The Hungarians : A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat

**An updated new edition of a classic history of the Hungarians from their earliest origins to today** In this absorbing and comprehensive history, 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 for more than one thousand years. Now with a new preface and a new chapter that brings the narrative up to the present, the book describes the evolution of Hungarian politics, culture, economics, and identity since the Magyars first arrived in the Carpathian Basin in 896. Through colorful anecdotes of heroes and traitors, victors and victims, revolutionaries and tyrants, Lendvai chronicles the way progressivism and economic modernization have competed with intolerance and narrow-minded nationalism. An unforgettable blend of skilled storytelling and scholarship, __The Hungarians__ is an authoritative account of this enigmatic and important nation. Cover 1 Contents 6 Foreword to the New Edition page 8 Introduction 12 1. “Heathen Barbarians” overrun Europe: Evidence from St Gallen 18 2. Land Acquisition or Conquest? The Question of Hungarian Identity 23 3. From Magyar Mayhem to the Christian Kingdom of the Árpáds 38 4. The Struggle for Continuity and Freedom 49 5. The Mongol Invasion of 1241 and its Consequences 60 6. Hungary’s Rise to Great Power Status under Foreign Kings 73 7. The Heroic Age of the Hunyadis and the Turkish Danger 86 8. The Long Road to the Catastrophe of Mohács 97 9. The Disaster of Ottoman Rule 105 10. Transylvania—the Stronghold of Hungarian Sovereignty 117 11. Gábor Bethlen—Vassal, Patriot and European 125 12. Zrinyi or Zrinski? One Hero for Two Nations 137 13. The Rebel Leader Thököly: Adventurer or Traitor? 148 14. Ferenc Rákóczi’s Fight for Freedom from the Habsburgs 156 15. Myth and Historiography: an Idol through the Ages 166 16. Hungary in the Habsburg Shadow 171 17. The Fight against the “Hatted King” 188 18. Abbot Martinovics and the Jacobin Plot: a Secret Agent as Revolutionary Martyr 194 19. Count István Széchenyi and the “Reform Era”: Rise and Fall of the “Greatest Hungarian” 202 20. Lajos Kossuth and Sándor Petöfi: Symbols of 1848 217 21. Victories, Defeat and Collapse: The Lost War of Independence, 1849 233 22. Kossuth the Hero versus “Judas” Görgey: “Good” and “Bad” in Sacrificial Mythology 253 23. Who was Captain Gusev? Russian “Freedom Fighters” between Minsk and Budapest 271 24. Elisabeth, Andrássy and Bismarck: Austria and Hungary on the Road to Reconciliation 277 25. Victory in Defeat: The Compromise and the Consequences of Dualism 292 26. Total Blindness: The Hungarian Sense of Mission and the Nationalities 336 27. The “Golden Age” of the Millennium: Modernization with Drawbacks 347 28. “Magyar Jew or Jewish Magyar?” A Unique Symbiosis 366 29. “Will Hungary become German or Magyar?” The Germans’ Peculiar Role 385 30. From the Great War to the “Dictatorship of Despair”: the Red Count and Lenin’s Agent 393 31. The Admiral on a White Horse: Trianon and the Death Knell of St Stephen’s Realm 410 32. Adventurers, Counterfeiters, Claimants to the Throne: Hungary as Troublemaker in the Danube Basin 426 33. Marching in Step with Hitler: Triumph and Fall. From the Persecution of Jews to Mob Rule 443 34. Victory in Defeat: 1945–1990 464 35. The Failure of the Democratic Experiment 503 36. Viktor Orbán’s “Führerdemocracy” 526 Notes 545 Index 571 Plates 296 "In this absorbing and comprehensive history, 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 for more than one thousand years. Now with a new preface and a new chapter that brings the narrative up to the present, the book describes the evolution of Hungarian politics, culture, economics, and identity since the Magyars first arrived in the Carpathian Basin in 896. Through colorful anecdotes of heroes and traitors, victors and victims, revolutionaries and tyrants, Lendvai chronicles the way progressivism and economic modernization have competed with intolerance and narrow-minded nationalism. An unforgettable blend of skilled storytelling and scholarship, The Hungarians is an authoritative account of this enigmatic and important nation"-- Provided by publisher English Translation First Published In The United Kingdom By C. Hurst & Co. (publishers) Ltd, London, And In North America, South America, And The Philippines By Princeton University Press, Copyright à 2003.