Everyday Life under Communism and After : : Lifestyle and Consumption in Hungary, 1945-2000 / / Tibor Valuch ; translated by Maja J. Lo Bello.

• Funder: Opening the Future
• VerfasserIn: Valuch, Tibor,
• TeilnehmendeR: Lo Bello, Maya J.,
• Author: Opening the Future
• Place / Publishing House: Budapest ;, Vienna, New York : : CEU Press,, 2021.; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (1 volume) :; illustrations (black and white)

By providing a survey of consumption and lifestyle in Hungary during the second half of the twentieth century, this book shows how common people lived during and after tumultuous regime changes. After an introduction covering the late 1930s, the study centers on the communist era, and goes on to describe changes in the post-communist period with its legacy of state socialism.0Tibor Valuch poses a series of questions. Who could be called rich or poor and how did they live in the various periods? How did living, furnishings, clothing, income and consumption mirror the structure of the society and its transformations? How could people accommodate their lifestyles to the political and social system? How specific to the regime was consumption after the communist takeover, and how did it change after the demise of the regime? The answers, based on micro-histories, statistical data, population censuses and surveys help to understand the complexities of daily life, not only in Hungary, but also in other communist regimes in east-central Europe, with insights on their antecedents and afterlives.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Acronyms -- Introduction -- Chapter One. The Study of Hungarian Everyday Life: Historiography, Methods, and Concepts -- Chapter Two. Two Hundred Pengős a Month, Five Hundred Forints, Two Thousand Forints…: Financial Circumstances, Prices, Wages, and Income Inequalities in Everyday Life -- Chapter Three. From Plentiful Privation to a Consumer Society: The Changes and Characteristics of Consumer Consumption -- Chapter Four. This Is How We Lived: Housing Conditions, Usage of Living Space, and Interior Decoration -- Chapter Five. “Well-dressed and Fashionable”: Changes in Clothing Styles, Habits, and Fashion -- Chapter Six. “We Ate, We Drank, We Filled Our Stomachs”: Nutrition, Eating, and Dietary Habits -- Conclusions -- Conclusions -- Selected Bibliography -- Index