Danubian Historical Studies 1. (1987)
1987 / 1. szám - Foreword
Foreword What purpose does the Institute of Historical Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences have as it launches its new series? Can a new series of this sort have any function nowadays; can it hope to find readers when bookshops and library shelves are crowded by more works on history and sociology than ever before? Can this often-compromised word "history" be expected to appear in a new light through our modest efforts? The answer can only be provided by the volumes that will appear. Let me nevertheless point out a few editorial guidelines which give form to our series in the future. The essence of our programme is indicated partly by the title itself. "Danubian" has a double meaning here. On the one hand it has broadening and unifying function. Broadening, in that though most of our papers will deal with Hungarian history, our interest and subject will be the history of the whole Danube region. Unifying, because despite many failures and trials we are still led by the notion that the peoples of the Danube region are mutually dependent on each other, and it is in this light that our studies wish to search for historical truth. This will require patience and understanding, and a critical approach to guard against one-sided national prejudices, the embellishment or perhaps even falsification of history. At the same time "Danubian" also implies the limitation or circumscribing of our aims. The means at our disposal - for which we thank the Soros Foundation - do not enable us to discuss the many questions of universal history to the same depth. But apart from this practical reason it is worth paying particular attention to the Danube region also because it is a historical, social and ethnic unit even if we consider that its history has been formed as much by external as by internal forces. Yet as Hungarian history cannot be treated isolated from that of the rest of Europe without the danger of historical errors, neither can this broader historical and geographical unit.