Everyday Life under Communism and After: Lifestyle and Consumption in Hungary, 1945–2000

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Everyday Life under Communism and After: Lifestyle and Consumption in Hungary, 1945–2000

by Tibor Valuch

Central European University Press, 2022

ISBNs

Cloth: 978-963-386-376-3

eISBN: 978-963-386-675-7 (ePub)

eISBN: 978-963-386-377-0 (PDF)

About the Book

By providing a survey of consumption and lifestyle in Hungary during the second half of the twentieth century, this book shows how common people lived during and after tumultuous regime changes. After an introduction covering the late 1930s, the study centers on the communist era, and goes on to describe changes in the post-communist period with its legacy of state socialism.

Tibor Valuch poses a series of questions. Who could be called rich or poor and how did they live in the various periods? How did living, furnishings, clothing, income, and consumption mirror the structure of the society and its transformations? How could people accommodate their lifestyles to the political and social system? How specific to the regime was consumption after the communist takeover, and how did consumption habits change after the demise of state socialism? The answers, based on micro-histories, statistical data, population censuses and surveys help to understand the complexities of daily life, not only in Hungary, but also in other communist regimes in east-central Europe, with insights on their antecedents and afterlives.

About the Author

Tibor Valuch is a social historian and research chair at the Center for Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science, Budapest. He is also professor at the Institute of History, Eszterházy Károly University, Eger.

Reviews

"Tibor Valuch is anything but a newcomer to the field of consumption history of modern Hungary. His impressive oeuvre spans almost four decades of publishing activities, engaging profoundly with the material situation of different social classes, especially during state socialism, but also after the political change of 1989–90. While the bulk of his work has so far only been accessible to Hungarian- and, occasionally, German-speaking academia, Valuch’s newest book finally makes the essence of his research on everyday consumption practices in Hungary available to most scholars interested in consumption patterns in Eastern Europe. Based on an analysis filling more than 500 pages, this is a major and highly awaited undertaking."Link to review: https://doi.org/10.5325/hungarianstud.49.2.0277
-- Annina Gagyiova Hungarian Studies Review

"Tibor Valuch’s publications have been key sources for many of us studying everyday life in Hungary, especially under state socialism. This rich collection of a variety of data and accompanying social analysis is now available for a wider, international audience that it clearly deserves. The rich research foundations of Everyday Life Under Communism will make it a key source for scholars of consumption in Eastern Europe." https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/soeu-2022-0041/html

-- Zsuzsa Gille Comparative Southeast European Studies

"Valuch convincingly demonstrates that high levels of inequality were present throughout the period, and that consumption, especially from the 1960s onward, became one of the most important means and realms of social representation and distinction. Accordingly, the book provides a more nuanced understanding of socialist-era consumption, housing, clothing, and dietary habits. It is essential reading not only for scholars of the socialist era but also for those who want to understand the experience of social transformation and regime change in Central and Eastern Europe after 1990."https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/austrian-history-yearbook/article/abs/tibor-valuch-everyday-life-under-communism-and-after-lifestyle-and-consumption-in-hungary-19452000-budapest-central-european-university-press-2021-pp-508/BD1F62D2A536D7771D61977993DF4C70?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Article&utm_campaign=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Articles&WT.mc_id=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Articles
-- Sándor Horváth Austrian History Yearbook