Washington, DC – The “Hungarian Review”, the English-language affiliate of the bi-monthly journal Magyar Szemle, edited by Gyula Kodolányi and John O’Sullivan, has published its second issue for 2017.
On the cover: Interior of the Reformed (Calvinist) Church of Csaroda. Below the floral decoration the original medieval wall paintings are exposed. Photo by Gordon McKenzie.
The greater part of this issue is devoted to examining and celebrating the almost fifty years of astonishing progress in both industry and civilization after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, that ended by World War I but still echoes today. John O’ Sullivan, in his editorial note entitled “Symptoms of Growing Instability”, writes: “Would this civilization have continued its extraordinary progress – continuing to rival the Anglo-Saxons over the waters – and discovered a permanent peaceful resolution of its problems with nationalism if it had not been so rudely interrupted? We cannot know, of course. But the First World War will always be a nightmare in the collective mind of Central Europe, because, as George Schöpflin reminds us in a review of book reflecting Anglo-Saxon perspectives, the region is Ady’s ‘ferry land’ pushed back and forth from East to West. It must therefore view the current rising instabilities if world and European politics with the peculiar anxiety of a bystander who is between the machine-guns of two rival gangs”.
The ‘Current’ section includes contributions from Bruce Anderson (“Donald Trump – A Work in Progress”); Daniel J. Mahoney (“Pope Francis’s Humanitarian Version of Catholic Wisdom””); George Schöpflin (The Perils of Popular History – Simon Winder, Danubia: a Personal History of Habsburg Europe) and Salvatore Babones (“The New Geography of Global Economic Power”).
The periodical then continues with an ‘Essays’ section with contributions from Péter Ákos Bod (“Closing the Gap? – The Western Community and Hungary”) and Tibor Várady (How and (Why) to Keep a Dissident Spirit in Spite of “Transition”?”).
In his essay on economic convergence between Hungary and its neighbors, Péter Ákos Bod points out that half century “turned out to be the golden era for Hungarian capitalism…Budapest emerged as an industrial, trade and administrative centre second only to Vienna. Economic development indicators (income, wealth, living standards) had placed the Hungarian Kingdom at roughly 70 per cent of those of the Empire’s core provinces by the end of this era”.
The next section is devoted to ‘Histories’ and has articles from David A. Reynolds (“The Last Coronation: Mystery and Strength”) and Hungarian Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog (“On the Anniversary of the Coronation of King Charles IV – Address Given at the Ceremonial Mass”).
Finally, the Arts and Letters section features articles by Richard Godwin (“Patriarchy and the Traumatized Protagonist in Franz Kafka”); Gordon McKechnie (Csaroda and the Hungarian Reformation: A Travel Essay – Part I) and Katalin Gellér (“On the Budapest Japonisme Exhibition in the Várkert Bazár – 15 December 2016 – March 2017”).
Currently, 37 issues of the Hungarian Review from 2010 through 2017 can be ordered from amazon.com at; or directly from the publisher; or by calling the Coalition office in Washington.