Introduction

Throughout the twentieth century and particularly during the latter half of this period, Hungary experienced multiple waves of political change that caused a series of political, economic, and social transformations which fundamentally influenced how Hungarians conducted their everyday lives. ¹ Even if this analysis were only to examine the years during World War II or the two periods marking the greatest shifts in Hungary’s political atmosphere—namely, the communist takeover and subsequent adoption of a state socialist system in the late 1940s and early 1950s, or the shift to democracy that began at the end of the 1980s and brought about a return to a market economy—these historical events would amply demonstrate the depth of change that took place. In accordance with the rest of Europe, the kind of modernizing and civilizing processes that occurred during the twentieth century in Hungarian history were not only technological in nature, but also resulted in societal transformations and shifts in mentality. This volume comprises my attempt to trace, analyze, and interpret this genuinely complex process of transformation. To do this, I have adopted a unique perspective achieved via an interdisciplinary approach combining aspects gleaned from history, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and statistics, for the purpose of reconstructing “from the bottom up” how everyday people from various social groups experienced these changes.