Book Reviews : Revolution in Hungary. By PAUL E. ZINNER. (New York and London: Columbia University Press. 1962. Pp. xii, 380. $6.00.)

• Published date: 01 March 1964
• Date: 01 March 1964
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296401700135
• Subject Matter: Articles

159

We

find

here

rather

excessive

optimism

about

the

intentions

of

De

Gaulle

and,

to

this

reviewer,

excessive

pessimism

about

the

ability

of

NATO

to

defend

its

area

by

conventional

weapons

backed

by

American

nuclear

power.

Perhaps

the

main

virtue of

the

work

is

its

insistence

that

we

face

up

to

the

tough

alternatives

raised

by

De

Gaulle

and

post-1958

nuclear

technology.

The

book

passes

lightly

over

the

facts

of

NATO’s

development

(e.g.,

no

mention

of

the

infrastructure

system) ;

Cyprus

and

Suez

as

divisive

crises;

and

the

obstacles

to

real

Atlantic

unity

on

external

issues.

It

gives

excellent

coverage

of

recent

mili-

tary

theories

and

terminology

needed

to

evaluate

NATO’s

future

strategic

choices.

In

short,

Building

the

Atlantic

World

is

more

useful

in

advanced

rather

than

under-

graduate

survey

courses.

Its

tough-line

rhetoric

and

assumptions

of

background

knowledge

require

caution

by

the

reader,

who

should

also

be

prepared

to

counter

some

of

the

idealistic

policy

recommendations.

The

notes

at

the

end

of

the

book

substitute

well

for

the

lack

of

a

bibliography,

but

more

charts

would

enhance

the

sparse

factual

details

in

the

text.

University

of

Wisconsin,

Milwaukee

DOUGLAS

H.

MENDEL,

JR.

Revolution

in

Hungary.

By

PAUL

E.

ZINNER.

(New

York

and

London:

Columbia

University

Press.

1962.

Pp. xii, 380.

$6.00.)

Revolution

is

one

of

the

most

significant

phenomena

of

our

time

and

-

at

least

in

the

West

-

one

of

the

least

understood.

And

of

the

significant

and

un-understood

revolutions,

that

in

Hungary

in

1956

is

an

outstanding,

if

perhaps

atypical,

example.

Professor

Zinner’s

scholarly,

objective

and

yet

dramatic

treatment

of

that

event,

the

factors

producing

it

and

its

ramifications

is,

therefore,

particularly

felicitious.

It

is

also

an

excellent

follow-up

to

National

Communism

and

Popular

Revolution

in

Eastern

Europe,

the

valuable

documentary

volume

which

he

edited

several

years

ago.

Revolution in

Hungary

is

the

first

major

publication

sponsored

by

the

Columbia

University

Research

Project

on

Hungary,

which

involved

primarily interviewing

thousands

of

refugees

who

fled

that

benighted

land

in

1956

and

afterwards.

The

work

suffers

inevitably

from

some

of

the

handicaps

inherent

in

this

method

of

re-

search.

Yet

it is

of

such

high

quality

that

it

goes

a

long

way

to

obviate

many

of

the

fears

this

reviewer

has

felt

about

this

and

similar

projects.

Zinner

notes

some

of

the

handicaps

in

his

preface

and

points

out

that

in

order

to

write

this

interpretative

essay

it

was

necessary

to

refer

to

documentary

sources

to

check

on

distortions

in

the

accounts

of

those

interviewed.

Although

he

is

free

to

say

that

he

does

not

know,

when

this

is

the

case,

nevertheless

one

wishes

he

had

distin-

guished

more

clearly

in

the

text,

or

in

footnotes,

just

which

information

came

from

the

refugees

and

which

from

more

reliable

sources.

For

such

a

comparatively

brief

account,

Zinner

goes

adequately

into

the

back-

ground

of

Hungarian

society.

He

might,

however,

have

underscored

the

significance

of

this

analysis

had

he

described

more

graphically

the

prewar

class

structure,

espe-

cially

as

concerns

the

landless

and

dwarf-holding

peasants.

As

brutal

as

the

Rakosi