Introduction

This is a report on a survey. Five leading textbooks were studied in detail for anti-Hungarian bias in introductory European history at American universities.

[...]

The selection of the books to be reviewed for this study was made by reviewing complimentary 'desk copies' furnished by publishers to university departments in charge of such courses. In the Fall semester of 1993 at The University of Akron's Department of History 1512 students were registered for the course entitled "Western Cultural Traditions". Publishers would exert great efforts for sales of such magnitude, therefore they submit their most recent textbooks for potential approval and adaption. Seven of the most recently delivered books were selected for this study. After a preliminary survey, two of these were set aside as their contents were more directed toward history of art and culture than toward the history of nations.

From the five books selected, all statements relating to Hungary and the Magyars were excerpted. Where it seemed desirable, the reviewer has inserted comments in the footnotes to highlight some points.

To eliminate any potential bias by the reviewer, it was decided at the outset that the Columbia Encyclopedia will be used as authority to which statements found in the textbooks are compared. No Hungarian source material was used whether published in Hungary or elsewhere to further avoid bias. The 1950 edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia was used - an attempt at fairness toward the authors of the texts -, as they had it available long before the book were written. (Two later editions exist.) Twenty excerpts were made, involving important highlights of Hungary's history. These were used as guideposts against which the depth of coverage and accuracy of the textbooks was contrasted.