From the John Holmes Library collection.

Following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire one of three Hungarians live as an ethnic minority in the Carpathian Basin. This is the latest scientific study on their past & present distribution on their ancestral land.

Migration and diaspora studies have been emphatically present in social science discourse for decades. Perspectives of Diaspora Existence sheds light on the conceptual dichotomy of "diaspora" vs. the Hungarian term "szrvny," examining the differences in their content, use, and historical interpretation. This uniquely Hungarian diaspora concept was historically constructed in the Carpathian Basin and has been integrated into Hungarian national discourses. A conference titled "Regionality, Community Building, Diaspora Maintenance: International Cooperation in the Diaspora Issue" was held in Romania in June 2006. Beyond conceptual clarifications of the diaspora problem in social sciences, the conference also presented the various findings of different humanities disciplines in the field of diaspora research. Perspectives of Diaspora Existence provides a faithful representation of the comprehensive and inter-disciplinary dialog from the conference through a selection of studies based on

Amid the rising nationalism and racial politics that culminated in World War II, European countries wishing to "purify" their nations often forced unwanted populations to migrate. The targeted minorities had few options, but as R. Chris Davis shows, they sometimes used creative tactics to fight back, redefining their identities to serve their own interests. Davis's highly illuminating example is the case of the little-known Moldavian Csangos, a Hungarian- and Romanian-speaking community of Roman Catholics in eastern Romania. During World War II, some in the Romanian government wanted to expel them. The Hungarian government saw them as Hungarians and wanted to settle them on lands confiscated from other groups. Resisting deportation, the clergy of the Csangos enlisted Romania's leading racial anthropologist, collected blood samples, and rewrote a millennium of history to claim Romanian origins and national belonging—thus escaping the discrimination and violence that devastated so many of Europe's Jews, Roma, Slavs, and other minorities. In telling their story, Davis offers fresh insight to debates about ethnic allegiances, the roles of science and religion in shaping identity, and minority politics past and present.