Brilliance in Exile

The Diaspora of Hungarian Scientists from John Von Neumann to Katalin Karikó
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-963-386-625-2
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 342 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 626 g

By addressing the enigma of the exceptional success of Hungarian emigrant scientists and telling their life stories, Brilliance in Exile combines scholarly analysis with fascinating portrayals of uncommon personalities. István and Balazs Hargittai discuss the conditions that led to five different waves of emigration of scientists from the early twentieth century to the present. Although these exodes were driven by a broad variety of personal motivations, the attraction of an open society with inclusiveness, tolerance, and – needless to say – better circumstances for working and living, was the chief force drawing them abroad.

While emigration from East to West is a general phenomenon, this book explains why and how the emigration of Hungarian scientists is distinctive. The high number of Nobel Prizes among this group is only one indicator. Multicultural tolerance, a quickly emerging, considerably Jewish, urban middle class, and a very effective secondary school system were positive legacies of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Multiple generations, shaped by these conditions, suffered from the increasingly exclusionist, intolerant, antisemitic, and economically stagnating environment, and chose to go elsewhere. “I would rather have roots than wings, but if I cannot have roots, I shall use wings, explained Leo Szilard, one of the fathers of the Atom Bomb.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hargittai, István

Hargittai, Balazs

Berend, Ivan T

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Naturwissenschaften, Technik, Medizin
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword Ivan T. Berend, Introduction, Preface Joseph A. Galamb, Philipp Lenard PART I. Early 1920s Introduction: Fleeing Ervin Bauer Stephen Brunauer Ladislaus Farkas Dennis Gabor George de Hevesy Theodore von Kármán Arthur Koestler Stephen W. Kuffler Nicholas Kurti Cornelius Lanczos John von Neumann Egon Orowan Michael Polanyi George Pólya Elizabeth Rona Leo Szilard Maria Telkes Edward Teller Eugene P. Wigner Control - Imre Bródy PART II. Late 1930s - Early 1940s Introduction: Before It Is Too Late Michael and Alice Balint Ladislao José Biro Paul Erdos John G. Kemeny Olga Kennard Peter D. Lax George J. Popjak Valentine L. Telegdi Laszlo Tisza PART III. Immediate Post-World War II Introduction: Post-War and Pre-Soviet Trauma, Endre A. Balazs Zoltan Bay Georg von Békésy Lars Ernster John C. Harsanyi Avram Hershko Georg and Eva Klein Albert Szent-Györgyi PART IV. 1956 Introduction: In the Wake of Suppressed Revolution Laszlo Z. Bito Andy Grove Peter Lengyel Joseph Nagyvary George A. OlahGabor A. Somorjai PART V. 1957?1989 Introduction: Escape from Paradise Gyorgy Buzsaki Gabor Fodor Katalin Karikó Charles Simonyi Agnes Ullmann Control—Árpád FurkaConclusion Thirty Years Later, and Continuing, Acknowledgments, Bibliography, Index of Names

Über Autor(innen)

Istvan Hargittai, PhD, DSc, is a physical chemist, Professor Emeritus (active) of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

Balazs Hargittai, PhD (University of Minnesota), is an organic chemist, Professor of Chemistry of Saint Francis University, Loretto, Pennsylvania.

Ivan T. Berend is Distinguished Research Professor at the History Department of the University of California Los Angeles.