Hungarian Women’s Activism in the Wake of the First World War

Judith Szapor is Assistant Professor of History at McGill University, Canada. She is the author of The Hungarian Pocahontas; The Life and Times of Laura Polanyi Stricker, 1882-1959 (2005) and co-editor, along with Andrea Peto, Maura Hametz and Marina Calloni, of Jewish Intellectual Women in Central Europe, 1860-2000 (2012).

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsTimelineIntroduction: From Rights to Revanche1. The Promise of Progress: Women's Rights and Women's Movements in Hungary, 1904-182. Between the Private and the Public: The Hungarian Women's Debating Club3. Did Hungarian Women have a Revolution?4. To Regenerate the Hungarian Family and the Nation5. The Political is Personal: The Friendships and Fallings-Out of Emma Ritoók6. A Perfect Storm of CitizenshipConclusion: The Long Shadow of Cecile TormayBibliography Index

Szapor’s book is a remarkably important contribution that focuses on women’s history from the “golden age” of liberal organizations to the madness of antisemitism. Certain elements of the book’s concept, as well as some of the evidence cited to support it, remain open to debate, yet the concept itself is outstandingly promising. The model also appears to be suitable for implementation in researching other forms of political transition.