Writing a book about pre-Dualist Hungarian nationalism during a decade (the 2010s) when interest in the field shifted from the study of nationalism to that of national indifference could be a challenging enterprise, of which Alexander Maxwell himself is aware. The outcome, however, validates the effort. Maxwell’s work is an important piece of scholarship, which, by looking at how national fantasies were expressed in Hungary from the 1780s to the 1860s, is both innovative and inspiring in that it shifts the former focus of studies of nationalism away from ideology and political practice to the examination of its manifestations in everyday life.
Taking his cue from Michael Billig’s work on “banal nationalism,” Maxwell sets out to explore how the consumption of commodities such as tobacco and wine, preferences for a certain type of facial hair (or the lack of thereof), sexuality and marriage choices, and ways of dressing were used...
