Studies
Zsinka, László
The hegemonic turn of American foreign policy in the 1930s and 1940s
Part One: Geopolitical and World Economic Challenges in the Interwar Period
In my study, I present the turn of American foreign policy at the end of the Second World War with its fundamental consequences. From 1944-45, the United States undertook a leadership of the newly created world order, which resulted in a break with isolationist traditions. Ideas related to the liberal world order were included in a coherent system by the Grand Design represented by President Roosevelt. Although its full realization was not possible due to the unfolding Cold War, the legacy of the Grand Design, through the nascent United Nations and other international institutions, greatly determined the evolution of the post war world order. Roosevelt and his advisors came to the conclusion that the United States should assume the leading role as a result of the shocking economic and political crises, and their related side as were also organized in to a system based on these experiences. The present study does not primarily seek to analyze the Grand Design, but to explore the complex reasons and motives, how the United States decided to pursue an active foreign policy. So, instead of a descriptive analysis, I focus more on the origin and the reasons. It should not be forgotten that it is one of the most important changes in power politics in the 20th century. It also has considerable importance within the framework of the secondary school curriculum.
Key words: hegemony, isolationism, idealism/realism, multilateralism, liberal world order.
Katona, András
The past and notable personalities of Hungarian history didactics V.
The Golden Age of History Didactics in the Kádár Era
At the end of the 18th century and early in the 19th century, the science of pedagogy unified until then, started to differentiate between educational and instructional theory. Later, a new branch of science emerged from didactics, the topics of which were defined in part by applied didactics and in part by the research of special instructional issues of certain subjects. A mutual relationship was formed between didactics and the newly emerging methods. Didactics were generalized from the results of certain methodologies, while the methods adapted these generalities, applied them and researched their specific conformity to teaching-learning principles in the instruction of certain subjects. Thus we have progressed from the method, via methodologies and subject pedagogy, to didactics. Scientific works on the issues of history teaching and learning appeared in German-speaking areas from the first half of the 19th century and in Hungary from the Age of Dualism. In the decades after WWII, history didactics became more or less an independent branch of science in Hungary and abroad, attached rather to the study of history in the West but to pedagogy in Hungary. We review this path of development from the start to the present day in our series exploring the history of research in the teaching of our subject, first based on the work of the most important Hungarian authors, and the coalescence of that work.
After 1956, the old/new communist regime, which came to power relying on Soviet bayonets, implemented a few years of strict reprisals before gradually easing certain restrictions from the early 1960s onward. In the field of history didactics – and in teaching in general – this resulted in the so-called „arrival” of methodological freedom. While this freedom did not allow for deviations from the requirements of Marxist-Leninist „scientific” principles or the regime’s pro-Soviet stance, it did grant relatively free rein in terms of implementation. This shift proved beneficial for methodological research, which entered a veritable golden age by the 1970s, primarily due to the contributions of scholars such as Mátyás Unger, Judit Veress, Károly Vas, Györgyné Balázs, Péter Szebenyi, and Ottó Szabolcs. At the same time, a dynamic professional community emerged, marked by a series of national conferences, summer academies for history teachers, centrally organized experiments, and numerous teaching aids – including methodological book series – that reached almost the entire history teaching profession. This period lasted until the early 1980s when, along with the crisis of the socialist system, it became clear that without substantive renewal, history didactics could no longer continue along its previous trajectory. The transition was significantly supported by the renewal of historical scholarship from the 1970s onward – a process that, at the time, was much less characteristic of general didactics.
Latest issues
Sára Andor, Ágnes
Hungarian Turning Points in 16th-Century Hungarian Humanist Historiography
The Three Kings of 1526.
The Portrayal of Three Kings in the Context of the Battle of Mohács (1526) by Three Humanist Historians – The Royal Image in the Works of István Brodarics, Caspar Ursinus Velius, and Miklós Istvánffy.
Humanist historiography represents the first significant stage in the development of an autonomous historical perspective. The historians of the period had already formulated their fundamental principles and attempted to create a guide for writing proper historical works. However, in practice, they were not always able to fully adhere to these principles. In my thesis, I examine the realization—or lack thereof—of the fundamental principles of humanist historiography, based on the works of three humanist historians: István Brodarics, Caspar Ursinus Velius, and Miklós Istvánffy. The historical turning point on which my study focuses is the Battle of Mohács in 1526, specifically the role and presence of the three kings of that year —Louis II of Jagiello, John I Szapolyai, and Ferdinand I of Habsburg—in the battle and in the narratives of these historians.
Workshop
Schweininger, Péter
Reflections on the teaching of population movements between 1944 and 1950 in secondary schools
This study aims to provide ideas for teaching history in secondary schools. It would like to draw attention to the fact that after the Second World War, nearly one million people were forced to leave their homes in the Carpathian Basin. This was a severe trauma for many families. Until recently, however, very little was written about this in Hungarian history textbooks, and the subject was hardly ever included in school curricula. Now the situation has changed. Finally, teachers have the opportunity to explain it in more detail! This study attempts to provide an extended outline of the curriculum and to highlight some of the misconceptions about the teaching of the subject.
Keywords: forced emigration, the Malenky robot, the expulsion of Germans from Hungary, the Czechoslovak-Hungarian population exchange, the Calvary of the Szeklers and Csángos of Bukovina, Polish and Greek refugees.
Szénási, Dorottya
Cultural policy, restricted publicity.
The Association of Hungarian Writers and the relationship of the intellectuals in the humanities to the party-state in the Kádár era
Unconventional history lesson for the graduating class of the RadnótiMiklós High School in Dunakeszi
I wanted to implement an extraordinary, unconventional history class related to the research topic I was working on, which could be well placed within the cultural policy of the Kádár regime, as a kind of case study, to make the impact of what was said during the lesson measurable in some way. Instead of presenting the research in a scientific and professional way, my aim was to present the ideas and questions that led to the research, the current stage of the research and its expected results in a secondary school lesson, considering the student’s level of knowledge and didactic aspects. I would like to share the written version of this workshop and the experiences of its inclusion in a secondary school, and make it available to teachers, educators, lecturers and other interested readers.
