Published in the latter half of 2015, Budapest: A History of Grandeur and Catastrophe is a labor of love for Australia-based cultural geographer Joe Hajdu, an accomplished academic born in Hungary. While Hajdu has worked extensively on the topic of Germany’s transformations surrounding the Berlin Wall’s collapse, this new book is his first project detailing the history of his native country, and it successfully chronicles Hungary’s long saga, its alternating periods of prosperity and tragedy, and the traces of these good times and bad times that are still visible across Budapest – but it is also one of very few works that provides detailed information about how the city developed following Hungary’s regime change in 1989, the year when most Budapest history books virtually come to an end.
Because of Hajdu’s conscientious efforts to paint a portrait of both the distant and recent circumstances leading up to the conditions of modern-day Budapest – complete with the achievements and failures of its leaders – this book provides a quite balanced view of what makes the Magyar metropolis unique. Nonetheless, while Budapest: A History of Grandeur and Catastrophe contains fascinating information, it is imperative to note that this is not a guidebook – this work is more suited to an introductory college course about the past and present of Hungary, and oftentimes it delves deeply into obscure details, making it something of a didactic read… but for those who truly love Budapest and want to more fully understand its history and populace, the book is an excellent and informative overview.
Hajdu keeps the narrative lively by focusing on significant sections of Budapest (from the Castle District to the Jewish Quarter to the gigantic panel-building neighborhoods of the suburbs) and jumping back and forth in time to provide comprehensive background about these places – and by extension, the rest of Hungary. Enhancing this unique structure, Hajdu includes personal anecdotes from varied time periods, illustrated by interviews with several present-day Budapest citizens who experienced the city’s more recent joyful and mournful periods firsthand. By focusing on individual buildings and monumental sights to describe what went on there through the tales of individuals who prospered or suffered there – including members of Hajdu’s own family – the text’s flow remains compelling from beginning to end.
But while Budapest: A History of Grandeur and Catastrophe succeeds in presenting in-depth knowledge about the city’s triumphs and tribulations (especially in its later chapters about the years since 1989, offering clear analysis as to the government’s successes and failures, leading to current problems like homelessness and corruption), it has quite a few typos and glaring factual mistakes that annoy the experienced Budapest-based reader. For example, in a chapter detailing Hungary’s 1956 Revolution, he mentions that the Corvin Cinema features “a statue complex in front of it showing a group of Budapest teenagers with rifles over their shoulders”; the sculpture that Hajdu refers to portrays only one teenager, whose rifle is not over his shoulder. In another passage, Hajdu describes Déli Railway Station as being located at Széll Kálmán Square, when in reality these two locations are separated by about a kilometer.
Still, Budapest: A History of Grandeur and Catastrophe is well worth reading for anyone who is already familiar with Budapest but wants to take their knowledge to the next level. The book is available in Budapest at Bestsellers, or through the publishing house website.
