What Hungary was, Hungary is

 Review: The Will to Survive – A History of Hungary

This is a weighty volume is all senses of the term – even the paperback edition is well over one kilo. Yet its depth and breadth is not off-putting; the racy text speeds you with clarity through the twists and turns of Hungary‘s often tortuous history. Knowledge of and enthusiasm for his subject shines through this work by Bryan Cartledge, a former British Ambassador to Hungary.

Much of the text is about politics and international relations. Indeed, "a political history of Hungary" might be a more revealing subtitle. Over two-thirds of the 530 pages of main text is devoted to the period from 1825 to 2000. That overwhelming content bias is justified, since it is precisely the developments of the past 175-200 years which explain most about present-day Hungary.

A bit patchy in places

While politics and the main turning points of 1848-49, 1867, 1918-20, 1945, 1956 and 1989-90 are probed in depth, culture and the arts in general have not been neglected, though sometimes the coverage seems unfortunately patchy. The composer and musicologist Béla Bartók, for example, arguably one of the most important, well-known and internationally influential (in the music world) Hungarians of the last century, is given only a number of scanty references in different parts of the book. Something more substantial would surely have been called for.

Notes worth noting

It may seem surprising at first glance that almost all of the references in the book’s copious endnotes relate to English-language works. How can a decent history of Hungary be written with hardly any references to Hungarian-language sources? Well, it can be, as this book shows, and the reason is that Bryan Cartledge has trawled an extremely wide range of sources, many of which have been authored by Hungarians and subsequently translated into English, or written in English by Hungarian specialists.

One result is that these extensive reference notes are themselves a valuable source for anyone wishing to pursue a particular theme, though not able to read Hungarian. The same applies to the book’s very useful and interesting bibliography of English-language works about Hungary.

Common errors

There can, of course, be limitations to this method. For example, during the past twenty years a great deal of literature has been published in Hungarian about the 1956 Uprising, providing new and corrective information in relation to what was always thought and understood about the events. Much of this has not been translated into English and presumably this is the reason why parts of Bryan Cartledge’s on the whole competent account of 1956 is marred by repetition of old (mis)understandings.

Thus he describes Pál Maléter (an army colonel who became defence minister), quite inaccurately though not unusually for past accounts, as the "de facto commander-in-chief" of the "forces of revolution". In addition, references to János Rainer’s invaluable, full-scale biography of Imre Nagy, still to be translated into English, are sadly lacking.

At the same time, the judgement of Cartledge about 1956 is insightful. Unlike many, he clearly sees and emphasises that 1956 was in no way about returning to a capitalist system – a rather unpopular idea these days, when is it widely argued that 1989-90 was the fulfilment of the goals of 1956.

Still counts among the best

The front cover of the paperback edition of this book carries a dramatic quotation from the noted historian John Lukacs: "This is the best history of Hungary in the English language." Praise indeed. And yet in his review of the book published in Harper’s Magazine last December Lukacs writes that "the best histories of any country are almost always written by their natives". These two notions may not be contradictory. For my money, Cartledge’s work is certainly among the best, but as a worthy contender for the "absolute" title of best, assuming we can define that tricky term, I would mention another book by a "native" and published in English – Paul Lendvai’s The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat.

The best would be, of course, to forget the word "best" and the hype surrounding it, and to read both. After all, there are not many currently available works about the history of Hungary in English anyway.

Bob Dent has written a number of books (in English) about Hungary, including Budapest 1956 – Locations of Drama.

The Will to Survive – A History of Hungary, By Bryan Cartledge. (Timewell Press, 606pp, illustrated, paperback)