AMERICAN HISTORY / IMMIGRATION STUDIES

TIES THAT BIND, TIES THAT DIVIDE

100 Years of Hungarian Experience
in the United States

A vivid picture of the evolution of one of America's many vital ethnic voices.

The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were times of change within the United States. The influx of immigrants gave the United States a new face as well as a new culture.

In Ties That Bind, Ties That Divide, Juliana Puskás, a prominent scholar on immigration, examines the Hungarian-American experience. Often overshadowed by the stories of other immigrant communities, the Hungarian community is finally brought to the forefront in Puskás's thorough discussion. Beginning with a look at the semifeudal state of mid-nineteenth century Hungarian society, the author provides a historical context within which to place the emigrants. She goes on to reveal the gradual process by which immigrants built diverse communities and became Hungarian-Americans, rather than just Hungarians in America. Puskás also chronicles the role of Hungarian-Americans in the Cold War, focusing on the displaced persons who arrived immediately after World War II.

Ties That Bind, Ties That Divide melds a lucid, thorough appraisal of the Hungarian migration with first-hand experiences, interviews, and observations, skillfully redressing the general ignorance of the Hungarian-American experience.

"Ties That Bind is an impressive scholarly work, the definitive study of the Hungarian experience in the United States in English .... it elegantly combines theory (push and pull, chain migration, ehtnic and class consciousness, etc.) with extensive notes and a most comprehensive bibliography."
—American Studies International, June 2001

"Beginning with a look at the semi-feudal state of mid-nineteenth century Hungarian society, Puskás (Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Institute of History) provides a historical context within which to place Hungarian emigration. She then goes on to explain how the immigrants built diverse communities in the United States and chronicles the role of these communities during the Cold War, integrating an appraisal of Hungarian immigration with first-hand experiences and interviews."
—Reference and Research Book News, November 2000

"This survey and analysis of the Hungarian experience in the U.S. by the doyen of Hungarian-American studies is published in the prestigious Ellis Island Series, edited by Ira Glazier and Luigi de Rosa. ... Puskŕs's study is a comprehensive social history of ethnicity and acculturation at its best."
—Dirk Hoerder, Labor History

"Probably the world's most distinguished historian of Hungarian emigration, Julianna Puskás offers a comprehensive overview of a relatively understudied immigrant group covering the period from roughly the 1870s through the 1970s. ...Puskás presents a sophisticated, intelligent, nuanced account, even if one without major revisionist surprises. ...This is a solidly researched, insightful scholar's book. In a historiography with, more typically, Eastern European Jewish or Slavic protagonists, it is especially interesting now to have a Magyar perspective presented so ably."
—American Historical Review

Julianna Puskás is a distinguished scholar of international migration. She has written and edited many books in the field, most recently Overseas Migration from East, Central, and Southeastern Europe 1880-1940. She is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Science and research director at the Eötös Loränd University, Budapest.