Customer Reviews

Budapest 1900: A Historical Portrait of a City and Its Culture

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Having spent a summer in Budapest as a student, I was particularly interested in its history after my return. This book really fills in many of the details about the city that I never knew when living there. It's full of factiod information on population, language, architecture, etc. The problem with it; however, is that it doesn't effectively integrate these topics and treats them as rather separate phenomena (which of course they aren't). Still, it's the best history of Budapest that I've found and that's commendable.

This is another book that deserves to be put back into print. Throughout a long and productive career, John Lukacs has taken pride (sometimes bordering on preening) in his penchant for defining things his own way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just a distraction. But no subject is better suited to his mix of talents than this "historical portrait" (as he puts it) of this the capital of his native country.

The book is a nostalgia trip in part, but it is a good deal more. Lukacs also undertakes to to situate Budapest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in particular, in contrast to its great partner, Vienna -- it's remarkable even today how these two cities, so close together on the map can seem so far apart.

But perhaps the best part of the book is in his chapter on "Seeds of Trouble," when he undertakes to show how liberal nationalism went sour and headed down the road to anti-semitism and the destructive hyper-nationalism that wracked us all through so much of the 20th century. Liberal nationalism had always contained the seeds of its own undoing. Discerning politicians as disparate as Disraeli, Bismark and Napoleon III had already grasped how the liberal impulse could be harnessed to conservative ends. But through Lukacs' eyes, you can see just how quick and subtle -- and disastrous -- the shift can be. Probably the point is that Lukacs was never a good liberal to begin with. So he can look on with unblinkered eyes as the liberal vision crumbles in his hands.

For all of Lukacs' aristocratic disdain, it is possible for a reader less austere than the author to see this shift as a disaster. Perhaps a good pairing for this book would be Gordon A. Craig's "Triumph of Liberalism" about Zurich in a slightly earlier time: there you can be reminded (if you need reminding) of just how refreshing the rise of liberalism could be.

Lukacs has a final chapter called "Since Then," but it's perfunctory. There's certainly a story to be told about 20th Century Budapest, but you wouldn't come here to find it. On the other hand, as an exercise in archaeology -- of the substrate that underlies our more recent battles -- this book is hard to beat.

In many of his books, Lukacs sets out to write a multi-disciplinary history (drawing on economics, psychology, sociology, and political theory) of a narrowly circumscribed subject during a relatively thin slice of time (e.g., "Five Days in London, May 1940" and "June 1941: Hitler and Stalin"). Here, the object of Lukacs' rather idiosyncratic approach to history is the city of Budapest around 1900, which, according to Lukacs, was the city's zenith as a cultural and commercial center of (Eastern) Europe. Unlike reading many of Lukacs' books, however, reading BUDAPEST 1900 is tough going. Lukacs does make an impressive case for the significance of Budapest and its many notable literary, artistic, and intellectual figures around the turn of the century, but he burdens that case with page after page of tedious chamber-of-commerce data: miles of railroad track, water consumption per capita, number of mailboxes, number of gymnasiums, theater seats per capita, etc., etc. Further, it is not readily apparent which pages or paragraphs to skip. To get to the wheat, one must necessarily sift through a lot of chaff.

I read this book as background and in preparation for reading some of the works of Gyula Krudy, and I looked forward to it because over the years I had enjoyed a number (at least six) other books by Lukacs. But this is not as well-written nor as intrinsically interesting as were the other books of his that I read, and the prickly and grandiloquent (an adjective that is used far too often in the book) side of Lukacs is a little too evident. Despite numerous informative and insightful passages, I had to force myself to stick with this book to the end, and having reached the end I am not sure it was worth the effort.

For a brief interlude at the turn of the century, Budapest was physically and culturally the fastest growing city in Europe. In a style which is informative without being pedantic, the author creates the city as protagonist, reacting to the historical and personal forces which it confronts. Highly recommended...

History doesn't have to be a boring list of facts - look at Norman Davies's Europe: A History for evidence of that. But Lukac's Budapest 1900 is an example of what can go wrong when the historian attempts to write like a novelist.

Many parts of Budapest 1900, a potrait of the city at the turn of the century, are bogged down in long descriptive passages which try to impart a mood. In Budapest's heyday around 1900 sun lights up the beautiful women shopping in the boutiques on Vaci Street. Later, during the short-lived Communist government after World War I, politicians scheme in badly-lit basement rooms.

This kind of impressionistic history becomes irritating, and detracts from otherwise interesting detail about a city which was once the fastest growing in the world. There are also sizeable footnotes on almost every page, which seem unecessary in a non-academic history like Budapest 1900.

Furthermore, Lukacs employs a flowery style, which also grates. There are lots of unecessary self-references to "this historian" and tortured sentences like the following: "Seeds of trouble is the title i gave to this chapter: but semination is one thing, and fructification another."

The book also fails to draw all of the chapters together in a thematic whole. Finishing the book is unsatisfactory - You have very little sense of what it was really about, beyond a trip down memory lane.

Lukacs attempts to capture the mental climate of Budapest 1900. This is a kind of impressionistic approach to history that uses scholarship to achieve its effects. He is definitely worth reading.

My grandfather was born in Hungary just after 1900 (I was born and raised in the US) - I found the book to be a real insight into the character of the people and times. It tied together many of the stories I had heard and shed light on a culture that was a large part of him. The writing is sometimes a little dry - but it is worth persevering.

I would not consider this a city history, although the book has a chapter on the Budapest cityscape and one on demographics. It's main subject however is the 'generation of 1900' and its backgrounds.

Hungary produced in the 20th century a remarkable group of scientists and artists, the oldest of whom became active round 1900. Many of them sooner or later choose or were forced to emigrate, but the real heroes of this book are those who remained in Hungary and somehow kept in touch with their 'Hungarianness'. Most of these were writers and poets, relatively unknown outside Hungary, but considered to be artists of exceptional quality. Babits, Ady, Kosztolányi, Móricz, the author's favorite, Krudy, and quite a few others.

Notwithstanding their national sensibility these artists were not much appreciated by the new Hungarian nationalism that also set in around 1900. The book describes the opposition between enlightened Budapest and the provincial chauvinism that first was fighting the national minorities within the borders, and later the harsh conditions of the Trianon-peace. It may have been the 'generation of 1900' that Horthy, Hungary's strong man in the interwar years, was thinking of when declaring his intention of punishing 'guilty Budapest'.

However, because of its lack of focus, this must remain a very personal digest of Lukacs' work. On the positive side we may say that the book is very readable and certainly a good companion for a city tour. On the negative side we must add that it's style is often flowery, the generalizations (i.e. about the Hungarian national character) sometimes facile, the judgments not always balanced (i.e. the treatment of Károlyi).

Reading this book took me on a trip to an age when things were golden. I was able to see places I have been and picture myself in those times. The christian-jewish relationships were a model that can be likened-to today's America. I enjoyed the section about the coffeehouse district and also the author's footnotes. I learned a lot of things I did not know about political sides and issues.

Anyone thinking of buying this book will be pleased with their purchase. I have read "An Undiplomatic Diary", by an american General after WWI. I would like to read about Emperor Karl 1st, the "Peace Emperor". This combination of books bring about a rounded history. I am sure that there are other books to read, but these are pretty good places to start.

The last chapter tied everything together and was very strong.
Bravo! Is there another chapter about the last 14 years or so?

As best as one can, Lukacs captures the flavor of Budapest 100 years ago. Beginning with a microcosmic view of the sights, sounds and smells of the city and in expanding concentric circles, Lukacs broadens his lens to encompass fin-de-sicle Hungary in all its splendor.

1900 is intentionally chosen as a both as a specific moment in time relevant to Budapest, and as a metaphor for the generation that lived and grew-up at that time and in that place, when the second capital of the Dual Monarchy was at its zenith. Economically it was the commercial hub of the eastern half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, socially its non-Germanic soul. Towards those ends (and reminiscent of Frederic Morton's Thunder At Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914 which I would recommend as a companion to this book) Lukacs has mixed success in capturing the zeitgeist of this magnificent city.

The opening chapters are his strongest as he discusses the districts of the city and their accompanying smells, flavors and peoples as the city spread out. I had a clear and vivid understanding of exactly what and how things were changing and why the author chose this moment in time to focus on Budapest. The later chapters on politics and (Lukacs' words) the "generation of 1900" were less visceral. If Lukacs' intent was to create a portrait of the city in its youth, I felt he began to stray from this intent in these sections, and compared to the way in which he captured my imagination in the opening, it was almost dull by comparison.

But I love Budapest - in many ways it reminds me of my adopted home, Portland: the cafe culture, bridges, even the flat, industrial side on the east and the older, wealthier side on the hilly west these cities share in common. Throughout the book Lukacs reminded me in a number of small ways what is remarkable, unique and beautiful about Budapest in 1900 and now. If you are, like me, a fan of the time or interested in central Europe, this is an interesting read. If you have been (or - lucky you - will be going, especially for the first time), this would be on my "must read before you go" list.