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

Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: 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...

Rating:
Summary: When Budapest was king....
Review: 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...

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read Most of the Time
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A stylist, especially in his footnotes!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: 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?

Rating:
Summary: A brilliantly worded and vivid portrail of Budapest.
Review: The book was nothing short of a masterpiece. . . Informative, colorful and bursting with a bizarre kind of historical tension. I cried on several occasions whilst reading the book, yet could not put it down, even for a cup of my mothers hot chocolate made with almonds and fresh dark cherries - with dash of Granpa's home made rum.

Rating:
Summary: The Souring of Nationalism
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: The Souring of Nationalism
Review: 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.