Slovakia: From Samo to Dzurinda by Peter A. s> Toma Dušan Kováč (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 553 This collection includes much useful information on English and Scottish travellersin Hungary (John Smith, Lithgow, Poyntz, even Pocock)up to the nineteenth century when Richard Bright and Julia Pardoe informed curious readersabout the situation in that country. The latter described a concert by FerencLisztin Pestin I840 which ended in general acclaim and the donation of a sword to the great pianist. But Festwas also interestedin less important travellers as well -few people would have heard of the Scottish Andrew A. Patonwho describednot only the capitalbut alsoDebrecen and Szeged, or Jane Emily Gerard whose TheLandBeyond theForest (i888) is a sympathetic account of her life in Transylvania.This collection includes articleson these and many other Englishmen and Scotsmen interested in the Kingdom of Hungary. Sandor Fest died in 1944 but the Chair in English at Debrecen existsto this day and (asKoltay-Kastnerwrote about him some yearsafterhis death) 'thereis hardlyany scholarof Englishstudies[. . .] who would not have learnedfromhim'. Apartfrombeing a conscientiousscholar,SandorFestwas also an outstandingteacherof a whole generation. DaviwnCollege, Cambridge GEORGE GOMORI Toma, PeterA. and Kovac, Dugan. Slovakia: FromSamotoDzurinda. Studies of Nationalities. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, CA, 200 1. xxxi + 432 pp. Maps. Tables. Notes. Indexes. $24.95 (paperback). HOOVER Institution Press make grand claims for Peter Toma and Dugan Kova's book. The backcover declareshistoricalaccountsof Slovakiaand the Slovak people have often been 'either sketchy, romanticized versions of a pastoral society or nationalistic, exaggerated exaltations of the past'; in contrast the publishers claim Slovakia: FromSamoto Dzurindaoffers a 'true history of the Slovak people without prejudice'. Potential readers, however, should not let such ludicrous assertions put them off reading Toma and Kovac's informativeaccount of Slovakhistory. The book, part of a Studies of Nationalities series which includes Charles King's TheMloldovans: Romania,Russia,and thePoliticsof Culture (2000) and Andrejs Plakans's The Latvians.A ShortHistory(1995), provides a clear introduction to Slovak history. The book concentrates mainly on twentieth centurySlovakhistory,butthe firstforty-sixpagesnavigatethe readerthrough the travails of pre-i914 history, providing good summaries of the Great MoravianEmpire,theimpactoftheReformation,theTurkishandNapoleonic invasions, the enlightened policies of MlariaTheresa and Joseph II, and the position of Slovaksunder Hungarianrule. Given the furore over the publication of Milan Durica's DejinySlovenska a Slovdkov(Bratislava, 1995), and the criticisms levelled at Stanislav Kirschbaum'sAHistory ofSlovakia: TheStrugglefor Survival (New York,I996), the litmustestof anybook examining Slovakhistoryisitstreatmentof the wartime period. Toma and Kova offera balanced account of Slovakiabetween 939 and 1945. The Tiso state is heavily criticized for its complicity in the Holocaust/Shoah, but the authors also highlight the benefits, particularlyin terms of employment opportunities, accorded to Slovaks thanks to the 554 SEER, 8i, 3, 2003 expulsion of 20,000 Czech state employees in addition to the 'exclusion of the Jewish population from the Slovak economy' (p. I26). Moreover, whilst the wartime resistance and the Slovak National Uprising are treated in some depth, there is no attempt to romanticize an iconic period in Slovak history. It was not just the Nazis, but also Slovak resistance fighters who committed 'inhumane acts of brutality and murder' during the Second World War (P. 146). Two criticisms, however, deserve to be levelled at the book. Firstly, the subtitle is badly chosen. As the authors themselves point out, Samo was neither a Slovak (he was a Frankish merchant), nor did he unify the Slovaks, but rather 'created the first historically known tribal union of Slavs' in the seventh century (p. 4). To put both Samo and current Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda's names in the subtitle smacks more of the need for a catchy subtitle than good history. Secondly, the book lacks a bibliography or at least a guide for further reading. The inquisitive reader is left, therefore, to follow up the authors' notes. Although these are on the whole helpful, the omission of references to the two best books on the Prague Spring, Gordon Skilling's Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution(Princeton, NJ, I976) and Kieran Williams s ThePragueSpringandItsAftermath (Cambridge, 1997), was striking. A single volume which attempts to span a period longer than a millennium is inevitably forced to lean more towards brevity than detail when discussing historical events. No doubt specialists on particular periods will be frustrated by the lack of depth and...