The Hungarians : a thousand years of victory in defeat / Paul Lendvai ; Ann Major, translated.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Hungarians is the most comprehensive, clear-sighted, and absorbing history ever of a legendarily proud and passionate but lonely people. Much of Europe once knew them as "child-devouring cannibals" and "bloodthirsty Huns." But it wasn't long before the Hungarians became steadfast defenders of the Christian West and fought heroic freedom struggles against the Tatars (1241), the Turks (16-18th centuries), and, among others, the Russians (1848-49 and 1956). Paul Lendvai tells the fascinating story of how the Hungarians, despite a string of catastrophes and their linguistic and cultural isolation, have survived as a nation-state for more than 1,000 years.


Lendvai, who fled Hungary in 1957, traces Hungarian politics, culture, economics, and emotions from the Magyars' dramatic entry into the Carpathian Basin in 896 to the brink of the post-Cold War era. Hungarians are ever pondering what being Hungarian means and where they came from. Yet, argues Lendvai, Hungarian national identity is not only about ancestry or language but also an emotional sense of belonging. Hungary's famous poet-patriot, Sándor Petofi, was of Slovak descent, and Franz Liszt felt deeply Hungarian though he spoke only a few words of Hungarian. Through colorful anecdotes of heroes and traitors, victors and victims, geniuses and imposters, based in part on original archival research, Lendvai conveys the multifaceted interplay, on the grand stage of Hungarian history, of progressivism and economic modernization versus intolerance and narrow-minded nationalism.


He movingly describes the national trauma inflicted by the transfer of the historic Hungarian heartland of Transylvania to Romania under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920--a trauma that the passing of years has by no means lessened. The horrors of Nazi and Soviet Communist domination were no less appalling, as Lendvai's restrained account makes clear, but are now part of history.


An unforgettable blend of eminent readability, vibrant humor, and meticulous scholarship, The Hungarians is a book without taboos or prejudices that at the same time offers an authoritative key to understanding how and why this isolated corner of Europe produced such a galaxy of great scientists, artists, and entrepreneurs.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Lendvai is a prize-winning Austrian journalist who has published numerous books on Central and Eastern Europe. This essay on the complex interrelationship between Hungarian history and Hungarian identity is rich with anecdotes and insights, but it is an insider's book. Though the narrative proceeds chronologically from chapter to chapter, the account within the chapters often bounces across centuries. This is due primarily to Lendvai's efforts to address history and historiography at the same time. For example, the documentary evidence for the reign of King Stephen and the diverse historical images of King Stephen are presented together. The analysis is informed and subtle, but readers will need a foundation in Hungarian history to fully appreciate the strengths of this text. The most troubling chapter deals with Hungary's experience during WW II. Hungarian decisions, from the military alliance with the Nazis to shipping hundreds of thousands of Jews to Auschwitz, appear to have happened against the will of the majority of Hungarians. In all, the identity of individuals, ethnic groups, and the Magyar-Hungarians themselves seems so fluid that following Lendvai's analysis is difficult. Featuring endnotes, numerous maps, and a chronology, this title will be most accessible to specialists. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. P. G. Wallace Hartwick College