BTAN33002BA and BTANL33002BA: HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN
RELATIONS AND CONTACTS
Spring 2016
(For BA3 North American track English majors and corresponding students)
Format: lecture, 2 hours; graded
Place/Time: Lecture Hall II: Thursdays 14-16
Tutor: Éva Mathey (); Room 116/1. ((: 512-900 /Ext. 22152)
Office hours: Tuesday 10:00- 11.00 and Wednesday 10:00-11:00 and by appointment.
Description of course
This lecture course offers insights into an often neglected aspect of both American and Hungarian history: the various links and ties between the two countries. The study of cultural, political, and economic contacts will be supplemented with a detailed look at Americans of Hungarian descent. We will examine the evolution of the American image of Hungary and the Hungarian image of America through primary and secondary sources, and make an attempt to strike a balance between images and reality.
Grading
The course ends in a written exam. It will make up 100% of the final grade. A=91-100; B=81-90; C=71-80; D=61-70; F is 60 or below. The exam will include a text recognition intro as well as names, terms and essay questions.
Additional credit can be obtained by attending various US-Hungarian relations events in the American Corner by writing 300-350-word summaries of the various events, at 5 credit points per paper. These events will be announced in class.
Readings and other course materials
Required readings are listed in the lecture notes, with some additional recommended readings. Some of these materials are available electronically, others only in print form. We will be watching various videos in class; these are also part of the required materials. Lecture notes are available at the instructor’s website, while the readings are available from the Library (101).
Additional help: The American Corner in Debrecen hosted a series of lectures (in Hungarian) on US-Hungarian relations in the spring of 2010. These lectures are not compulsory but are highly recommended, and are available from youtube and the Institute Library as well as in the American Corner. These lectures supplement, but do not substitute for the class.
Week-by-Week Description of Course
Week 1 (February 18): Orientation + The Last Hungarian on Buckeye
General discussion of course goals and requirements; video.
Week 2 (February 25): Historians of the Hungarian-American Past + Early Contacts
Review of the lecture on immigration from the Intro to AS lecture; key terms used in upcoming classes; mutual images and stereotypes of Americans, Hungarians, and Hungarian-Americans; A brief survey of the historians of American-Hungarian relations. Early contacts between the two peoples: Tyrker, Stephen Parmenius of Buda, Captain John Smith, etc.
Readings: Eugene Pivány, Historical Contacts AND Captain John Smith (PDF)
Week 3 (March 03): 19th-century contacts: Hungarian travelers, Kossuth and America, the Kossuth emigration
Hungarian travelers in the US: Bölöni-Farkas, Haraszthy, Xántus, etc. Kossuth’s life and career. His first contact with Americans: the first diplomatic interlude between the two countries: Stiles, Mann, and Damburghy. Kossuth’s American visit, 1851-52. Goals, expectations, achievements. The real significance of his US visit. The “Kossuth emigration.”
Readings: Eugene Pivány, Historical Contacts (PDF) AND Béla Várdy, Újvilágban (PDF), István Vida: Világostól Appomatoxig. Magyarok az amerikai polgárháborúban (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2011) and in English: Hungarian Émigrés in the American Civil War: A History and Biographical Dictionary (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co. Publishers, 2011.): Chapter 4. PDF
Week 4 (March 10): guest lecture by Jonathan Singerton (University of Edinburgh) on Habsburg-US Relations in the 18th-century
Readings: to be announced later
Week 5 (March 17): The Turn of the Century: the New Immigration and Personal Contacts
The causes and ethnic composition of emigration from Hungary, the trip, target areas in the United States, and the reception of the immigrants. Life in America: lodging, work, entertainment, religion, press, organizations. Hunglish. Personal contacts: Apponyi, TR, Marcus Braun. American and Hungarian government responses Images: Woodrow Wilson, Hungary, and the Hungarians.
Readings: Tibor Glant, Through the Prism of the Habsburg Monarchy, Chapters 1 & 2 available in IEAS Library (in Hungarian: Kettős tükörben PDF); Glant, “American-Hungarian relations, 1900-1918” HSR 2005 (PDF); and Albert Tezla, Hazardous Quest, pp. 184-87, 208-19, 298-302, 304-06, 340-46, 348-49, 382-85, 396-97. (in IEAS Library, NOT in course packet)
Week 6 (March 24): World War I
US-Austro-Hungarian relations, the life and problems of the Hungarians in America (“the crisis of split loyalties”), the changing image of Hungary, and American plans for and achievements at the Paris Peace Conference.
Readings: Glant, Prism, Chapter 3 & 11 (in HU: Kettős tükörben: Chapters 3 & 9 PDF).
Week 7 CONSULTATION WEEK: March 28- April 1
Week 8 (April 07): The Peace Treaty of Trianon and Revisionism
The US and Hungary in 1919-21: war in the Carpathian basin, the two revolutions and the counterrevolution in Hungary, the separate peace treaty signed in August 1921; the US in Hungarian revisionist expectations; case studies: Teleki, Justice for Hungary, Kossuth pilgrimage.
Readings: see Professor Tibor Glant’s lecture on the subject available electronically AND some archival documents to be announced and distributed later
Week 9 (April 14): Between the Wars: Diplomacy, Immigration, Hungarian Life in the U. S.
New developments in American-Hungarian relations: full diplomatic relations established; economic, cultural, and political contacts. Major changes in the life of the Hungarians in America. Immigration restriction: the Reed-Johnson Act of 1924. Above the quota admissions: Jászi, etc.
Readings: Miklós Szántó, Magyarok Amerikában, pp. 66-84. AND Béla Várdy, Hungarian-Americans, pp. 86-109. (PDF) AND Glant, “Ninety Years of United States – Hungarian Relations” EJAS 2010 (PDF).
Week 10 (April 21) World War II
Jewish refugees in America, Hungarians in the Manhattan Project, Bartók. Hungrians in America: attempts to raise support for a democratic and independent Hungary. Wartime dilemmas and diplomacy. The Big Three and the future of Hungary. FDR, the four policemen, and Otto von Habsburg. Soviet “liber-occupation” and the second Trianon Treaty.
Readings: Mark Imre Major, American-Hungarian Relations, 1918-1944 (Astor, Florida: Danubian Press, Inc., 1974), pp. 216-246 (DOC file); and Charles Gáti, Magyarország a Kreml árnyékában (Budapest: Századvég kiadó, 1990), pp. 35-48. + FDR’s Proclamation PDF
Week 11 (April 28): Postwar Trends in Immigration
The three major waves of Hungarian immigration: the 45ers, the 47ers, and the 56ers. Their social and political background. Hungarian life in America during the cold war.
Reading: Vardy, Hungarian-Americans, pp. 113-150. PDF (Alternatively: Puskás, Ties that Bind, pp. 259-302 in IEAS Library).
Week 12 (May 5): US-Hungarian Diplomatic Relations during the Cold War
Summation of US-Hungarian relations during the cold war. The four major periods discussed include transition, hostility, normalization, and Hungary leaving the Soviet zone.
Readings: Glant, A Szent Korona amerikai kalandja, 1945-78. (Debrecen, 1997): chapters 2-4. (ask Teri, NOT in course packet) AND László Borhi, ”In the Power Arena: US-Hungarian Relations, 1942-89” online at: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-07-07-borhi-en.html AND Glant, A Szent Korona amerikai Kalandja: chapters 4-7.