The Monumental Nation Published by CEU Alumnus Varga

In The Monumental Nation: Magyar Nationalism and Symbolic Politics in Fin-de-siècle Hungary CEU alumus Balint Varga (HIST '07) reframes the narrative of nineteenth-century nationalism, demonstrating the complex relationship between local and national memories.

From the 1860s onward, Habsburg Hungary attempted a massive project of cultural assimilation to impose a unified national identity on its diverse populations. In one of the more quixotic episodes in this “Magyarization,” large monuments were erected near small towns commemorating the medieval conquest of the Carpathian Basin—supposedly, the moment when the Hungarian nation was born. 

For more information, see http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/VargaMonumental.