The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat

By Paul Lendvai

This is a comprehensive history of a legendarily proud and passionate but lonely people. Much of Europe once knew them as ‘child-devouring cannibals’ and ‘bloodthirsty Huns’, but it was not long before the Hungarians became steadfast defenders of Christendom and fought heroic freedom struggles against the Tartars, the Turks and, among others, the Russians.

Paul Lendvai tells how, despite a string of catastrophes and their linguistic and cultural isolation, the Hungarians have survived as a nation-state for more than 1,000 years. He traces Hungarian politics, culture, economics and emotions, from the Magyars’ dramatic entry into the Carpathian Basin in 896 to the brink of the post–Cold War era. Lendvai brings to life the short-lived revolutionary triumphs of 1848-9 and 1918-19; the traumatic Treaty of Trianon (1920) which deprived Hungary of Transylvania and other historic Magyar lands; and the successive Nazi and Communist tyrannies. These are among the episodes that have formed the consciousness of the Hungarian people.

Through anecdotes of heroes and traitors, victors and victims, geniuses and impostors, Lendvai conveys the multifaceted interplay of progressivism and economic modernisation, versus intolerance and narrow-minded nationalism, on the grand stage of Hungarian history. This work is a blend of narrative, irony and humour; of occasional anger without taboos or prejudices. It also offers an authoritative key to understanding how and why this corner of Europe has produced such a galaxy of great scientists, artists and entrepreneurs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hurst Publishers
• Release date: May 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781787386242

Paul Lendvai

Paul Lendvai, a Hungarian-born Austrian journalist and author, was the Vienna correspondent for the Financial Times for over twenty years. His most recent books, both published by Hurst, are The Hungarians (second edition); and Orbán: Europe’s New Strongman, which won the Prix du Livre Européen.

Reviews for The Hungarians

[thosgpetri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat" by Paul Lendvai. A wonderful gift from on my brother on my retirement. I was excited on receiving it.

[aevaughn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It seems to provide a reasonable overview of Hungarian history. I did get lost in a sea of names however. Also, it is on the long side.

[shrike58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To Paul Lendvai, the besetting sin of Hungarian culture is its "cult of history" and "the nationalistic sense of mission" that has resulted. This might be tolerable except for another unfortunate facet of the Hungarian national character (the main topic of this work), and that is the sense of paranoia over being an isolated people with possibly little to offer besides an esoteric language and a host of colorful legends. Lendvai traces these tendencies by examining exemplary personalities across the span of of Hungarian history, and he's at his best when he has a colorful character to peg his insights to. The downside of this is that Lendvai's prose tends to flag when examining the more cut and dry factors of national developement. While this is certainly the best account I've read of the general thrust of Hungarian history, particularly for capturing the spirit of the medieval and early modern periods, I do wish that Lendvai could have offered a better explanation (as opposed to description) of the origins of the destructive sense of entitlement that afflicted the Hungarian aristocracy, as so many of the evils of Hungarian history can be traced to this trait.