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The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat

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This is an outstanding, very easy to read, history of a little known and understood country and people, the Hungarians, who are NOT slavs nor to be confused with the Huns. I heard the author give a talk at a dinner in Washington, DC, which prompted to read his book. I have not been disappointed. On the contrary, this is the most readable, entertaining history that I've read in years. Lendvai makes David McCullough look like an amateur, in terms of the scope of the years covered and the masterful way in which he writes, displaying a command of significant details and telling anecdotes. Even those with no particular interest in Hungary or eastern Europe would enjoy this book for its style of writing alone. This should be must reading for anyone planning a trip to Hungary.

I often wondered why Hungary and Hungarians have such poor public relations, particularly in the US. Unfortunately, this book fails to answer that question. It is a fascinating read, if only because it gives, (in parts) a refreshingly different perspective. In others, unfortunately, the Communist-era interpretation of the author's sources is painfully evident. The many details in the narrative are interesting, partly because the selection of the details reveals the author's biases. There are a number of translation errors I found in the book which naturally led to faulty conclusions. P.e. "Honved"(seg)(hon=home, vedni=to defend) is not the militia, it's the standing army. "Nemzet orseg," (nemzet=nation, orseg=guard) is the militia. All in all however, it was worthwhile to read through the book. It will lead those, who are not familiar with the Magyars to some understanding of the background of this nation although will leave them feel shortchanged in understanding their psyche. I sent a copy of the book to both of my (adult) children together with a 16 page commentary.It is a laudable effort on the part of author Lendvai and by and large I believe it will benefit the Hungarians' image as well.

Well written, detailed, and fascinating history of this often beleaguered but important people and country. My interest is mostly in Ural-Altaic linguistics, which includes Hungarian, which belongs to what is called the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic sub-family, which contains Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian, but I also found I enjoyed picking up some history about the Hungarians and their culture, too. I already had the basics and knew about when they'd first arrived in eastern Europe, and about their later wars with the Tatars, Turks, and Russians, but I learned quite bit more about it from this book.

A little aside here, Hungarians have contributed disproportionately, relative to their numbers, to modern math, physics, and other areas of science. They include greats like mathematician Paul Erdos, who founded the area of discrete mathematics, worked in many areas of pure math, and may have been the most prolific mathmematician who ever lived, with 1500 papers; John von Neumann, who developed game theory and was the inventor of the electronic computer; Edward Teller, the "father of the H-Bomb," and Bela Julesz, a mathematical psychophysicist and researcher in the field of visual perception, and recipient of the prestigious MacArthur "Genius Award." And last but not least, Andy Grove, the former President and CEO for 20 years of Intel Corporation, the famous computer chip-maker, was Hungarian also.

Interestingly, although I'm not Hungarian myself, I have a few connections to some of the above. I'm related to Ernest Lawrence, who invented the cyclotron, or atom smasher, which made possible critical technology for the building of the atom bomb, without which there wouldn't have been the later hydrogen bomb. Lawrence won the Nobel Prize in 1939 for his invention. I worked at Intel for several years, and met Andy Grove. And my immediate boss at Intel was Hungarian too, and he and I used to discuss Hungarian history and culture occasionally, which he used to get a kick out of, since I was the only non-Hungarian he knew with any interest in it.

I also had the pleasure of travelling around Hungary and most of the eastern-bloc countries back in the early 80s, before the wall came down, and found the Hungarian people both worldly and hospitable. It's said that because of their turbulent history, Hungarians approach life realistically and without illusions, and I think I can say this is certainly true based on my own experience.

But getting back to the present book, I wanted to mention one other interesting fact about the Hungarians, which is that they are most closely related to the Ostyak tribes of Siberia. The Ostyaks have the distinction of being the only tribes and villages the Communists couldn't take over and subjugate, and their villages remained politically independent of Moscow throughout the entire communist period.

I have been studying Hungary for over a decade and this book was still able to introduce new insights to me. An easy read and it came off more as a novel than a history book. It just flowed. What's more, I know some Hungarian historians and I found the book excellent fodder for cocktail conversations.

I would not recommend this book to anyone who does not already know Hungarian history. It does not tell the story of the Hungarians in a coherent and compelling manner. The narrative is frequently interrupted by digressions: bringing up famous Hungarian poems which were later written about the events being described, discussions of historiography (e.g., how Austrian and Hungarian accounts of an event differed, or how accounts changed over time), etc. At times the author assumes that the reader is already quite familiar with the details of European history. For example, it's hard to appreciate his argument as to why the Austrian defeat in the battle of Koeniggraetz improved the Hungary's political position vis-a-vis Austria without knowing who defeated the Austrians there, how that war ended, and whether Hungary had fought in that war too, and on which side. The translation from German is extremely literal and resulted in an awkward, dry style.

The author provides a clear interpretation and evaluation of Hungarian history, which is both a strength and the weakness of the book. It's a strength insofar as the reader is left with ideas about themes of Hungarian history, such as Hungarians' fear that they might cease to exist as a people and the question of whether one is a Hungarian primarily as a matter of choice rather than blood. It's a weakness insofar as the book is sometimes burdened by the author's blame of certain historical figures and praise of others. In a book covering 1000 years of Hungarian history, can it really be worth bringing up in defense of George Soros that "proper tenders always had to be produced" by recipients of financial support from the Soros Foundation?

I've always been interested in Hungary and wanted to know some more history of this fascinating place. This book has been a great read - it is informative, goes into interesting detail behind some of Hungary's most famous figures and Hungary's role in the world. Having traveled in both Hungary and Transylvania, it was interesting to read about Hungarian history in that region and has helped me to understand better why there is so much tension between the Hungarian and Romanian populations in places like Targu Mures. It was also nice to get to know the people behind the names I saw so much in Hungary - for instance, there were about a billion streets named after figures like Kossuth, Szechenyi and Eszterhazy. I had no clue who the Ezsterhazys were until reading this book. I wish I had read this book before my trip!

I love books that are both informative about history and told in such a compelling way that it is hard to put the book down. This is one of those. It is also one of those books that you are sad to finish. What can I read next to top that fantastic book?? Highly recommended.

Hungarian history is largely omitted from college-level courses, at least as a focus on its own: European journalist and television commentator Paul Lendvai corrects this omission with The Hungarians: A Thousand Years Of Victory In Defeat, a comprehensive focus on the Hungarian people once known in Europe as 'huns'. Hungarians became defenders of the Christian West and fought many freedom battles: The Hungarians traces their many achievements, their country's changing history, and how the Hungarians have survived as a people against all odds.

This book is a well rounded look at a thousand year old country.
It not only tells the story but gives the flavor of people and the times they lived in.

I only regret that the length of the book limited the author in the amount of details he could include.

Stlyistically this book is palatable to the novice historian who's looking for something beyond "the facts". The author successfully entertains the reader with a melodic progression through the history of a former transient,esoteric, people from outside the bosom of europe. Using the natural tendency of everyone to root for the underdog the reader is lead with elequent prose to read through the successive chapters hoping for the proud and stalwart Magyar to be vindicated with victory only to be denied--but, its history.
"Victory in Defeat" is used often by the author revealing how the history of the Magyar was defined not so much by themselves but by their neighbors. From the defeat of these horseback raiders by the Germans more than a thousand years ago forceing them to leave their hunter gatherer past and accept a agrarian existence, to the crushing defeat under the unstopable juggernaut of Stalins USSR, these people have been forged into a community of realists with the spectre of "what could of been" standing on their souls. Subjugated by no less then the Germans and Turks, and defeated by the Russians at two crucial points in time its ironic that the author reveals that the darkest days of Hungary were not under the heel of a foreigner but from a Hungarian of Jewish decent in the communist post WWII days. Its odd that the author seems critical of the few times in its history Hungary persued a self propagating ideal, especially in the Magyarization period during the later half of the nineteenth century and the nationalistic "Horthy" years.
I think this book falls short in two places. First, it follows a contemporary line of seeing history through the eyes of the most famous and or privlidged personalities of the times they lived which can be a deceptivly narrow perspective, though it can make a more dynamic read. It was refreshing when the author did elucidate the commoners lot during significant periods in Hungary's history, but not enough for my liking. Of course the farther back in histroy the author reaches the harder it is to gauge the average mans life due to lack of info but it should really be the foundation of any historical accounting. Secondly I came away unsatisfied that the Hungarian history is properly expressed due to the fact that a Magyar perspective is relayed from non Magyars of either German or Jewish decent. At the end of the book the author lists a number of persons who left Hungary and made significant contributions to the many sciences but often revealed their non Magyar decent. Thus I can only come to the conclusion that only a true Magyar could relate what is and what is not Magyar and who is and who is not a succesfull Magyar. This book is definatly worth the price and worth owning. But I'd suggest reading as many Hungarian historical books as thier are availabe to gain a rounded view of this elusive people's culture history.