I am often asked, by students, colleagues, and friends, why and how I came to devote my professional life to the study of Central and Southeastern European history and current events and, in the process, how I came to spend thirty years living in the area. I have two stock answers, both of them true.

On february 13, 1751, the Department of Foreign Affairs notified Frederick II of Prussia about a new plea for support by the Hungarian Protestants:

The persecution of Hungary's Protestants at the hands of the papist clergy has been increasing daily and the Protestants are afraid of being completely exposed to their enemies' rage. In this desperate situation they have taken the liberty of imploring his Royal Highness to grant them his noble protection, even before the diet assembles in Bratislava [Pozsony].1

During the course of the eighteenth century, Vienna, like many other European capitals, grew significantly in terms of population and economic activity. While not as large as the two urban behemoths of Paris and London, Vienna was the largest of the central European cities; including the suburbs, its population had nearly tripled since 1700 and approached 300,000 inhabitants by 1800.1 This rapid growth, spurred on by the presence of the imperial court, steadily expanded Vienna's market, but the increased number of customers did not necessarily translate into increased prosperity for Viennese artisans. A shift in economic regulations at midcentury that favored increased competition over corporate privileges upset the careful balance between political and economic interests. The Viennese pastry bakers, like many other artisans, faced growing ranks of competitors battling for position within the market. The pastry market, well known and much valued in Vienna then, as now, rested as much on the public's tastes as on legal and economic privileges. Guild pastry bakers struggled to maintain their hold on the market, while nonguild bakers introduced new types of pastries that lured away guild customers and transsformed the pastry

On the morning of July 1, 1916, prominent members of Viennese high society gathered in a large imperial park not far from the center of Vienna. This park, the Prater, had been the site of many fairs, exhibits, and festivals in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It accommodated the World's Fair in 1873 and since then had housed circuses, variety shows, children's exhibits, and the Luna Park amusement complex. The Prater was a favorite destination of Viennese of all classes in search of recreation and entertainment. On this particular morning, those in attendance were more notable than usual; they included Archduke Franz Salvator, War Minister Alexander Krobatin, Education Minister Max von Hussarek, the Austrian defense minister, ambassadors of several allied countries, and local and regional government officials. They were on hand to celebrate the grand opening of what sponsors promised would be an exhibition unlike any Vienna had ever seen. At eleven o'clock, the prestigious entourage entered the first hall of the grandest entertainment spectacle of the wartime home front: the Vienna War Exhibition.

one of the most common experiences during World War I (and one of the least researched topics in the historiography of the war) was the experience of captivity. During four years of fighting, an estimated 8.5 million soldiers were taken captive, or roughly 1 out of every 9 men to don uniforms during the war. Among the warring countries, none had a greater prisoner of war problem than Austria-Hungary: out of 8 million soldiers mobilized by the Dual Monarchy during the war, an estimated 2.77 million wound up in POW camps, the great majority (2.11 million) in Russia.

My article examines the prehistory of the “Fourth Party” movement in Austria after World War II. Traditionally, Austrian politics was divided into three ideological Lager (literally “camps,” but with more than a whiff of the Boer term laager, too): strongly Catholic Christian Socials, Austro-Marxist Social Democrats, and “Deutschfreiheitliche.” The latter usually consisted of a motley collection of groups that were both Pan-German and anticlerical. They were sometimes grouped together under the formal heading “Drittes Lager” (Third Camp). The three parties licensed in 1945, however, were the Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP), the Socialists, and the Communists. Thus, any attempt to resurrect the traditions of the freiheitlich strand in Austrian politics after 1945 was labeled the “Fourth Party.”

The literature dealing with Magyar nationalism is extensive. The general impression created by its manifestations during the last roughly two and a half centuries has been that it had been aggressive and disrespectful of the rights of other nations living in the lands of historical Hungary, occasionally even bordering on the criminal. This evaluation did not originate with R. W. Seton-Watson, but was certainly disseminated widely by the works he published under the pen names of Viator and Scotus Viator.2 While some of the judgments passed on Magyar nationalism were exaggerated and even unjustified, the correctness of the general picture cannot be denied. The actions of Hungary's politicians and the views expressed by the country's publicists and literary figures support the negative evaluation of some of the most crucial manifestations of Magyar nationalism. The following pages are presented not in an attempt to excuse the general tone and occasional excesses of Hungarian nationalism, but to try to answer only one question: why did Magyar nationalism take the forms that it did?

This discourse is intended to provide some supplementary, accentuated comments on Peter Sugar's highly remarkable essay. It is undeniably the case that historiographical assessments of nationalism among Magyars have ranged from predominantly to wholly negative. This fact was correctly emphasized by Sugar. It was his intention to establish the reasons for the emergence of this particular Magyar-specific form of nationalism and to categorize its permanent and determining components.