1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910520305203321

Autore

Valuch Tibor

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Budapest, : Central European University Press, 2021

Budapest ; ; Vienna ; New York : , : CEU Press, , 2021

©2021

ISBN

963-386-376-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (1 volume) : illustrations (black and white) ;

Disciplina

943.905

Soggetti

Social conditions

Post-communism

Consumption (Economics)

Post-communism - Hungary

Consumption (Economics) - Hungary

Hungary

Hungary Social conditions 1989-

Hungary Social conditions 1945-1989

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

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



Sommario/riassunto

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.