Hungarian Culture and Politics in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1711–1848
This book describes and analyzes the critical period of 1711-1848 within Hungary from novel points of view, including close analyses of the proceedings of Hungarian diets. Contrary to conventional interpretations, the study, stressing the strong continuity of traditionalism in Hungarian thought, society, and politics, argues that Hungarian liberalism did not begin to flower in any substantial way until the 1830s and 1840s.
Hungarian Culture and Politics in the Habsburg Monarchy also traces and evaluates the complex relationship between Austria and Hungary over this span of time. Past interpretations have, with only a few exceptions, tilted heavily towards the Austrian role within the Monarchy, both because its center was in Vienna and because few non-Hungarian scholars can read Hungarian. This analysis redresses this balance through the use of both Austrian and Hungarian sources, demonstrating the deep cultural differences between the two halves of the Monarchy, which were nevertheless closely linked by economic and administrative ties and by a mutual recognition that co-existence was preferable to any major rupture.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1
A Portrait of 18th Century Hungary
The Country
The People
The Institutions
Chapter 2
The Joy and the Agony of Standing Still
The Sense of Permanence
Habsburg Modernization in Hungary
“Extra Hungariam non est Vita”
The Baroque in Hungary
Service and Resistance
Chapter 3
The Enlightenment and Cultural Sensibilities: A Comparative Historical Perspective
The Enlightenment
Cultural Sensibilities
Germany
Austria
Hungary
Chapter 4
The Slow Erosion of Traditionalism
The War-time Diets
The Biedermeyer
The Multiplicity of Moods
Cultural Nationalism
Ferenc Kazinczy
Chapter 5
The Ambiguous Journey Toward Reforms
The Hungarian Theater, Music, and the Arts
Cultural Breakthroughs: Romanticism
The 1825–27 Diet
Chapter 6
The Hungarian Age of Reform in the 1830s
The Early-mid 1830s: The Triumphant Years of Count István Széchenyi
The Diets of the Early-mid 1830s: Wesselényi and Széchenyi
Government Aggression Against the Liberals
The 1839–40 Diet
Chapter 7
The Hungarian Age of Reform in the 1840s
Lajos Kossuth and Count Aurél Dessewffy: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Issue of Nationality
The Széchenyi-Kossuth debate
The 1843–44 Diet
Social and Economic Developments: Kossuth’s Védegylet
Political and Cultural Pluralism
1847–48
Epilogue
Works Cited