Review by Choice Review
Written expressly for an Anglophone and non-Hungarian audience, this superb volume makes a major contribution to the historiography of medieval central and east European history. Engel is a distinguished medieval historian (Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences), and this is not a rehash of previous scholarship. It is an original and, in some ways revisionist (as in his treatment of Sigismund of Luxemburg, John Hunyadi, and Matthew Corvinus), synthesis. Engel devotes over 100 pages to the Arpad period (to 1301); another 70 to a detailed and careful treatment of the Angevins in Hungary; and nearly 200 more to the crucial years from 1382 to the battle of Mohacs in 1526. Although his framework is primarily political narrative, the author does not neglect analyses of society, economy, and culture. His treatment of all these matters makes this now the standard English-language treatment of medieval Hungary--its internal history as well as its regional and European significance. The maps, genealogical tables, and extensive bibliography of materials (including periodical literature) in the Western languages will make this book useful to scholars and students alike. Essential for all university collections at all levels. P. W. Knoll University of Southern California
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
