The comparative approach to the understanding of history is increasingly popular today. This study details the evolution of comparative history by examining the career of a pioneer in this area, Herbert E. Bolton, who popularized the notion that hemispheric history should be considered from pole to pole. Bolton traced the study of the history of the Americas back to 16th century European accounts of efforts to bring civilization to the New World, and he argued that only within this larger context could the histories of individual nations be understood. After American entry into the Spanish-American War in 1898, historians such as Bolton promoted the idea of comparative history, and it remains to this day a significant historiographical approach. Consideration of the history of the Americas as a whole dates back to 16th century European treatises on the New World. Chapter one of this study provides an overview of pre-Bolton formulations of such history. In chapter two one sees the forces that shaped Bolton's thinking and brought about the development of the concept. Chapters three and four focus upon the evolution of the approach through Bolton's history course at the University of California at Berkeley and the reception of the concept among Bolton's contemporaries. Unfortunately, Bolton never fully developed the theoretical side of his arguement; thus, chapter five chronicles the decline of his ideas after his death. The final chapter reveals the survival of the concept, which is now embraced by a new generation of historians who are largely unfamiliar with Bolton's instrumental role in the promotion of comparative history.

After the shock of the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, which Hungarians perceived as an unfair dictate, the leaders of the country found it imperative to change Hungary?s international image in a way that would help the revision of the post-World War I settlement. The monograph examines the development of interwar Hungarian cultural diplomacy in three areas: universities, the tourist industry, and the media?primarily motion pictures and radio production. It is a story of the Hungarian elites? high hopes and deep-seated anxieties about the country?s place in a Europe newly reconstructed after World War I, and how these elites perceived and misperceived themselves, their surroundings, and their own ability to affect the country?s fate. The defeat in the Great War was crushing, but it was also stimulating, as Nagy documents in his examination of foreignlanguage journals, tourism, radio, and other tools of cultural diplomacy. The mobilization of diverse cultural and intellectual resources, the author argues, helped establish Hungary?s legitimacy in the international arena, contributed to the modernization of the country, and established a set of enduring national images. Though the study is rooted in Hungary, it explores the dynamic and contingent relationship between identity construction and transnational cultural and political currents in East-Central European nations in the interwar period.