Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 A Portrait of 18th Century Hungary The Country The People The Institutions Chapter 2 The Joy and the Agony of Standing Still The Sense of Permanence Habsburg Modernization in Hungary “Extra Hungariam non est Vita” The Baroque in Hungary Service and Resistance Chapter 3 The Enlightenment and Cultural Sensibilities: A Comparative Historical Perspective The Enlightenment Cultural Sensibilities Germany Austria Hungary Chapter 4 The Slow Erosion of Traditionalism The War-time Diets The Biedermeyer The Multiplicity of Moods Cultural Nationalism Ferenc Kazinczy Chapter 5 The Ambiguous Journey Toward Reforms The Hungarian Theater, Music, and the Arts Cultural Breakthroughs: Romanticism The 1825–27 Diet Chapter 6 The Hungarian Age of Reform in the 1830s The Early-mid 1830s: The Triumphant Years of Count István Széchenyi The Diets of the Early-mid 1830s: Wesselényi and Széchenyi Government Aggression Against the Liberals The 1839–40 Diet Chapter 7 The Hungarian Age of Reform in the 1840s Lajos Kossuth and Count Aurél Dessewffy: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Issue of Nationality The Széchenyi-Kossuth debate The 1843–44 Diet Social and Economic Developments: Kossuth’s Védegylet Political and Cultural Pluralism 1847–48 Epilogue Works Cited