Antipolitics: An Essay

by George Konrád

Discusses the origins of the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union and describes methods for individuals to work for peace and freedom

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

aka György Konrád

George Konrád was a Hungarian novelist and essayist. Konrád was born in Berettyóújfalu, near Debrecen into an affluent Jewish family. He graduated in 1951 from the Madách Secondary School in Budapest, entered the Lenin Institute and eventually studied literature, sociology and psychology at Eötvös Loránd University. In 1956 he participated in the Hungarian Uprising against the Soviet occupation.

Reviews

[Stephen Coates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1982, written with focus on Hungary, although noting comparable situations in Poland and Czechoslovakia, "Antipolitics" was an analysis of the challenge facing Hungary at a time when it was controlled by the Soviet Union. He observed that world politics was at that time a bipolar competition between the USA and the USSR, both engaged in a nuclear arms race, with Eastern Europe under Soviet occupation and Western Europe free but within the USA’s orbit, noting that this European division was rooted in the Yalta agreement between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, the significance of which was not appreciated at the time. While not overtly calling for Hungary to become as free as and become part of the west, he did express a desire for political freedoms and questioned the perceived right of expansion of influence and in particular the subjugation of Hungary by the Soviet Union.

What impressed me about the book was the depth of insight and analysis of the political environment in which he was living and only that this is less relevant given the time elapsed since it was written is why I didn’t give it a 5 star rating.

[Fnaught · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually a review of John Sweeney and Evelyn Grant's "Antipolitics" (2025) from Wylfings Publishing -buy it now.

[Zuzanna Lin-Iwanejko · Rating 4 out of 5]

"God and democracy: there you have America's Marxism–Leninism" (!)