Bryan Cartledge. The Will to Survive: A History of Hungary. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 600 pp. $35.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-231-70224-9.

Reviewed by Gabor Vermes

Published on HABSBURG (November, 2012)

Commissioned by Jonathan Kwan (University of Nottingham)

Sir Bryan Cartledge studied history at Cam‐ cover the mid-late nineteenth and twentieth cen‐ bridge and Oxford. After joining the British For‐ turies. His coverage of these later periods is out‐ eign Service in 1960, he enjoyed a spectacularly standing, but that is not uniformly the case in successful diplomatic career, serving as private chapters that deal with earlier periods. It is, for secretary for Overseas Afairs to two prime minis‐ instance, an exaggeration to say that “only a hun‐ ters and as ambassador to Hungary (1980-83) and dred years after the arrival to the Carpathian the Soviet Union (1985-88). He was knighted in Basin ... the Hungarians had become Europeans,” 1985. Cartledge became captivated by Hungarian when in fact that was a drawn-out and painfully history. His book, The Will to Survive, is not only a slow process (p. 12). Yet his claim that Istvan Wer‐ labor of love but also a thoroughly scholarly work boczy’s infuence was malignant is accurate, as is that should be on the shelves of experts and inter‐ his depiction of the devastating impact of the bat‐ ested readers alike. It is organized chronologically tle of Mohacs in 1526, his perception of a divided and it covers all major themes in Hungarian histo‐ Hungary in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen‐ ry: social and economic developments as well as turies, and his evaluation of the Rakoczi Rebellion religious transformations and policies pursued by in the eighteenth century. monarchs and various feudal institutions, such as Unfortunately, the chapters that cover the pe‐ the feudal diets. The relationship between Hun‐ riod from 1711, the year when the Rakoczi Rebel‐ garians and the Habsburg dynasty is a central fea‐ lion was defeated, through the Revolution of 1848 ture in chapters spanning the centuries from the and subsequent War of Independence in sixteenth century through 1918. 1848/1849 are weak in certain places. They con‐ Nevertheless, although exquisitely written, tain both factual errors and errors of interpreta‐ the quality of this work is somewhat uneven. Car‐ tion. For example, the relationship between tledge is most at home in writing chapters that Queen Maria Theresia and the Hungarians was H-Net Reviews more nuanced than the somewhat one-sided char‐ periods by traditionalist conservatism and by the acterization ofered by the author. True, the leading estate in feudal Hungary. This was the queen was grateful to the Hungarians for having case, to a large extent, even after liberalism had rescued her reign in 1741. Although the author become popular among certain segments of the does mention that “her patience [was] exhausted Hungarian nobility. by the Hungarian Estates,” he underplays this sen‐ Unfortunately, the author uncritically rehash‐ timent (p. 131). Upon the completion of the 1764 es the conventional interpretation, at times to the Diet, Maria Theresia virtually exploded with point of absurdity, writing that “burghers used anger at the Hungarians. It is also true that “she French ideas to support their demands for the was a bigoted woman,” but, at times, reason of abolition of the nobility” (p. 151). In reality, most state prevailed (p. 132). Her famous Hungarian burghers, if they had sufcient funds, were ex‐ Royal Guard had a few Protestant members, and tremely keen on buying their way into the nobili‐ she banned the virulently anti-Protestant book by ty. Nor is it generally true that even literate peas‐ Bishop Marton Biro Padanyi. ants read the translation of Montesquieu’s The Cartledge’s evaluation of the colonization de‐ Spirits of the Laws. Nor did the Enlightenment, a bate and the portrait of Joseph II are very good, as universalist set of ideas, awaken, in any major are the narratives on Austro-Hungarian relations, fashion, nationalism, as Cartledge notes. Although Hungarian agrarian society, Count Istvan leaders of the Enlightenment in Hungary, such as Szechenyi, Lajos Kossuth, and the language issue. Gyorgy Bessenyei, were supporters of Hungarian Ferenc Kazinczy, the leader of the Hungarian lan‐ culture, it was romanticism that was much more guage reform, however, was not an intolerant responsible for fostering nationalism in the early- Hungarian nationalist, as Cartledge describes mid nineteenth century, not only among Hungari‐ him--indeed, he was the contrary. And the central‐ ans but among the country’s ethnic minorities as ists of the 1840s should not be equated with the well. The author also exaggerates the progress of intelligentsia as a whole, because they were only liberalism which is represented as a triumphant part of it. The liberal nobility, led by Kossuth, had forward march. Although he does mention the its own intellectual supporters, such as Ferenc Conservative Party, he gives it insufcient credit Pulszky, as did the young Hungarian democrats in as a political force that, in fact, equaled the Pest, grouped around the poet Sandor Petof, who strength of its liberal adversaries. were oriented toward France, hoping to trans‐ The chapters covering the period from 1849 form Hungary into a democratic republic. through the present are truly outstanding, both in Errors of interpretation are not solely the au‐ their fuid narratives and in their analysis. I thor’s fault; the secondary sources on which he slightly disagree only on minor points. The period relies have nearly uniformly distorted, to varying of 1945-48 could indeed be distinguished as an “il‐ degrees, the situation in Hungary in the late eigh‐ lusion of democracy,” as Cartledge states, but in teenth and early-mid nineteenth centuries. It has hindsight more than at the time (p. 414). Immedi‐ become an axiom in modern Hungarian historiog‐ ately after the war, hopes were still high in Hun‐ raphy to magnify the importance of the Enlighten‐ gary that a genuine democracy could be estab‐ ment in the late eighteenth century, and empha‐ lished. The feudal structure was destroyed, but size the advance of liberalism, long before it actu‐ not the feudal spirit: it still exists today. Finally, ally happened from the mid-late 1830s through Mihaly Farkas, one of the Stalinist leaders, came the 1840s. In fact, Hungarian society and political from Slovakia but was not a Slovak. As British am‐ thinking were primarily infuenced during those bassador to Hungary between 1980 and 1983, Car‐

2 H-Net Reviews tledge gained personal insight into the Kadar regime. He brilliantly characterizes the mood of the Hungarian population as “passive fatalism” (p. 467). All in all, I fnished reading this book with genuine appreciation and respect for its author and for what he has accomplished.

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Citation: Gabor Vermes. Review of Cartledge, Bryan. The Will to Survive: A History of Hungary. HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews. November, 2012.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=35342

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