Abstracts of Submitted Papers 2014

The Rupture in French-Hungarian Relations, 1896-1914

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Between 1896 and 1914, a rupture in Hungarian-French relations occurred that ultimately manifested itself in the Treaty of Trianon. My paper throws new light on the genesis of this rupture, possibly the most important turning point in recent Hungarian history.

At the turn of the twentieth century, relations between Hungary and France appeared to favor rapprochement. The 1896 Millennium celebration in Budapest reawakened French interest in Hungary. The French had long admired the Hungarians who led the 1848 Revolution, and Madame Adams' “Friends of Hungary” salon, popular in the 1880s, revived in the late 1890s with prominent new members. In Hungary, the Francophile Independence Party, which won the most votes in the January 1905 elections, promoted the idea that Hungary deserved more independence from Austria. Independents wanted a Hungarian note-issuing bank, tariff independence, and more control over the Hungarian army. Dissatisfaction with the Triple Alliance was openly expressed in Budapest. Deputy Gábor Ugron, a leader of the Francophile wing of the Independence Party, discussed with French Minister of Foreign Affairs Theophile Delcassé the possibility of turning “the dual monarchy of the Hapsburgs in the direction of France and Russia.” The French, who viewed Hungary as the 'weak link' in the Triple Alliance, saw an opportunity to draw Hungary into the French sphere of influence.

How did relations between Hungary and France, so promising at the beginning of the century, end so disastrously in World War I and in the treaties thereafter?



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Marguerite DeHuszar Allen received her PhD from the University of Chicago. She published a book on the Faust Legend based on her dissertation. She began researching her Hungarian roots in 1999, publishing an essay and article about family members. A Fulbright Scholar Research Grant, Hungary, helped launch her projected book on the history of the Hungarian journal Revue de Hongrie, edited by her grandfather. Her interests focus on twentieth century Europe, including the two world wars and the Hungarian Holocaust. She is an independent scholar affiliated with Northwestern University's Center for International and Comparative Studies, where she has been a Visiting Scholar.

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1912--My Hungarian Parents Move to America--A Family History

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
My parents--Bartfai Sandor & Toth Julianna--were born in Austria-Hungary. They were zseller who moved to Granite City, Illinois,
where other Toth sibilings had immigrated earlier. They had eight children. I was born in 1935 on a farm & started school in a one room school house down the road. In 1978, I made my first of five visits to Hungary, making contact with relatives. Uncle Imre was living in the Hungarian equivalent of an American log cabin. It had a thatched roof. Water came from a well in the yard.
One hundred years after my parent's immigration, I attended the Toth-Bartfay
reunion in St. Louis, MO.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Arthur Allan Bartfay graduated from Central High School in Flint, Michigan; earned a BA and MA from Michigan State University in East Lansing. He served on the faculties of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant. Arthur earned ABD credits at The Ohio State University in Columbus and, after 25 years, retired from the staff of Ohio State.

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Hungarian Jewish Women Doctors during the Holocaust

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The fate of women was different from men during the holocaust. They were ordered for Labor services only by the very end of the ordeal of the holocaust,after October 21, 1944 following the Ferenc Szálasi political take over. As the Head of State, he ordered women in Budapest, between 16 and 40 years of age to present themselves at the KISOK (Közép Iskolás Sportolók Országos Köre) Stadium with three days food supplies. By that time major deportation from the country-side that started at the beginning of April 44 that included women, was accomplished. The paper describes the women entering the profession, their choice of fields and their special fate during the Shoa.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Julia Bock completed her dual master’s degrees in History and Library Science, and her post graduate training at the Eötvös Lóránd University in Budapest, with a Ph.D. in History. The subject of her dissertation was the Minority Problem in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. She worked as a research librarian at the Library of Parliament in Budapest.

After immigrating to the United States, she held various positions, first at the International Law section of NYU’s Law Library, later at the Bakhmeteff Archive at Columbia University as an Assistant Archivist. She studied for her MLS degree at Columbia University’s School of Library Service graduation she worked as a Technical Service librarian for a major law firm in New York. In 1994 she became the Head Librarian of the Leo Baeck Institute library, a German Jewish research collection. In 1998 she was invited for a position to create and to be the Head of the Library at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Presently, she is the Acquisition Librarian at Long Island University Brooklyn Campus in an Associate Professor rank.

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The Many Lives of a Hungarian Jewish Scout Troop: 311. Vörösmarty cs.cs.

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The Vörösmarty scout troop, founded in 1924, was officially banned from the Hungarian Scouting Association in 1941 along with all Jewish troops. Despite the ban the troop continued its activities - weekly meetings, Sunday hikes, a winter camp and summer camp, under the auspices of the Buda Jewish Community. Its leaders, mainly young Jewish intellectuals, strove to 'toughen' their charges. Scouts learned not only such skills as first aid and orientation but also literature and philosophy. On March 19, 1944, as the scouts were returning from their usual Sunday hike, they were quickly dispersed. The Germans had arrived.

Ten months later, in January 1945, the Vörösmarty came back to life. Several leaders, returning from forced labor, revived the troop which gained new vigor under the auspices of the Trade Unions. The troop now included girls - the first and only co-ed scout troop in Hungary. In 1948, the Vörösmarty was again dissolved, this time by the communists.

Fifty-two years later in 2000, former Vörösmarty members reached out to still surviving fellow scouts. The troop was revived and carries on activities in Budapest, including an annual meeting in April, when former members arrive from far-flung sites. This April the members celebrated the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Vörösmarty troop. The first of its many lives.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Deborah S. Cornelius received her PhD degree at Rutgers University in 1994. (MAT at Yale University, 1958 and BA from Connecticut College for Women, 1956.) Her scholarly interests include social and economic reform in Hungary, 1920-1945, Hungary's involvement in World War II, and the postwar democratic experiment, 1945-1948. She published two books on these subjects, Hungary in World War II: Caught in the Cauldron. Fordham U. Press, 2011 and In Search of the Nation: The New Generation of Hungarian Youth in Czechoslovakia 1925-1934. Columbia U. Press, 1999.

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Judith Fenyvesi, Sister of Social Service: Leader/Activist in the USA in the aftermath of the Hungarian Holocaust and Communist Era

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
This presentation will detail the life of Sr. Judith Fenyvesi, Sister of Social Service, who was a leader and activist in the aftermath of the Hungarian Holocaust and Communist era. Some writers say that she was a “Woman of Courage and Light.” The amazing story of her life indeed reflects these two attributes. Sr. Judith was born into a prominent Jewish family in Salonta, Romania—a small village near the Hungarian border. This territory later became a tug of war between the two countries. Turning points in her life as they relate to Hungarian history will unfold in this presentation.

Some of the major events that shaped the life of Judith Fenyvesi include her conversion from Judaism to Catholicism; she worked in the Catholic resistance movement in an effort to maintain Religious freedom under Communist rule; when ties to Rome among priests and bishops were severed by the Communist regime, it was Sr. Judith who carried messages to the Papal Nuncio; she was later arrested and held for 28 months before she was sentenced to ten years in prison as a political prisoner. In 1964 Sr. Judith immigrated to the United States where she joined the Sisters of Social Service in Buffalo, NY. After completing a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s degree in the states, she created a social work program at Daemen College, eventually serving as its Director.

Perhaps the darkest and most painful event of her life was the annihilation of her entire family at Auschwitz. While she felt the guilt of survival for many years, Sr. Judith used the harsh realities of the Holocaust to fulfill a lifelong dream; that was, to work to alleviate human suffering and to give hope to those in darkness.

Fran Rossi Szpylczyn recently posted on a Pastoral blog the following, “What strikes me is that in Judith we find a woman, persecuted at many levels—for being a Jew, for being a woman religious, for being a Catholic. And even at her worst, she found the light of Christ to guide her on through many circumstances” (pastoralpostings.wordpress.com/tag/Judith-fenyvesi, 25 June 2013).


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Kathy DeRose, Ed. D. has worked at Duquesne University for the past 26 years and is currently Director of Continuing Professional Development in the School of Pharmacy. In addition she is the Assistant Director of the Post baccalaureate Weekend PharmD. Program. Dr. DeRose holds both Administrative and Instructor positions in the School of Pharmacy.

In her current position in the School of Pharmacy, she has developed an education methods rotation, a 12-credit academic concentration and currently works with Pharmacy Residents and Fellows in the teaching methods component of their residencies and fellowships. Her coursework includes: Service Learning, Teaching Methods for the Pharmacy Practitioner, Organizational Leadership, Conflict Resolution and Intro to Qualitative Research Methods.

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From Chastened to Unchastened Crowd, 1989 to the Present

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Crowd politics has been an essential element of Hungarian nationalism since the nineteenth century. Political scientists have made a sharp division between crowd politics and festive gatherings, between grassroots activism and government orchestrated events. But Hungarian politics invariably interconnect the two. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán operates within this tradition. Since 1989 he has employed political demonstration theater.

This paper will examine the assumption of the role of crowd leader by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán including his ability to use, seize, or orchestrate both festive gatherings and politically defiant crowds for regime change or to increase his hold on power; for electoral victories or parliamentary advantage, to attract international support or rally internally against foreign opinion.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Alice Freifeld received her PhD (1992), M.A. and B.A. from University of California, Berkeley. She joined the University of Florida in 1994 after teaching at Wheaton College, University of New Hampshire-Durham, University of Connecticut-Storrs, University of Nebraska, and Transylvania University, Lexington, KY. Professor Freifeld has published Nationalism and the Crowd in Liberal Hungary, 1848-1914 (2000), which won the Barbara Jelavich Book Prize in 2001. She also coedited East Europe Reads Nietzsche with Peter Bergmann and Bernice Rosenthal (1998). She has published numerous articles and is currently working on a manuscript entitled Displaced Hungarian Jewry, 1945-48.

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Democratization and Nationalism in Hungary after 1989

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Democracy is not only the institution or institutionalization, but originally demos and kratos, people's good governance in the given society. At that time Nationalism/populism will be the important role of democracy to mobilize the people.
Hungary was the "honor student" of Democratization and Marketization in Central Europe before and after 1989, or even historically. The experiments of Democratization as the theory, policy, and performance were repeated in Hungary collaborated with other Central Europeans, western and American researchers and politicians. Pragmatic Democratization were brought up under the Kadar era, or already in 1848, 1918, 1946-, and 1956, as well.

The author will investigate the democratization in Hungary comparing other Central and Eastern Europe after the transformation in 1989 around 25 years, under so called “Anglo-Saxon” Two major party system, between Socialist Party and FIDESZ.
The author would like to investigate the Democratization with Nationalism more concretely after transition era, considering political participation, accountability and transparency, minority rights, social welfare and poverty and others. The author wishes to consider as well, why Hungary became relatively lower developed country comparing other Central Europe in the EU during these 14 years after 21st century even under the development of Democracy. And how is it possible to change for further Hungarian development.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Kumiko Haba is Professor, Member of Science Council for Japan, Jean Monnet Chair in the EU, and former Director of European Institute, Former Governing Council of the International Studies Association (ISA) in USA. She researched at MTA Tortenettudomanyi Intezete in Hungary, during 1978-80, 1994-95, and at Harvard University during 2011-12. Her Specialty is EU and NATO Enlargement and Hungarian Democratization, Nationalism and Minority questions (Hatarontuli magyarok kisebbsegi kerdesek es nemzeti egyutteles). She wrote 50 books (including co-writer) and 160 articles. Recent publications: The Euro Crisis and European Political Economy, ed. by Robert Boyer, Ivan T. Berend, and Kumiko Haba, 2013. History of Hungarian Revolution--Nationalism and Socialism in Eastern Europe, Tokyo, 1989.

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Turning Point in the Research of Hungarica Collections?

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Researchers of Hungarian emigrant history, for various reasons (earlier political taboos, fragmented worldwide diaspora, lack of sources and expertise) have been struggling with a backlog for at least two generations. The discipline of emigrnt literature, both in Hungary and abroad, is still painfully lacking its own research institute or any kind of scientific infrastructure. Much of its primary sources are not properly explored, though they are more and more endangered by the passing away of the most active emigré generation, that of the onetime young ’56-ers. The failed efforts of the past two or three decades for saving what could be saved have clearly proven by now. Without an overall, systhematic resource exploration of scientific standards both in Hungary and worldwide there is no chance to preserve the rich and far branching herritage of the Hungarian diaspora in the West. Our planned OTKA-project from Fall 2014 may well be the next extanded phase of such a field research work with similar explorations of Hungarica diasporas. Our main goal is to conduct a new systematic research project in order to explore, save, and publish resources – mostly manuscripts – of the Hungarian western diaspora. During the past decades there have been a number of initiatives by researchers with a similar purpose; however these mostly remained sporadic, ad hoc, and only partial, often ending with not much success. The rescue of archival emigrant documents, in the meantime, has become more and more compelling both morally and practically, due to the rapid loss of the emigré generation. Thus we are fully convinced that it is high time to expand and speed up our efforts.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
István Hegedűs (MA in History, Eszterházy Károly College, Eger; MA in Library Science, Eszterházy Károly College, Eger; Msc in agricultural engineer specialized to rural development, Károly Róbert College) working as research assistant at the Institute for Minority Studies Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is working on his doctoral thesis in History (about the estates and possessions of the Andrássy family during 19th-20th century). He is also interested in the preservation and development of Hungarica collections of the US. He spent half a year in New Brunswick, NJ with the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor scholarship.

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Towards a Market Based Sport System? A Critical Analysis of the Hungarian Sport Policy 1989-90

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The collapse of communism in 1989 was a moment of such enormous historical importance that Francis Fukuyama was able to advance his now famous thesis that this change was inevitable, given the existence of a worldwide historical evolutionary trend towards liberal capitalism. In his view, liberal capitalism marks the most desirous “end of history,” the most rational and enlightened way of organizing society. In contrast, contemporary sociological examination of capitalist institutions begins with the observation that there are different paths leading towards capitalism. These not only depend on the endowments of economic actors but also on institutionalized patterns of authority and organizational logic that are historically developed and resistant to change. National markets, then, differ systematically according to the kinds of resources and frameworks that particular national model provides.
This paper analyzes the causes and consequences of the ratification of Bill No IX in 1989 "Role of Sport Organizations" and also pays particular attention to the importance of this Bill on the further development of sport policy in Hungary. Although sport has so often been portrayed as a victim of the transition process, this paper argues that it has been the Hungarian sport community’s action (or lack of action) that has driven the sport policy development process in a particular, later most criticized direction.
The historically close relationship between the state and the sport community would not be eradicated, even by enhanced marketization, democratization, and liberalization. In Hungary the state continues to play a strong role in sport and in Hungary the transition process stimulated the expansion of governing capacities not through the transformation of public-private partnerships but through the configuration of central-local governmental relationship.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr Emese Ivan is an Assistant Professor of Sport Management at St John’s University (New York). Her teaching and research focuses on sport sociology, management, and role that sport plays in building a more just society worldwide.

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Right Way or Dead End: What Kind of Turning Point is the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867?

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The Compromise of 1867 is one of the most controversial events in the dualist period, an event that has provoked extremely conflicting value-judgments in Hungarian historiography, and, more broadly, in Hungarian historical public opinion. The Compromise has been discussed in books, articles and historical essays to fill a whole library and has been the topic of a wealth of conferences and workshop discussions. Both as a cause of and background to the "good old peace-time days" or the "dungeon of peoples", the dualist monarchy is still alive and intensely debated in every-day historical public thinking.
Paging through a library of literature, the historian is, first, surprised and envious: why is there so great interest extending way beyond both the strict and broad confines of the profession? He is, then, somewhat perplexed, for on his first inquiry, it becomes clear what elicited and still elicits the unusual interest is only in a very small part the spectacular ceremony of crowning Franz-Jozef King of Hungary who had, de facto, ruled for two decades; or the operation of the political-constitutional system created by the compromise; or the success or failure of economic modernization extending up to World War I. Behind the symbolic meanings of the Compromise beyond its own significance there looms a whole series of basic issues of modern Hungarian history: Were there (are there) any alternatives in Hungarian social development or do regional factors, backwardness carried on since medieval times demarcate a compulsory pathway? Had there been and when any chance for western-like and democratic development, for catching up with Western Europe, or for a break-out of the peripheric state of backwardness? Had there been a reconcilable and balanced solution to the questions of national self-determination and the regional and/or European integration and which answer was realistic or unrealistic and when? As a consequence of the aforesaid, was there (is there?) a room for maneuver resulting in a real change of course and what is the responsibility of the Hungarian political elite and its leading personalities?

The complicated inter-relatedness of the Compromise and its close links to the fundamental modern-age issues of Hungarian historical development explain the intense professional as well as the broader public interest in it. The repeatedly erupting debates about the assessment of the Compromise indicate, as it were, when the answer to be given to the fundamental questions became current concern time and again in Hungarian political life. On the whole, this is how the evaluation of the Compromise became part of the national historical mythology and the assessors of the Compromise most often offered a straightforward or oblique clarification of their own value system and their self-definition by taking positions in relation to modern-age Hungarian social development until today.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Biography:
János Mazsu is Professor of Social and Economic History at Debrecen University, Debrecen, Hungary. He is an expert in Social and Intellectual History, recent researches on HGIS in urban history. He is awarded with Széchenyi Professor Scholarship, served as Ránki György Chair (Indiana University). Selected publications: "The Social History of the Hungarian Intelligentsia, 1825–1914". Atlantic Research and Publications, Boulder. Atlantic Studies on Society in Change 89. New York, Columbia University Press, 1997. 292.p. G. Szabó-Módi-Mazsu. "Debrecen, a cívis város" (Debrecen, the civis city. Hungarian, English, German). Budapest, 2003. 320.p. "A jó polgár" (The good citizen) with Setényi János. Debrecen, 1996. "Iparosodás és modernizáció" (Industrializations and modernization) ed. and co-author, Debrecen, 1991. "Tanulmányok a magyar értelmiség társadalomtörténetéhez". Gondolat. Budapest, 2012. 229.p.

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1956 as a Turning Point? Elite Hungarian Athletes After the Revolution

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
It cannot be denied that the 1956 Revolution played perhaps the most central role in shaping the course of Hungarian history under communism and in collective memory thereafter. The Communist period did not, however, end after 1956, nor after the general amnesty in 1962. The reforms of the New Economic Mechanism from 1968-1972 and the state’s relaxation of its socio-cultural policies in the 1970s and 1980s in many ways altered the course of Hungarian society and everyday life. Yet the period of Goulash Communism has received very little attention from scholars of Hungary. At first glance this is perhaps surprising. Some historians have described the Kádárist period as a time of “relative abundance” of consumer goods and freedoms, particularly when compared to the “economy of shortage” that plagued their Romanian neighbors. The availability of consumer items and opportunities to improve and enjoy one’s lifestyle brought great promise to the Hungarian public; but perhaps more interesting were the myriad of ways in which Hungarians worked and took pride in obtaining these items, and experiencing what some historians have called the “pleasures” in socialism.
As one of the groups most well suited to take advantage and obtain these pleasures, elite Hungarian athletes stood to gain more than most citizens during this time. But while trying to acquire and enjoy these pleasures, elite athletes risked punishment from the Hungarian Communist state, as they had before 1956. This paper will, therefore, examine the ways that elite athletes pushed the limits of Goulash Communism in their attempts to obtain the “good life.”


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Johanna Mellis is a doctoral student studying Hungarian history at the University of Florida. Her teaching and research interests include East-Central Europe, Hungary, sport history, everyday life under communism/socialism, and oral history and memory studies.

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The Transfer of Hungarian Subcarpathia to the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union in 1945

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Better known as Ruthenia, this region, Kárpátalja (Subcarpathia) in Hungarian, had been part of the Hungarian kingdom since its foundation in 1000 until 1919. As a result of the defeat and collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the revolutionary Hungarian government gave Kárpátlalja autonomy and named it Ruszka Kraina. The Allied victors, however, awarded Ruthenia to Czechoslovakia at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The loss of Ruthenia, along with the other territories that were taken from Hungary by the peacemakers, was accepted under duress by Hungary when its representatives signed the Peace Treaty of Trianon on June 4, 1920. The Hungarian government’s revisionism, which called for the reconstitution of historic Hungary, included the return of Ruthenia. The opportunity to recover Ruthenia from Czecho-Slovakia with German help came in 1938 and 1939. At that time the possibility of acquiring the same territory came to the consideration of Soviet foreign policy makers as well, most importantly, to Stalin. The Soviet dictator, however, waited for the right conditions to take over the contested land. The lukewarm, then hostile, foreign policy of Hungary towards the Soviet Union during this period, which culminated in Hungary’s entrance into the war against the USSR on Germany’s side, sealed the fate of Ruthenia. Upon Hungary’s defeat Ruthenia became a de facto part of the Soviet Union late in 1944 and de jure in 1945.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Peter Pastor is professor of history at Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ. He received his BA from the City College of CUNY and his PhD from New York University. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of seven books. His most recent co-edited volume is Essays on World War I (2012). He is also the author of more than forty articles focusing on Hungarian-Russian relations, or on twentieth century Hungarian history. He is also the president of the Center for Hungarian Studies and Publications, Inc., a non-profit corporation specializing on publishing the works of Hungarian historians in English. He is a frequent visitor to Hungary and is on the faculty of the Doctoral Program in History of Eszterházy Károly College in Eger, Hungary, as an invited foreign instructor. In 2003 he received the Commander’s Cross of the Hungarian Republic (a Magyar Köztársasági Érdemrend Középkeresztje) for exceptional contributions to the furthering of Hungarian-American cultural ties.

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Imperialism in late Nineteenth-Century Hungary

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Nineteenth-century speakers argued that Hungary’s geographical position as well as the nation’s eastern origins defined its historical role in Europe and Asia. My paper examines some of the arguments related to the economic and political advantages Hungarian thinkers recognized in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy’s Oriental politics from the Congress of Berlin in 1878 until the beginnings of World War I. It focuses on two main aspects of fin-de-siècle Hungarian foreign politics: imperial attitudes vis-à-vis the Balkans and other “Turanians.” The German linguist Max Müller created the ethnological and linguistic category of Turanians and included in this category every non-Semitic and non-Aryan language like Hungarian, other Finno-Ugric languages, as well as Turkish, and even Tamil. By the 1870s, Müller’s linguistic classification proved to be unscientific and misleading and its validity was completely refuted. Nonetheless, Hungarian nationalists who believed in the glory of the Asian forefathers kept referring to Hungary as the westernmost and most advanced nation of the future, great Turanian commonwealth. Turanism remained an important concept in Hungarian politics, and based on the “experience” of the Bosnian occupation from 1908, Turanism became a political movement fostering imperial designs. The paper sheds light on the curious dynamics between nationalist, colonial, and imperial desires manifesting in Hungary’s eastern politics. It argues that World War I finally dissolved the illusion that those imperialist dreams could ever come true.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Katalin Franciska Rác is a student of modern Central European and modern European Jewish history. Her doctorate “Orientalism for the Nation: Jews and Oriental Scholarship in Modern Hungary” studies the triangular relationship between national identity discourse, Jewish integration, and Orientalism in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Hungary. In the 2013-2014 academic year, she is the recipient of the Fellowship for East European Studies from the American Council of Learned Societies.

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Problems of a Declining Hungarian Birth Rate: A Historical Perspective

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
In sharp contrast to its European neighbors, for over century Hungary has had a seriously declining birth rate. This paper aims to examine this anomaly through a historical perspective by considering the major findings of a series of demographic studies that identify the key factors behind falling levels of fertility. It does so by focusing on four major periods. The first period covers the era prior to the demographic transition that commenced before 1880, and takes into account registers from the eighteenth century, when the demography was characterized by high birth rates and high death rates. The second period is one of demographic transition, between 1880 and 1960. It coincided with modernization, and is the period when death rates fell, while at the same time being accompanied by a decrease in birth rates. The third period is the post-transitional era of 1960-1980; and the fourth covers the post-socialist change of 1990-2010, which – except during the 1970s - has shown a continuous decline in birth rate and population loss.
Significantly, as this paper shows, Hungary was the first country in Europe after the Second World War in which the level of fertility declined far below a level of simple replacement of the population, which is conventionally measured as less than 2.1 births per woman. Since 1981 the population has been declining by about 0.15-0.20 percent per year. At present, fertility in Hungary is one of the lowest in Europe and, in fact, in the whole world. The Hungarian age structure will, moreover, become increasingly problematic as the fertile age group of the population continues to shrink.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ildikó Szántó received her M.A. degree in History from Macquarie University, N.S.W. She has taught interdisciplinary courses focusing on the ideological movements of the twentieth century in East-Central Europe at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences, Pázmány Péter Catholic University and the Budapest Business School.

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IMRE SARI-GAL Chronicler of Cleveland Hungarian Life

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The paper is to be presented by Steven B. Vardy and Agnes H. Vardy.

In the course of the four decades before the outbreak of World War I, well over a million Hungarians [Magyars] emigrated to the United States, mostly to the northeastern industrial cities of America. Among these cities was Cleveland, Ohio, which by 1914 had over 60,000 Hungarians, working in the steel mills and factories of that industrial city. Most of theses immigrants came as guest workers, but for several reasons at least three fourths of them remained here permanently.
The life and labors of these Hungarians has been chronicled by Susan M. Papp in her monograph, Hungarian Americans and their Communities of Cleveland (1981). What was still needed was the description of Cleveland as a “living city,” with two major centers of Hungarain life. These included the Buckeye Road Area on the East Side, and the Lorain Avenue Area on the West Side. Both of these were classical Little Hungaries that survived into the late 20th century.
The man who took on the task to describe these Little Hungaries was Imre Sári-Gál (1923-2006) -- a poet and amateur historian -- who did this in two separate volumes: Az amerikai Debrecen [The American Debrecen] (1966), and Cleveland Magyar Múzeum [The Cleveland Hungarian Museum] (1978),
Born into a peasant family in Füzesabony in eastern Hungary Imre Gál managed to rise above his original social class by virtue of his ability and willingness to study. He enrolled at a nearby Teachers’ College, where he earned a Teache’s Certificate in 1945, the year that brought Soviet Communist domination to Hungary. Although his social background should have been an advantage for him, because of his dedication to his nation and to his people, he could barely survive in Soviet-dominated Hungary.
After the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, Imre took the chance to leave his country and try his luck in the United States. After several years of training he became a heart surgery technician at the famed Cleveland Clinic, where he worked until his retirement in the late eighties.
In addtion to portraying life in Cleveland’s Little Hungaries, Imre also wrote poetry in which he described his struggles and his attachment to his two countries. After much soul-searching he repatriated to Hungary, hoping to find happiness in the country of his birth. That was not to be. By the early 21st century Hungary was not the country he had left behind. He also missed his America that had given him so much after his flight from Hungary. We encountered him in Budapest a few months before his death, where he revealed his yearning for the United States and the city of Cleveland.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Prof. S.B. Vardy,.Ph.D., is a McAnulty Distinguished Professor of European History at Duquesne University, longtime Director of the University's History Forum, and former Chairman of the Department of History.
He is the author, co-author, or editor of two dozen scholarly books, well over one-hundred scholarly articles, and nearly one-hundred encyclopedia articles and book reviews.

Prof. Agnes Huszar Vardy, Ph.D., is a former professor of English and Communications at Robert Morris University, is now Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature at Duquesne University.
Prof. Vardy is the author, co-author, or editor of nearly a dozen books, and close to a hundred articles, essays and reviews. She is also the author of two historical-social novels, Mimi and My Italian Summer.

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