Hungary in the age of the Two World Wars 1914-1945

by Maria Ormos

Maria Ormos focuses on the Horthy Period and assesses the immeasurable human and material costs caused by Arrow-Cross rule and the Soviet dominate provisional wartime administration. This book clarifies all the historical factors that affected Hungarian society during this era-including the worldwide financial crisis of the Great Depression. Ormos analyzes Hungary's economic and market ties with Germany and the subsequent exploitation of Hungarian resources. She also identifies 1932 as a year when limited economic recovery and diplomatic success shifted to the exploitation of Hungary for German war preparation. Finally, this volume analyzes the process of realignment of Hungarian society in the context of vital areas of land tenure and educational, scientific, and social policy.

450 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Doria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic and very readable history of Hungary, encompassing both World Wars and their interim. Well organized - broken down into relatively short chapters, covering important details of the major political movers and shakers of the time, with ample footnotes and a useful chronology, plus an index with transcriptions of most of the important relevant political documents and announcements. Everything you'd want, from a historical informational perspective, with a refreshing lack of extraneous histrionics or heavy-handed partisan commentary.

True, there is a near-total absence of cultural/artistic information, but to be fair, this is a political history, with no pretensions to being anything other than exactly that, no more and no less. For those who would like the leavening of an arts-based view of this time period in Hungary, an excellent (and highly detailed) companion read to this book is Standing in the Tempest: Painters of the Hungarian Avant-Garde 1908-1930, by Steven Mansbach.