Another Hungary: The Nineteenth-Century Provinces in Eight Lives

Stanford Studies on Central and Eastern Europe

by Robert Nemes

Another Hungary tells the stories of eight remarkable an aristocrat, merchant, engineer, teacher, journalist, rabbi, tobacconist, and writer. All eight came from the same woebegone corner of prewar Hungary. Their biographies illuminate how the region's residents made sense of economic underdevelopment, ethnic diversity, and relations between Christians and Jews. Taken together, their stories create a unique picture of the troubled history of Eastern Europe, viewed not from the capital cities, but from the small towns and villages. Through these eight lives, Another Hungary investigates the wider processes that remade Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century. It How did people make sense of the dramatic changes, from the advent of the railroad to the outbreak of the First World War? How did they respond to the army of political ideologies that marched through this liberalism, socialism, nationalism, antisemitism, and Zionism? To what extent did people in the provinces not just react to, but influence what was happening in the centers of political power? This collective biography confirms that nineteenth-century Hungary was no earthly paradise. But it also shows that the provinces produced men and women with bold ideas on how to change their world.

Genres: History, Hungary, 19th Century

312 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2016

Reviews

[Chris Wares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully readable history using eight biographies of interesting but not exceptional nineteenth century individuals to Illustrate broader historical themes - Magyar and Minority lnationalism, language, educational opportunities , travel, the treatment of Jews and the relationship of Budapest and the provinces.

Historical narratives tend to simplify themes using only evidence that fits with the broader story but here Nemes doesn’t hide the facts when real life don’t fit. History rarely runs a perfectly smooth course. He uses these opportunities to show the complexity and nuances that occur along the way. The rabbi who is magyarised and able to deliver a sermon in Hungarian but unwilling to change his surname... the Romanian activist whose dreams of a Romanian theatre in brasov fail to materialise. These are both important details that illuminate the lives

Nemes characters all originate in northeastern Hungary - in land that now straddles Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania and present day Hungary - away from the power politics of Budapest and Vienna and thus providing an insight into “normal” life outside the capital.

I am keen to get my hands on a copy of his book on Budapest

[Hugolane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceedingly readable and engaging exploration of the place of old provincial Northeast of the Hungarian Kingdom in Hungarian life over a very long nineteenth century beginning in the middle of the eighteenth century. Structured around eight short biographies of nobles, Jews, and women we get a feel for the changing dynamics in this "region without a name" as Nemes calls it.