Vol. 28 No. 22 :: 16 November 2006
Could it have been different? http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n22/hobs01_.html
Eric Hobsbawm: Budapest 1956
Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 by Michael Korda
Twelve Days: Revolution 1956 by Victor Sebestyen
A Good Comrade: Janos Kadar, Communism and Hungary by Roger Gough
Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt by Charles Gati
Contemporary history is useless unless it allows emotion to be recollected in tranquillity. Probably no episode in 20th-century history generated a more intense burst of feeling in the Western world than the Hungarian uprising of 1956. Although it lasted less than two weeks, it was both a classic instance of the narrative of justified popular insurrection against oppressive government, familiar since the fall of the Bastille, and of David’s in this case doomed victory against Goliath