István Hajnal


István Hajnal was a Hungarian social historian and palaeographer. Hajnal has been characterised as "perhaps the most prominent Hungarian palaeographer of century." He had wide-ranging interests in medieval and modern history, including the history of technology, the history of communication, and the relation of history to sociology.

Life

Hajnal was born in Nagykikinda, in the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1921 he gained his Privatdocent, and started teaching at the University of Budapest, where he was Professor of Modern History from 1930 to 1949. He became a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1928, and was an Academician from 1939 to 1949. He was also an official at the Hungarian National Museum.

Reputation

In the 1980s Hajnal's work, promoted by László Lakatos, "suddenly burst into public consciousness as an oeuvre comparable with and compatible with the Annales. The István Hajnal Circle , named after him, sponsors research into East Central European social history.

Works