Slavic and East European Journal

"As Nagy starkly demonstrates, there was a massive discrepancy between government expectations and political realities, since no amount of investment in culture, or its dissemination, could compensate for Hungary’s geopolitical weaknesses. Indeed, cultural production turned out to be a very ‘poor substitute for real power’. Yet the cultural capital built up in these turbulent years was significant, and ‘the infrastructure created for interwar cultural diplomacy remained essential during the communist era’ and beyond. Accordingly, the book concludes that in the long run the propaganda drive was not ‘for naught’, as it ‘helped to legitimize Hungary’s status as an independent state’ and to develop a ‘basic template of Hungarian identity," which, for better or worse, survives today’."
Reviewed book: 
Author: 
Zsolt Nagy
ISBN: 
978-963-386-194-3
cloth
$100.00 / €90.00 / £79.00
Kindle edition is available through Amazon