University of Pittsburgh Press
The Making of Dissidents
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The Making of Dissidents

Hungary’s Democratic Opposition and its Western Friends, 1973-1998

By Victoria Harms
Harms draws on a tremendous number of sources, including oral histories, archival material, newspapers, journals, samizdat, tamizdat, and other essential primary source materials spanning seven different countries.
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Hardcover $65.00

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Before Hungary’s transition from communism to democracy, local dissidents and like-minded intellectuals, activists, and academics from the West influenced each other and inspired the fight for human rights and civil liberties in Eastern Europe. Hungarian dissidents provided Westerners with a new purpose and legitimized their public interventions in a bipolar world order. The Making of Dissidents demonstrates how Hungary’s Western friends shaped public perceptions and institutionalized their advocacy long before the peaceful revolutions of 1989. But liberalism failed to take root in Hungary, and Victoria Harms explores how many former dissidents retreated and Westerners shifted their attention elsewhere during the 1990s, paving the way for nationalism and democratic backsliding.

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Victoria Harms deftly combines a history of ideas with insights into their contexts to show not only how dissident ideas emerged in the East but also how they were received, amplified, and appropriated in the West. Her book provides an unprecedented, in-depth analysis of a crucial East-West network during the late Cold War, the mutual influences between them, and their legacies.

Ferenc Laczó, Maastricht University

The Making of Dissidents is a grandiose account of how an unexpected alliance of Eastern and Western nonconformists emerged by the 1980s. The book also demonstrates how critical thought in North America and Eastern Europe was shaped by the dissidents of Eastern Europe, which is an unusual look into the topic.

Péter Apor, Research Center for the Humanities, Budapest/Hungary

The Making of Dissidents is not only an impeccable scholarly monograph but also a repository of rare and fascinating primary sources that will be widely read, cited, and consulted for many years to come.

Holly Case, Brown University

The Making of Dissidents is a story of friendship across borders. Harms gives a riveting account of intellectual milieus in Hungary, Germany, the United States, France, Austria, Poland, and Yugoslavia. It is not only transnational history at its best but also an inspiring blueprint for moral engagement.

Joanna Wawrzyniak, University of Warsaw
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400 Pages, 6 x 9 in.

September, 2024

isbn : 9780822948254

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about the author

Victoria Harms

Victoria Harms is a senior lecturer in the Department of History at Johns Hopkins University. Trained in cultural and intellectual history, her research and teaching focuses on post-1945 European history and the Cold War, including sports history and US-European relations.

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Victoria Harms