Reference Book for Hungarian Awards.

[Pravda]

I was recently in Hungary and while shopping for medals at the market one of the dealers showed me a reference book for Hungarian medals. It was in Hungarian, but had english captions. Does anyone know where I can find such a book?

Cheers,
Will

[medals73]

Charles Duncan, Elvtars! History and Regailia of Communist Hungary 1945-1957 ([[n.p.: 2009]); ISBN 978-0-615-30145-7)

I have just received Duncan's book.

Wow.

WOW!!

This is an amazing book, and this is not a word I use often.

Duncan attempts to survey the regalia (ODM, badges, uniforms) of Hungary from 1945-57 in one volume of just 236 full-color pages is an awesome effort, and one that is successful to a greater degree than one might reasonably expect.

He attempts to do two things that are incredibly unusual:

1- To place the awards (etc.) within a sound chronological understanding of their evolution. No "honors system" ever emerges full-blown! But that isn't unusual. It is a "wotrk in progress".

2- To place these awards (etc.) within their historical context. While it may be possible to quiibble with Duncan's structiring of recent Hungarian history, his effort to so sitiuate these awards is both important and praiseworthy. His value judgments do not obscure the importance of his work.

Get this book if you have any (ANY) interest in Hungarian or Warsaw Pact or global awards. And await the next (?) volume covering post-1957 awards (please, Charles ... beg .... grovel).

This volume has come forward in a VERY limited print run. Charles is a member of this forum (hunyadi) -- hint hint. Contact him. ASAP.

[EricFG]

Cool. Thanks for the review Ed. The Regime there (Hungary) produced some nice looking stuff (ODM-wise). I wish I had the scratch to invest.
Maybe this book will help boost the prices like the Red Book did for Soviet stuff.

[Hunyadi]

Ed - thanks once again for the reveiw of the work. I am humbled by your assesment. Copies are still available, but they are moving out the door.

[Ralph Pickard]

Hello all - I have been attempting to contact the author of this book, however he has not been on this forum since 2010. Does fellow forum members know the status of this author or his book? Or contact information for him? Thanks.

update since this paragraph was combined with another post: Hello all - I want to let everyone know that I received my copy today. Briefly went through his book I can say that I like the format and the historical aspect of what the author has done. The book appears to be worth while to have as reference. More to follow when I fully go through it.

[charlet]

Hello, I fear there haven't been any change in this situation : impossible to contact Mr. Duncan, impossible to find a second-hand copy. No traces at all even on a google search (before it linked towards a forum topic).

And sadly it seems there are not reference catalogue of orders or badges...

Ralph, if you do have an hint...