A Nation Divided by History and Memory : Hungary in the Twentieth Century and Beyond

During the last few decades there has been a growing recognition of the great role that remembering and collective memory play in forming the historical awareness. In addition, the dominant national form of history writing also met some challenges on the side of a transnational approach to the past. In __A Nation Divided by History and Memory__, a prominent Hungarian historian sheds light on how Hungary’s historical image has become split as a consequence of the differences between the historian’s conceptualisation of national history and its diverse representations in personal and collective memory. The book focuses on the shocking experiences and the intense memorial reactions generated by a few key historical events and the way in which they have been interpreted by the historical scholarship. The argument of __A Nation Divided by History and Memory__ is placed into the context of an international historical discourse. This pioneering work is essential and enlightening reading for all historians, many sociologists, political scientists, social psychologists and university students. During the last few decades there has been a growing recognition of the great role that remembering and collective memory play in forming the historical awareness. In addition, the dominant national form of history writing also met some challenges on the side of a transnational approach to the past. In A Nation Divided by History and Memory, a prominent Hungarian historian sheds light on how Hungary’s historical image has become split as a consequence of the differences between the historian’s conceptualisation of national history and its diverse representations in personal and collective memory. The book focuses on the shocking experiences and the intense memorial reactions generated by a few key historical events and the way in which they have been interpreted by the historical scholarship. The argument of A Nation Divided by History and Memory is placed into the context of an international historical discourse. This pioneering work is essential and enlightening reading for all historians, many sociologists, political scientists, social psychologists and university students. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Preface 7 Acknowledgements 12 Introduction: Two kinds of history 14 Part I The past as experience and memory 30 1 The experience and remembrance of World War I 32 2 Image and reality of a divided country 52 3 Collective memory as a political instrument 69 4 Jewish experience and the memory of the Holocaust 80 5 Memory and discourse on the 1956 revolution 101 Part II History as constructed by historians 112 6 Culture, nationalism and history 114 7 Cultic and ironic visions of Hungary 128 8 Revolution, uprising, civil war 150 9 Conclusion 168 Bibliography 173 Index 192 "During the last few decades there has been a growing recognition of the great role that remembering and collective memory play in forming the historical awareness. In addition, the dominant national form of history writing also met some challenges on the side of a transnational approach to the past. In A Nation Divided by History and Memory a prominent Hungarian historian sheds light on how Hungary's historical image has become split as a consequence of the differences between the historian's conceptualisation of national history and its diverse representations in personal and collective memory. The book focuses on the shocking experiences and the intense memorial reactions generated by a few key historical events and the way of how they have been interpreted by the historical scholarship. The argument of A Nation Divided by History and Memory is placed into the context of an international historical discourse. The pioneering work is essential and enlightening reading for all historians, many sociologists, political scientists, social psychologists and the university students"-- Provided by publisher