CEU Press books are distributed also in digital version. See the top 20 e-sales from 2005 till June 2008.

Bestsellers on two tracks. Five titles figure both among traditional and digital top 20: A Cardboard Castle, A Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements, Russian Foreign Policy, Ascensions on High, and Ideologies and National Identities.

"A sharp, thoughtful, graciously written study, based on impressive research in the archives of the French and Italian parties, as well as East German records, for insights into Soviet actions. The book does not change the overall understanding of the positions and roles of the two parties, but it adds much rich detail and subtlety. Summing up: highly recommended". – Choice on Which Socialism, Whose Détente?

"The four case studies provide substantial grist for those interested in generalizations about successful state building. Furthermore, specialists should find the cross-country comparisons on the development of tax regimes interesting. Summing up: recommended." – Choice on State-Building

"Filled with new information and original ideas and offering intriguing incentives for further research, this well-edited volume is not only a remarkable edition to the literature on European eugenics but provides invaluable insights into the broader currents of intellectual life in central and southeast Europe.” – Slavic Review on Blood and Homeland

Both From Solidarity to Martial Law and Islam and Tolerance in Wider Europe are highly recommended by Choice.

In the past few years Carleton University, as well as the Universities of Kansas and Maryland have excelled in adopting CEU Press books for courses. Our most popular titles were Prague Tales, A Life Under Russian Serfdom and Between Past and Future.

"This is the book that I wish someone had given me the day I arrived in Prague" – Prague Post on From Good King Wenceslas to the Good Soldier Svejk





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The Elefanthy
The Hungarian Nobleman and His Kindred

Erik Fügedi and edited by Damir Karbic

In an exploration of the life and customs of the Hungarian nobility, this book compares historical reality and legal literature on the example of one noble kindred the Elefánthy kindred from northern Hungary (present-day Slovakia). The author begins by outlining the customary laws regarding noble status, inheritance and marriage, as summarized in the famous code of Stephen Werböczy (1514). He then compares these norms with the documentary evidence and establishes the fact that the legal literature differs in regard to social mobility and kindred solidarity.

With this frame of reference in mind, the fate of the Elefánthy family is traced through several generations, enabling the author to make some general statistical statements on inheritance, the rise and fall of various branches, marriage strategies, and the "survival skills" of the kindred. In his summary, the author outlines some of the major avenues for further research, including the peculiar Hungarian form of retainership (familiaritas), and the relationships between noble fam-ilies and between the nobility and local communities.

"...offre une etude for complete sur l'organisation de la noblesse en Hongrie au Moyen Age. Meme si elle ne s'applique qu'a un cas unique, cette demarche est interessante. Car elle nous eclaire sur une organisation de la noblesse differente de celle que nous connaissons dans les royaumes occidentaux, mais qui se retrouve a la meme epoque dans d'autres pays d'Europe centrale. Le livre d'E.F. se lit aisement, il n'est pas trop long et est presente tres clairement. Nul doute qu'il vienne completer la liste des etudes consacrees a la noblesse europeenne au Moyen Age." - Le Moyen Age

"A unique contribution to medieval studies, highly recommended."
- Julian Wasserman, Loyola University of New Orleans

1998
174 pages
ISBN 978-963-9116-20-7 cloth $39.95 / €33.95 /£24.95

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