Hungary: A Short History

by Norman Stone Profile Books 288pp £16.99 The Week Bookshop £13.99

The British historian Norman Stone learnt Hungarian while serving a short prison sentence near Budapest in the 1960s, after becoming involved in a “crazy enterprise” to smuggle a dissident out of the country, said Victor Sebestyen in The Sunday Times. Far from leaving him embittered, the experience gave him a “deep affection for Hungary and its culture”, which shines through in this absorbing volume. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Stone shows how, for a small country, Hungary had – and continues to have – a disproportionate influence on the world. In 1989, its decision to “dismantle the barbed-wire fence separating East and West” led directly to the fall of the Berlin Wall. And Viktor Orbán (above), its prime minister, is a pioneer of “authoritarian nationalism”.

Hungary’s most “glorious” years were those following the Austro-hungarian Compromise of 1867, when it played a key role in running the AustroHungarian empire, said Tibor Fischer in The Daily Telegraph. Its advancement during this period meant that by 1900, “Budapest was one of the most charming and affluent cities in the world”. Under the Trianon peace treaty of 1920, however, the country lost two-thirds of its territory and nearly half its population. Much of its subsequent history has been “wretched”: in the Second World War, it experienced “wholesale destruction”; afterwards, decades of authoritarian Soviet rule ensued. “By turns erudite, glib, patronising and tantalising”, this is a curious book, said Edward Lucas in The Times. Stone’s historical knowledge is formidable, and he produces “sparkling turns of phrase”. Yet there are odd diversions and numerous inaccuracies; the “chatty style” can also grate. Overall, “the insights outweigh the muddle” – but not by much.