TY  - JOUR
AU  - Garry W. Trompf
PY  - 2025
CY  - Berlin, Germany
PB  - Peter Lang Verlag
JF  - Mediaevistik
IS  - 1
VL  - 38
SN  - 2199-806X
TI  - Jenö Szücs, The Historical Construction of National Consciousness: Selected Writings. Ed. Gábor Klaniczay, Balász Trencsényi, and Gábor Gyáni. Budapest, Vienna, and New York: Central European University Press, 2022, pp. viii, 354.
DO  - 10.3726/med.2025.01.23
UR  - https://www.peterlang.com/document/1673050
N2  - Jenő Szűcs (1928‒1988) has been widely regarded as preeminent among European theorists of the origins of modern nationalism, certainly among those of Continental Europe, but he is not well known or read enough by many mediaevalists because much of his massive opus is in Hungarian and in little known Central European periodicals (see 337‒44) (even if some influential pieces can be found in English, French and German), and for some strange reason, Western historiographers generally “have passed over in silence” the early conceptual history of the nation and the key issue of the origins of national consciousness (21). A great exception lies with the first five chapters of The Construction of Nationhood (1997) by Englishman Adrian Hastings (1929‒2001), given over to establishing the medieval origins of modern nationalism, yet with no reference Szücz therein. The one in-depth study devoted Szücz, by Gábor Gyáni (one of the editors of the present collection), is still only in Hungarian. The great benefit of the Selection of Szücz’s writings being reviewed is that they are translations (almost all by a Tim Wilkinson) of exceptionally important articles locked away in journals as yet inaccessible on the Internet.
KW  - jenö, szücs, historical, construction, national, consciousness, selected, writings, gábor, klaniczay, balász, trencsényi, gyáni, budapest, vienna, york, central, european, university, press
ER  -