What are some good sources on the Hungarian Revolution of 1848?

by hecklinggnome

I've been doing some research on Hungary before, during, and after WW1. The latter time periods are easy to find stuff on, but I wasn't sure where to start looking for the 1848 Revolution. I know the results of the Revolution are incredibly important in defining Hungarian national identity, but I wanted to know more details about the events of the Revolution and what those end results were.

Orel_Beilinson

Do you read Hungarian or German? If not, here are some English-language sources:

  • Edsel Walter Stroup, Hungary in early 1848: the constitutional struggle against absolutism in contemporary eyes (1977) -- for a more balanced view on the reasons for the struggle, that is now mainstream: not just "anti-feudalism" but also, mainly, restoring the traditional liberties of the nobility.
  • Some primary sources include The letters and journal (1848-49) of Count Charles Leiningen-Westerburg, general in the Hungarian army (1911), Kossuth Lajos, Memories of my exile (1880) and some of his lectures publised in English like The Future of Nations from 1852, New York; Arthur Gorgy, My life and acts in Hungary in the years 1848 and 1849; Gyorgy Klapka, Memoirs of the war of independence in Hungary (1850); Baronin Wilhelmine von Beck, Personal adventures during the late war of independence in Hungary : Comprising an account of her missions under the orders of Kossuth to the different posts of the Hungarian Army during the contest (1851); Scenes of the civil war in Hungary, in 1848 and 1849; with the personal adventures of an Austrian officer in the army of the Ban of Croatia (1850); P. S., The Hungarian exile and his adventures dedicated to the free people of this glorious Republic (1855); Thersa Pulszky, Memoirs of a Hungarian lady (1850) -- Indeed, many of the revolutionaries became celebrities in the US. Many of the accounts are of course highly exaggerated.
  • Some more recent monographs include Gabor Bona (ed.), The Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence, 1848-1849 : a military history (translated from Hungarian, 1999); Gyorgy Spira, The Nationality Issue in Hungary of 1848-49 (translated from Hungarian, 1992); Istvan Dak, The Lawful Revolution (1979); The Life of Governor Louis Kossuth (2001); Domokos KOsary, Hungary and International Politics in 1848-1849 (trans. from Hungarian, 2003); Bela Borsi-Kalman, Hungarian Exiles and the Romanian National Movements (trans. from Hungarian, 1991).
  • On the life of the exiles, see Helena Toth, An Exiled Generation: German and Hungarian Refugees of Revolution, 1848–1871 (2014).
  • Many other books on Habsburg and Hungarian histories are not about 1848 but pay significant attention to 1848 or use 1848 as a springboard for their narrative. I can expand on that if you'd like.