Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

The Intellectual Horizons of Liberal Nationalism in HungaryArt lacks ideals, history, however, discovered the notion which gives thehistorian as much ambition as inspiration does in the case of the artist.This is the notion of humanity.” 13 It is tempting to interpret this notion ofhumanity as an effort to overcome the narrow-mindedness of the rhetoricof nationalism. However, this attitude is more likely to represent the survivalof an Enlightenment attitude towards the history of the human race.For the thinkers of the Enlightenment, just as for Horváth, history wasbelieved to “open the mind, extend one’s knowledge, to acquaint one withthe world in all dimension and dampen the fires of intolerant and dangerouspatriotism. The study of history was the study of man; its final goal wasseen as self-knowledge.” 14Historians in the 19 th century often attempted to compose a completenational history, from the origins of their nation to their own lifetime,but only a few succeeded in this monumental venture. Sometimescensorship would not allow the publication of a work that was critical ofa contemporary regime, or the historian was seriously engaged in politicalactivities which did not leave time for the continuation of his work.In other cases, the scholar simply died before reaching the more recentperiod in the narrative. In fact, Horváth was not exempted from thoseproblems. He had conflicts with censorship, his financial position did notallow for full-time historical research and, at certain stages of his life, hewas also involved in politics. Thus, the explanation for his success to tacklebasically every historical period until his lifetime must lay elsewhere: hislack of interest in earlier periods allowed him to “get over” with ancienthistory and dedicate his time to the examination of more recent periods.His massive History of Hungary (running up to the mid-1820s) consisted ofeight volumes in its largest edition and, together with the Twenty-five yearsfrom the history of Hungary and the History of the Hungarian war of independencein 1848-1849, it covered the entirety of Hungarian history fromthe beginnings until 1849. He also prepared articles to address more specificissues, such as the “Sketches of the history of Hungarian peasantry,”and the “Sketch of the history of the Hungarian army and defense.”Horváth’s favorite period in Hungarian history contradicts theexpectations imposed by Romantic stereotypes. As discussed above, hewas not interested in early history, neither was he willing to find a specificmission for the Hungarians. Instead, his special interest (apart from contemporaryhistory) rested in the study of a paradoxical period, that of the16 th century, an era which was marked by tragedies and shame rather thanglory in Hungarian history. This was a time when the Hungarian stateceased to exist and the country was partitioned. Instead of relying ona myth which defined Hungary’s role as the bastion of Christianity, manifestedin its battles against the Turks, Horváth wished to discover who was31