difficulties and the recent (failed) government policies on dealing with it. It's honest, refreshing and very helpful if you're trying to understand the culture and the people.
I read the book as a fairly new resident to the country and I feel I understand Hungarians and Hungarian culture a lot better now that I have. It's still a history book however, so I wouldn't advise it as light evening reading before bed.
August 7, 2017
Complex but worthwhile
Most of the narrative deals with Hungary prior to the 19th Century, but establishes a solid foundation for the political and economic tendencies that continue to the present day. Contemporary events are not part of the story which ends with the 1998 election.
Most of the narrative deals with Hungary prior to the 19th Century, but establishes a solid foundation for the political and economic tendencies that continue to the present day. Contemporary events are not part of the story which ends with the 1998 election.
February 21, 2020
Like its Polish counterpart, this is an excellent volume for those wanting to know a bit more about a country’s history that what can be found between the pages of a travel guide. This volume offers slightly more information than Lukowski and Zawadzki’s, at the expense of not including references. On the one hand, that is great, not that I was going to look for an obscure Hungarian book any time soon anyway. On the other, we need to accept Mólnar’s word at face value. Then again, I know very little about the country, and the author says that the Order of the Dragon came to the Great Plain riding a host of chromatic dragons, who am I to say it did not happen?
On a more serious matter, it has the same “format” as the Polish book: it deals mostly with the last 1,000 years. Unlike Poland, nevertheless, Pannonia was part of the Roman Empire, and thus I suppose there is a bit more contemporary written information on this country that on its northeastern neighbor. No, I do not need a detailed history of the province, but a bit more would have been nice. Particularly because while reading this book I was reminded St. Martin of Braga was born there. This tiny detail foreshadows that the volume should be more aptly called “A History of the Hungarian/Magyar people,” as it seems the history of the country really started when the Magyars arrived. I guess it is sort of true, but it gives it a certain ethnocentric view. Without really knowing much about the subject, I think Molár tries his best at portraying a multi-ethnic country, paying attention to—and being sympathetic towards—minorities, while not sounding too paternalistic. I cannot say he completely succeeded, but he was fighting an uphill battle against me me. If this is the liberal moderate left view, I do not really want to know the hardcore right one.
As Lukowski and Zawadzki’s volume, this one gains momentum as the centuries pass, and a lot is said about the last two centuries. The chapter concerning the soviet occupations without a doubt the best. Someone who suffered exiled cannot be expected to be moderate or neutral towards a government, but I think the does his best at showing the lights and shades of the whole period. Namely, his brief portray of Imre Nagy made me want to read more about him as a person, and as a thinker. Hardly surprising, considering that I would love to find a third way that does not mean surrendering to the market forces—as it is often the case. His certainly less favorable profile of János Kádár, is also a great profile: no one gets to rule a country for twenty plus years without some positive—or practical—qualities.
I will get some of his other books if I ever find them. I will also continue reading, and recommending, this Concise History series.
On a more serious matter, it has the same “format” as the Polish book: it deals mostly with the last 1,000 years. Unlike Poland, nevertheless, Pannonia was part of the Roman Empire, and thus I suppose there is a bit more contemporary written information on this country that on its northeastern neighbor. No, I do not need a detailed history of the province, but a bit more would have been nice. Particularly because while reading this book I was reminded St. Martin of Braga was born there. This tiny detail foreshadows that the volume should be more aptly called “A History of the Hungarian/Magyar people,” as it seems the history of the country really started when the Magyars arrived. I guess it is sort of true, but it gives it a certain ethnocentric view. Without really knowing much about the subject, I think Molár tries his best at portraying a multi-ethnic country, paying attention to—and being sympathetic towards—minorities, while not sounding too paternalistic. I cannot say he completely succeeded, but he was fighting an uphill battle against me me. If this is the liberal moderate left view, I do not really want to know the hardcore right one.
As Lukowski and Zawadzki’s volume, this one gains momentum as the centuries pass, and a lot is said about the last two centuries. The chapter concerning the soviet occupations without a doubt the best. Someone who suffered exiled cannot be expected to be moderate or neutral towards a government, but I think the does his best at showing the lights and shades of the whole period. Namely, his brief portray of Imre Nagy made me want to read more about him as a person, and as a thinker. Hardly surprising, considering that I would love to find a third way that does not mean surrendering to the market forces—as it is often the case. His certainly less favorable profile of János Kádár, is also a great profile: no one gets to rule a country for twenty plus years without some positive—or practical—qualities.
I will get some of his other books if I ever find them. I will also continue reading, and recommending, this Concise History series.
March 17, 2020
This book could have seriously used some stringent editing. For anyone not deeply familiar with Hungarian history it will throw names and facts that are pretty hard to follow in a systematic way. Here's an example paragraph:
https://postimg.cc/5Q2h4p1r
The book is full of pages like this, a book filled with name drops and places and battles and treaties, but makes it next to impossible to understand the context, get a feel of the stakes, and the motivations of actors that lead to a particular event. Whatever random bits information from the book I happen to remember now, right after reading it, I doubt I will remember in a few months.
https://postimg.cc/5Q2h4p1r
The book is full of pages like this, a book filled with name drops and places and battles and treaties, but makes it next to impossible to understand the context, get a feel of the stakes, and the motivations of actors that lead to a particular event. Whatever random bits information from the book I happen to remember now, right after reading it, I doubt I will remember in a few months.
February 14, 2013
Not bad, especially with the earlier bits, but once you get up to post World War I, the book becomes a paean to the author's grousy, bitchy attitude. Seriously, I understand how terrible it must've been to live through some of the 20th century scene, but, Miklos, suckah, ease up on the diatribe and lay some muthafuckin' history on me, bee-yotch. Left me "Hungary" for more, to say the least.
Read
July 27, 2011Pas toujours bien structuré et manquant parfois de nous montrer l'essentiel, ce livre est difficile à suivre pour ceux qui n'ont pas une base très solide sur la Hongrie. Il parvient cependant à montrer la grandeur de ce pays avec lequel la France a eu trop de rendez vous manqués.
September 14, 2023
It's not bad, per se -- but it's incredibly dull to read, to the point where I can't sit and read more than a couple of pages without either becoming confused by the awkward translation or the strange sentence structures. There's a lot of jumping around or details that aren't covered linearly enough to allow for easy understanding; but it's best used as a reference book. Find something, then relate it through this book to find more information. I realize that this is a 'concise' history, but there are a lot of things that could have had a few more pages on them -- the Austrian war of succession was basically not covered even though there was practically a whole chapter on Maria Theresa; it's not like it's impossible to find information on this nowadays, but for someone coming in with very little history knowledge, that's a very important detail as it practically informed the entirety of Maria Theresa's later ruling.
May 8, 2017
The topic is vast but well covered. The author could think of a more fluent narrative and avoid jumping back and forth and saying "but more on that later" on every other page. The interpreter, who was presumably translating from French, could have done a better job. For example, instead of Coloman the Learned, the interpreter decided to name the king Coloman le Bibliophile. Just don't be so lazy and check for the king's proper English name! I know it was probably translated before Wikipedia, but that's your job, ffs!
November 3, 2024
Exactly what the title says, with the subjective view of being written by a native invested in benefiting from a positive outcome of the history of its nation/country.
The book story ends ahead of Fidesz taking ownership of the country, so it feels a bit too clean for the current status of Hungary, a country of proud people, nationalist, having a longish history, but having yet again being led by an autocratic group, to something that, at least for the moment, feels like the garbage bin of history.
The book story ends ahead of Fidesz taking ownership of the country, so it feels a bit too clean for the current status of Hungary, a country of proud people, nationalist, having a longish history, but having yet again being led by an autocratic group, to something that, at least for the moment, feels like the garbage bin of history.
January 2, 2023
While providing an overall picture of the history of Hungary, it can be a bit hard to follow at times with how frequently it name-drops treaties, dates, and names that appear out of the ether and disappear just as quickly. For those interested in Hungarian history, this is a nice primer - but I would encourage you to read something in tandem with it in order to grasp its history with more clarity.
May 6, 2020
I read this book together with Lendvai's "The Hungarians." Reading both books together helped me better understand Hungarian history: this book provided a clearer and better organized overview of Hungarian history, while Lendvai's book added depth and color to the events and personalities involved. A good overview of Hungarian history from the beginning through the late 1990s.
June 5, 2025
Unfortunately,i don't think the translation of this book is good.
November 15, 2013
In A Concise History of Hungary, Miklós Molnár provides what the book's title promises: a setting forth of Hungary's complex and often tragic history within the relatively manageable scope of 356 pages, not counting the index. For this work, an entry in Cambridge University Press's "Cambridge Concise Histories" series, Molnár goes as far back as historical evidence will allow and takes the reader as far forward as Hungary's 1998 elections. In the process, Molnár gives due weight to all the major topics that a student of Hungarian history would expect to learn about: e.g., the Arpad dynasty, the Mongol invasion, the Ottoman conquest, the Hapsburg ascendancy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the First World War, and the subsequent sundering of two thirds of Hungary's territory in the 1920 Treaty of Trianon. If the chapters on World War II and the subsequent Soviet domination seem written with special intensity, more lived and deeply felt than the rest of the book, there may be a reason for that: Molnár survived imprisonment by the Nazis during the war, and fled Hungary following the country's gallant but unsuccessful 1956 revolution against Soviet rule. In dealing with post-Cold War Hungary, Molnár sets forth clearly his sense that the country still has problems, from a volatile political system to lingering anti-Semitism, but offers a cautiously optimistic assessment of Hungary's prospects for the future. Well-illustrated with maps, photographs, and artwork. Recommended for readers with an interest in Hungarian history.
Read
July 30, 2011I wrote a book about the Hungarian Revolution and I would put this book on the top of my Bibliography if it would have fit in the alphabetical order.
As with most history books, it's set in good order from beginning to end. It fits all of the usual holes that you would expect from a Cambridge book of History. The detail is great and is a wonderful source of knowing more about how the current country came to be.
As with most history books, it's set in good order from beginning to end. It fits all of the usual holes that you would expect from a Cambridge book of History. The detail is great and is a wonderful source of knowing more about how the current country came to be.
January 17, 2008
Great introductory book for those who have little of no knowledge of the history of Hungary. While providing the reader with historical details, Molnar as tells the story in a way that connects the reader with the epic drama of the Hungarian people.
July 4, 2012
Worth reading if you have a strong attachment to Hungary (my mother-in-law immigrated to the US from Hungary), but not easy to read. I learned a lot, but like other reviewers, I think a Hungarian writing in French then translated to English had to lose some of the "flow" of his words.
Want to read
May 7, 2012I understand this is a translation from the French edition (Histoire de l'Hongrie) which is itself a transaltion of the Hungarian. Plan to read the French edition.
February 18, 2013
Une bonne introduction à l'histoire de ce pays dont je ne connaissais pas grand chose.
December 9, 2013
Good short history of Hungary.
December 20, 2015
Uneven, ranging from fascinating to boring like a secondary school history book. Worth ploughing through.
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