The Images of Széchenyi versus Kossuth by Henrik Marczali

Abstract

The Széchenyi–Kossuth debate not only attracted the attention of contemporaries but also the continuous interest of historical literature. Only a small part of Henrik Marczali’s enormous work affected 19thcentury
Hungarian history. In his Hungarian historical summaries, based on his university lectures, he dealt with the reform era and its protagonists, Széchenyi and Kossuth. In his interpretation of the debate between the two, he went beyond the constructions of the former actors to define their political positions. It was also novel that he compared the arguments of the debate mainly to their image of society, and their program about society. The paper not only reconstructs Marczali’s historiographical position but
also places it in the context of contemporary historical interpretations.