Towards a History of the Hungarian Ethnic Group of the United States

Observations on S.B. Várdy's Hungarians of the New World

by Nándor Dreisziger^[1]

Historians of the twenty second century will probably regard the twentieth century as the "golden age" of the Hungarian community in the United States. Throughout the entire time-span of hundred years there had been a substantial Hungarian demographic and cultural presence in the land Magyars call "Amerika." It is quite appropriate that this century ended with the publication of a major work of synthesis on the history of the USA's Hungarian ethnic group. This synthesis is Béla Várdy's Magyarok az Újvilágban: Az észak-amerikai magyarság rendhagyó története [Hungarians in the New World: An eclectic history of the Hungarians of North America] (Budapest: A Magyar Nyelv és Kultúra Nemzetközi Társasága, 2000).^[2]

The book is a massive volume written more for the lay reader than the academic researcher. Its title is something of a misnomer C it is what might be called a "publisher's title" C although the subtitle comes closer to the book's subject, the history of the Hungarian ethnic group of the United States. It is the result of eight years of effort by the author C to which we might add that his three decades of earlier research and writing were also indirect preparations for the production of this bulky (840-page) historical synthesis.

Though we might wish that the author had covered the history of Hungarians in the entire New World (the lands from the Canadian Arctic to the Tierra del Fuego) we know that such an undertaking is beyond the capabilities for an ordinary mortal. The history of an immigrant ethnic group in such diverse countries as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Canada, just to mention a few, is such a large and complex subject that no researcher could possibly tackle it alone. Furthermore, so little basic research has been done on most Hungarian communities in these countries that the writing of an adequate synthesis is untimely and unwarranted. A true history of Hungarians of the New World will have to wait, and will have to be preceded by much painstaking primary research C work which probably will not be accomplished before the most important sources of information disappear and the "old-timers" who could relate their experiences, all pass away.

Though Professor Várdy has worked directly on this project for years, and in a sense had prepared for it for decades, this book is the result of far larger amount of work. Because it is based largely on the researches of others, Hungarians in the New World is actually the product of nearly a century of accumulated historical research and writing. In the following paragraphs I will review both the literature that preceded Várdy's book and the writings that might eventually constitute a starting point for the production of a synthesis of the history of all the Hungarian communities of the New World.

A few false starts

In a somewhat arbitrary fashion, I will begin with the volume that has the same title as Várdy's book. This is László Juhász's Magyarok az Újvilágban [Hungarians in the New World] (Munich: NemzetÅr, 1979). Athough a pioneering work at the time of its writing, Juhász's book has two major shortcomings. Like Várdy's book, it concentrates mainly on Hungarians in the United States, but unlike Várdy's book, it is a very cursory treatment of its subject C in fact it hardly deals with the developments and personalities of the twentieth century.

If there had been no satisfactory overviews of the Hungarians of the New World that Várdy could have relied on, we might wonder if there have been such studies of the entire Hungarian diaspora, i.e. of the Hungarians living outside of the Magyar homeland in Central Europe. Unfortunately, there are no such works of this kind either. Several books have been published in Hungary, especially during the early years of communist rule, dealing with the Hungarian emigration, but most of these are polemical and have only marginal value. Not even Miklós Szántó's little book, Magyarok a nagyvilágban [Hungarians in the Wide World] (Budapest: Kossuth, 1970) constitutes much of an exception to this generalization. There is at least one useful work however. It was written in the West by one of the Hungarian emigration's pre-eminent scholars, Gyula Borbándi: A magyar emigráció élatrajza, 1945-1985 [The Biography of the Hungarian Emigration, 1945-1985] (Munich: published by the author, 1985). Unfortunately, as the title suggests, that work deals only with the post-1945 decades.

Literature on Hungarians in Latin America

Reliable and substantial works on the history of the Hungarian communities in Latin America are few. Evidently very little research has been done in this large field by either social scientists or journalists C either in Hungarian or in Spanish (or Portuguese). Alternately, if there has been such research done, its results have not come to the attention of North American historians who have an interest in the subject. Nevertheless, there are a handful of relevant works. One of these is László Szabó, Magyar múlt Dél-Amerikában (1519-1900) [Hungarian Past in South America] (Budapest: Európa, 1982); and another is Tivadar Ács, Magyarok Latin-Amerikában [Hungarians in Latin-America] (Budapest, 1944).^[3]

The periodical literature on this subject is equally meagre. Agnes Kaczur-Bató, "Magyarok Braziliában," Világtöténet I, 3-4 (1990), pp. 64-75, covers its subject only to the 1930s, but does offer a useful bibliographic note (which refers to a few more articles dealing with Hungarians in Brazil before 1939) as well as some information on the research going on regarding Hungarians in Latin America at the József Attila University in Szeged, Hungary. My own very modest contribution to the subject is "Hungarians in Brazil," Kaleidoscope (Toronto) Vol. III, No. 1 (Jan. 2000), pp. 13-15.

Studies on the Hungarians of Canada

While Professor Várdy might be excused for not exploring the subject of Hungarians in Latin America in his book, on the grounds that too little information is available on the subject to write of a work of synthesis, he can be absolved for not covering the Hungarians of Canada because that subject has been explored in fair amount of detail in books that are readily available to the reading public. I have in mind first and foremost my own book, produced in collaboration with three other scholars: Struggle and Hope: The Hungarian‑Canadian Experience (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982).^[4]

Like Várdy's book, mine too was in part based on already existing historical literature, which is outlined in fair detail in the book's bibliographical essay (pp. 232-39). A shorter synthesis, based mainly on my writings, can be found in the entry "Hungarians" in the Encyclopedia of Canadian Ethnic Groups (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999), pp. 660-74; also there is an even shorter essay of mine "Peoples of Canada: Hungarians in Canada" (in Horizon Canada, Vol. 10, no. 110, pp. 2630‑35). Still another such overview is Carmela Patrias, The Hungarians in Canada (Ottawa: the Canadian Historical Association, 1999). This booklet, designed mainly for secondary school students, also has a useful bibliography (see pages 31-33).

The history of some of the early Hungarian settlements of the Canadian West is told in detail mainly in the works of Martin L. Kovacs,^[5] while the interwar immigration and settlement have been dealt with by John Kosa,^[6] Professor Patrias,^[7] and myself, in chapters four and five (entitled "Years of Growth and Change, 1919‑1929," and "A Decade of Setbacks: The 1930's" respectively) of the volume Struggle and Hope, as well as elsewhere.^[8]

Earlier Histories of the Hungarians in the United States

If we were to say that much has been written on the history of Magyars in the United States before the year 2000, we would be making an accurate statement. If we were to argue that the history of Hungarians has not been adequately covered before 2000, we would also be truthful. The fact is that the history of the Hungarian ethnic group in the USA is such a large subject that it cannot be considered adequately explored even though scores of publications have tried to cover it C or at least, have claimed to do so. This is not to say that some specific aspects of this story have not been researched in a systematic and competent manner.

In the introduction to his book, Béla Várdy himself refers to four major works that had been published prior to the year 2000 on the history of Hungarians in the United States. One of these is one of his own earlier English-language studies: The Hungarian-Americans (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985). The second one is Géza Kende's Magyarok Amerikában (Cleveland, 1927, 2 vols.), and the third is Emil Lengyel's Americans from Hungary (Philadelphia and New York: Lippincott, 1948). It might be added that Lengyel's book is a quite informative and highly readable work, but evidently it is now quite dated.

The last book mentioned by Várdy is Julianna Puskás' Kivándorló magyarok az Egyesült Államokban, 1880-1940 [Emigrant Hungarians in the United States] (Budapest: Akadémiai kiadó, 1982) which is above all a scholarly work based on a great deal of painstaking research and represents the culmination of its author's decades-long work on Hungarian emigration to and settlement in the United States. Puskás has published other, shorter works on the subject as well, including a volume in English.^[9] Most of these works deal with the pre-1914 period, although in some of them (in particular in Kivándorló magyarok) she adds some information on the fate of the communities of the pre-1914 immigrants in the post-World War I decades.

Of course, there have been many other attempts to offer a comprehensive or even a partial overview of the history of the Hungarian-American ethnic group. In breadth of coverage or in the quality of research, however, these are not on par with the above-listed works. Not surprisingly, they do not earn a mention in Várdy's introduction, though they are listed in his bibliography. One of these is the above-mentioned book by Miklós Szántó, another is Leslie Könnyü's Hungarians in the U.S.A.: An Immigration Study (St. Louis, MO: American Hungarian Review, 1967), and there is also the recently-published (more exactly, re-published) Elemér Bakó's Magyarok az Amerikai Egyesült Államokban [Hungarians in the United States of America], ed. László Papp (Budapest: Magyarok Világszövetsége, 1998). A more scholarly but shorter overview is offered in Paula Benkart, "Hungarians" in the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, p. 462-71.

There are also other relevant works, some of which are difficult to categorize either as popular or scholarly literature. Additionally, there are collections of very informative and interesting documents. Perhaps the most remarkable and useful of such works is Albert Tezla with K.E. Tezla (eds.) "Valahol túl, meseországban..." Az amerikás magyarok, 1895-1920 ["Somewhere beyond, in Fairy-tale Land...": American Hungarians, 1895-1920], 2 vols. (Budapest: Európa könyvkiadó, 1987), which has been published in English as well: The Hazardous Quest. Hungarian Immigrants in the United States, 1895-1920 (Budapest: Corvina, 1993), in one massive volume.

There have also been a handful of "local histories" written of particular Hungarian-American communities. Perhaps the most scholarly and best-researched of these is Zoltán FejÅs, A chikagói magyarok két nemzedéke, 1890-1940: Az etnikai örökség megÅrzése és változása [Two Generations of the Hungarians of Chicago, 1890-1940: The Preservation and Transformation of the Ethnic Heritage] (Budapest: Közép-Európa Intézet, 1993).^[10] There are also excellent case studies of particular aspects of Hungarian-American society, or a specific development in Magyar-American history, some by Zoltán FejÅs,^[11] others by Professor Béla Vassady,^[12] and myself.^[13]

On a very few subjects then, the author of a synthesis on Hungarian-American history is confronted by an abundance of literature, not all of which is reliably researched. However, on most other aspects of this large subject the writer of a general overview is plagued by the scarcity of information. The most praiseworthy feature of Dr. Várdy's new book is his attempt to gather and integrate in one comprehensive volume all the disparate parts of this large and many-faceted story. Inevitably, such work has to be selective and even eclectic (rendhagyó as we would say in Magyar) in its treatment of its subject.

In the foreseeable future, I will turn to some of the themes covered in Dr. Várdy's book, in short essays containing my observations and, in a few cases, additions to the story. My efforts in this respect will be even more eclectic than Várdy's.^[14]

ENDNOTES

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[1]. Nándor Dreisziger (also known as N.F. or N. Fred Dreisziger) has been teaching North American and European history at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) since 1970. He has published extensively on North American and East Central European subjects. Among the journals that featured his articles are the Journal of Modern History, Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers, Canadian Slavonic Papers, New York History, War and Society, Canadian Review for Studies in Nationalism, and the Journal of Canadian Studies. Over the years he has received numerous research grants, including a Senior Fellowship in Canadian Ethnic Studies. He is the founding editor of the Hungarian Studies Review and a recipient of the Officer's Cross of the Republic of Hungary. For lists of his publications see his pages on the RMC website: http://www.rmc.ca/academic/history/personnel/dreisziger_pub.htm

[2]. Professor S. B. Várdy is a most prolific Hungarian-American historian who has devoted himself to writing on such subjects as the history of Hungary and Hungarians in the United States. This is what he says about himself in his book: "... Steven Béla Várdy (known in Hungary as Béla Várdy), is McAnulty Distinguished Professor of European History at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), and a member of the International P.E.N. as well as of the Hungarian Writers' Federation. He is the recipient of Hungary's "Berzsenyi‑Prize", the Árpád Academy's Gold Medal, and of his University's "Distinguished Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship." He is likewise the author or co‑author of sixteen books and about four‑hundred‑fifty chapters, articles, essays, and reviews." (Várdy, Magyarok, p. 765.) One of the books that he has published is the more than 800-page Historical Dictionary of Hungary (Lanham, Md., and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1997). For a complete list of his publications (to the year 2000), see Hungary's Historical Legacies: Studies in Honor of Professor Steven Béla Várdy, ed. Dennis P. Hupchick and R. William Weisberger (Boulder, Colorado and New York: East European Monographs/Columbia University Press, 2000), pp. xiv-xli. This list is compiled by his wife and occasional co-author, Ágnes Huszár Várdy of Robert Morris College.

[3]. Apparently there is also László Kurucz's book, Magyarok Argentinában [Hungarians in Argentina] but I have not been able to obtain a copy of this work.

[4]. My collaborators in the writing of this book were Professors Paul BÅdy, Martin Kovacs and Bennett Kovrig, each whom has written an introductory chapter to the main body of the book. After teaching for two decades at North American institutions of higher learning, Paul BÅdy had joined the faculty of the University of Miskolc in Hungary, from where he retired recently. Political Scientist Bennett Kovrig has studied at the University of Toronto, the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics, had taught at the University of Toronto, where he was chairman of the Politics Department for many years, and from where he retired a few years ago to live in semi-retirement in Paris, France. For Martin Kovacs, see immediately below.

[5]. Martin (Márton) L. Kovacs, was born in Budapest in 1918 and died in Regina, Saskatchewan in 2000. In 1956 he left Hungary and settled in Australia, from where he immigrated to Canada to teach at the University of Regina. His most important book on early Hungarian settlement in the Canadian West is Peace and Strife: Some Facets of the History of an Early Prairie Community (Kipling, Saskatchewan: Kipling District Historical Society, 1980). He also published articles relating to the subject. Some of these are "The Hungarian School Question," in Ethnic Canadians: Culture and Education, ed. M.L. Kovacs (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1978), pp. 333‑58; "Searching for Land: The First Hungarian Influx into Canada" Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies, VII, 1 (Spring, 1980), 37‑43; "From Industries to Farming" Hungarian Studies Review, VIII, 1 (Spring, 1981), 45‑60; as well as chapter three of Struggle and Hope.

[6]. Especially in John Kosa, Land of Choice: Hungarians in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1957). At the time of his death in the mid-1970s, Professor Kosa was member of the faculty at Harvard University.

[7]. Carmela Patrias, Patriots and Proletarians: Politicizing Hungarian Immigrants in Interwar Canada (Kingston and Montreal: McGill Queen's University Press, 1994). Professor Patrias teaches in the Department of History of Brock University, if St. Catharines, Ontario.

[8]. As well as elsewhere: "In Search of a Hungarian‑Canadian Lobby: 1927‑1951," Canadian Ethnic Studies, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Fall 1980), 81‑96; "Aspects of Hungarian Settlement in Central Canada," in Hungarian‑Canadian Perspectives: Selected Papers, ed. M.L. Kovacs (Ottawa: Hungarian Readers Service, 1980), 121‑21; "Immigrant Lives and Lifestyles in Canada, 1924‑1939," Hungarian Studies Review, 8, 1 (Spring 1981), 61‑83; "Immigration and Re‑Migration: The Changing Urban‑Rural Distribution of Hungarian Canadians, 1986‑1986", in The Tree of Life: Essays Honouring a Hungarian‑Canadian Centenary, ed. M.L. Kovacs and N.F. Dreisziger (Toronto: HSR, 1986); "The 'Justice for Hungary' Ocean Flight: The Trianon Syndrome in Immigrant Hungarian Society," in Triumph in Adversity: Studies in Hungarian Civilization, ed. S.B. Vardy (Boulder, Co.: East European Monographs, 1988), 573-89; "Immigrant Fortunes and Misfortunes in Canada in the 1920s," a documentary article in the Hungarian Studies Review, 17, (Spring 1990), 29-59; "Sub-ethnic Identities: Religion, Class, Ideology, etc. as Centrifugal Forces in Hungarian-Canadian Society," Hungarian Studies (Budapest), 7 (1992), 123-138; and, for a change in the Hungarian language, "JövÅépítés Kanadában, az elsÅ magyar bevándorlastól 1948-ig," [Building a future in Canada from the time of the first Hungarian immigration to Canada to 1948], in Itt-Ott [Here and there, the journal of the Hungarian Society of Friends, USA] 33 (2000), 21-23.

[9]. Dr. Puskás' other Hungarian-language studies include "Kivándorlás Magyarországról az Egyesült Államokba 1914 elött" [Emigration from Hungary to the United States before 1914] Történelmi Szemle vol. XVII Nos. 1-2 (1974) pp. 32-68; her English-language monograph is From Hungary to the United States (1880-1914) (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1982).

[10]. There are also studies of other localities, but these tend to be less sophisticated. See for example Malvina Hauk Abonyi and James A. Anderson, Hungarians of Detroit (Detroit: Ethnic Studies Division, Wayne State University [ca. 1975]), Susan M. Papp, Hungarian Americans and their Communities of Cleveland (Cleveland: Cleveland Ethnic Heritage Studies, Cleveland State University, 1981) and Magdalene Havadtoy, Down in Villa Park: Hungarians in Fairfield (by the author, 1976).

[11]. Most of these are listed in Várdy's bibliography (pp. 665-66). One I especially like is his "Harc a háború ellen és az új Magyarországért" [Struggle against the war and for the new Hungary], Medvetánc [Bear-dance] (Jan. 1988), 282-332. Dr. FejÅs is the chief executive officer of the Museum of Hungarian Ethnography in Budapest.

[12]. Bela Vassady, "Kossuth and Újházi on Establishing a Colony of Hungarian 48-ers in America," Hungarian Studies Review VI, 1 (Spring 1979), 21-46; and "Hungarian-American Mutual Aid Associations and their 'Official' Newspapers: A Symbiotic Relationship," Hungarian Studies Review 19 (1992), 7-27. Other relevant publications by Dr. Vassady are listed in Várdy's bibliography, p. 711. Professor Vassady teaches in the Department of History of Elizabethtown College, in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

[13]. These include the following articles: "The 'Justice for Hungary' Ocean Flight: The Trianon Syndrome in Immigrant Hungarian Society," in Triumph in Adversity: Studies in Hungarian Civilization in Honor of Professor Ferenc Somogyi, ed. S.B. Vardy and A.H. Vardy (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1988), 573‑89; "Emigre Artists and Wartime Politics: The Hungarian-American Council for Democracy, 1943-45," in Hungarian Artists in the Americas, ed. Oliver Botar (Budapest and Toronto: HSR, 1994), 43-75; "The Atlantic Democracies and the Movements for a "Free Hungary" during World War II," in 20th Century Hungary and the Great Powers, ed. Ignác Romsics (Boulder, Colorado: Social Science Monographs, distr. Columbia University Press, 1995), 185-205; which has also appeared in Hungarian translation: "Az atlanti demokraciák és a <Szabad Magyarországért= mozgalmak a II. világháború alatt" [The Atlantic Democracies and the Movements for a "Free Hungary" during World War II], in Magyarország és a nagyhatalmak a 20. században, ed. Ignác Romsics (Budapest: Teleki László Alapítvány, 1995), 149-62.

[14]. As founding editor (and editor for history) of the Hungarian Studies Review I hope I can be excused for listing the articles that had been published in that journal on the subject of Hungarians in the New World during the last ten years. For what was published before 1988, see the Index in the fall issue for that year (Vol. XV, no. 2), pp. 57-58.

Hungarians in Brazil

Szilágyi, Ágnes Judit. "The One Who Could Photograph the Soul: Rudolph Icsey and Hungarian Filmmakers in Brazil." Vol. XXI, Nos. 1‑2 (1994), 77‑90.

Hungarians in Canada

Bisztray, George. "Hungarian Chair at the University of Toronto: A Decennial Report." Vol. XVII, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), 19‑28.

Bisztray, George. "In Search of 'Hungarianness'." Vol. XXIV, Nos. 1‑2 (1997), 109‑114. (this is a review article, hereafter noted as RA)

Dreisziger, Kalman. "Hungarian Community Folkdance Groups in Canada." Vol. XX, Nos. 1‑2 (1993), 71 ‑82.

Dreisziger, N.F. ed. "Immigrant Fortunes and Misfortunes in Canada in the 1920s." Vol. XVII, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), 29‑59.

Dreisziger, N.F., ed. "The 1956 Hungarian Student Movement in Exile." Vol. XX, Nos. 1‑2 (1993), 103‑116.

Grenke, Arthur. "Archival Collections on Hungarian Canadians at the National Archives of Canada." Vol. XVII, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), 3‑12.

Miska, János. Canadian Studies on Hungarians: A Bibliography (Third Supplement), a special volume, Vol. XXV, Nos. 1-2 (1998).

Momryk, Myron. "Hungarian Volunteers from Canada in the Spanish Civil War, 1936‑39." Vol. XXIV, Nos. 1‑2 (1997), 3‑14.

Hungarians in the United States

Bisztray, George. "In Search of 'Hungarianness'." Vol. XXIV, Nos. 1‑2 (1997), 109‑114. (RA)

Botar, Oliver A. ed. & transl. "László Moholy‑Nagy and Hungarian‑American Politics (part 2)." Vol. XXI, Nos. 1‑2 (1994), 91‑102.

Dreisziger, N.F. "Oscar Jaszi and the 'Hungarian Problem:' Activities and Writings during World War II." Vol. XVIII, Nos. 1‑2 (1991), 59‑91.

Dreisziger, N.F., ed. "The 1956 Hungarian Student Movement in Exile." Vol. XX, Nos. 1‑2 (1993), 103‑116.

Dreisziger, N.F. "Mutual Images and Stereotypes: The United States and Hungary." Vol. XXIII (Fall, 1996), 109‑116. (RA)

Glant, Tibor. "The War for Wilson's Ear: Austria‑Hungary in Wartime American Propaganda." Vol. XX, Nos. 1‑2 (1993), 25‑52.

Majoros, Valerie. "Lajos Tihanyi's American Sojourn in 1929‑30." Vol. XXI, Nos. 1‑2 (1994), 9‑30.

Teleky, Richard. "'What the Moment Told Me': The Photographs of André Kertész." Vol. XXI, Nos. 1‑2 (1994), 31‑42.

Várdy, Stephen Béla. "Hungarian National Consciousness and the Question of Dual and Multiple Identity." Vol. XX, Nos. 1‑2 (1993), 53‑70.

Várdy, Stephen Béla. "The American Adventures of Hungary's Holy Crown." Vol. XXIV, Nos. 1‑2 (1997), 103‑108. (RA)

Vassady, Bela. "Hungarian‑American Mutual Aid Associations and their 'Official' Newspapers: A Symbiotic Relationship." Vol. XIX, Nos. 1‑2 (1992), 7‑28.