How They Lived

The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews, 1867–1940

András Koerner

• Publisher: Central European University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9789633861486
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book documents the physical aspects of the lives of Hungarian Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the way they looked, the kind of neighborhoods and apartments they lived in, and the places where they worked. The many historical photographs—there is at least one picture per page—and related text offers a virtual cross section of Hungarian society, a diverse group of the poor, the middle-class, and the wealthy. Regardless of whether they lived integrated within the majority society or in separate communities, whether they were assimilated Jews or Hasidim, they were an important and integral part of the nation. We have surprisingly few detailed accounts of their lifestyles—the world knows more about the circumstances of their deaths than about the way they lived. Much like piecing together an ancient sculpture from tiny shards found in an excavation, Koerner tries to reconstruct the many diverse lifestyles using fragmentary information and surviving photos.

Table of contents

• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Diversity of Hungarian Jewish Lifestyles
• The Three Aspects of Lifestyles Selected for Examination
• The Structure of this Book
• Other Characteristics of Hungarian Jewish Lifestyles
• The Group of People, the Period, and the Geographic Entity That Are the Subject of This Book
• Old Photos as Records of the Way People Lived
• The Advantages and Limitations of Describing a Culture Through Pictures
• The Sources of the Photos
• Historical Overview
• 1. What They Looked Like
• 2. Where They Lived
• 3. Where They Worked
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgements
• Selected Bibliography
• The Sources of the Pictures
• Index