Category: Essay

At the hilltop, above the terraces of vines, the Terézia Chapel’s bright white walls and new copper roof shine like a bright beacon against the deep blue of the autumn sky. The leaves on the vines are turning golden with the season. With the sun on our backs the October

That European politics, from its nexus in Brussels to the individual nation states, is in a state of flux is hard to dispute. Indeed, the result of the US presidential election indicates that politics throughout Western civilisation is in a similar state. The symptoms of this turmoil can be felt

For much of the twentieth century a chorus of Wagnerites and Modernists has fixed the image of Eduard Hanslick, dubbed by Verdi the “Bismarck of Viennese music criticism”, as a reactionary curmudgeon trapped in the aspic of formalism and clinging to a narrow canon that began with Mozart and more

In the history of global migration, it was during the Cold War period (1947–1991) that immigration policy – traditionally driven by domestic political interests – became increasingly influenced by, at times even kept hostage to the pressures of foreign policy. The Cold War immigration policies of the United States, the

ABSENT-MINDED , UNCOERCED AND “PAINLESS” Hungarian Assimilation in the United States To understand the American assimilationist momentum, a few basic characteristics of United States history need to be clarified. First, that the USA is a “multi-ethnic and multi-racial nation” without an actual Staatsvolk (official and dominant nationality). What does this

This is an edited version of the speech presented on 21 April 2016 at Corvinus University as part of the conference organised by Ottó Hieronymi of Webster University, Geneva, and Péter Ákos Bod of Corvinus University, Budapest, under the title “Hungary, Central Eastern Europe and the Future of the Western

AN INTRODUCTORY REMARK Let me start by saying that dissidents were one of the best products of Communism. Probably the best. At one point, Václav Havel said: “A spectre is haunting Eastern Europe: a spectre of what in the West is called ‘dissent’.” The living conditions of this spectre were tough. It