Marcus Ferrar

The Budapest House was interesting on two levels. One, was the personal story of Frances Pinter who while born in Hungary, was raised in New York and California and received her higher education in London. But the other was the Hungarian mind set. In a chapter entitled Lost Track the author quotes Gabor Heller, a television consultant who emigrated to New York from Hungary in 1980 as saying : "Being born in Hungary is like a wound you carry with you from birth." Strong words indeed. But the show more author backs up these words with a discussion of how being on the loosing side of both Word Wars, actually helping the Germans exterminate Hungarian Jews, and then suffering decades of oppression under Communist Soviet rule has given The Hungarian people a very negative outlook on life. Thankfully, many have overcome this. Billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros is one of them. Frances Pinter started her own printing business in London at the tender age of 23 but it was George Soros who started an organization with, Frances Pinter as the head, in order to once again supply textbooks to the schools devastated by The Bosnian War. Despite all she accomplished, Frances was still troubled by her Hungarian heritage and the book serves as an interesting discussion on how she finally came to terms with it. show less

I did not manage to get past the first chapter of this book. As someone well-versed in classical history, I instantly recognized the cliches driving the descriptions of the Roman Empire and the Greek city-states. Whatever research went into this book must have consisted of Hollywood films and Wikipedia. Morever, a book that claims to be about "freedom" does not bother to define it from the beginning. Likewise, the author is dismissive of the problematic aspects of some cultures, while show more over-emphasizing those same issues in others (i.e. the slaves of the Greek cities get barely passing mention, while the Roman Republic's use of slaves damns the entire nation).

Utter drivel not worth spending not worth a moment of my time, nor yours. show less

The Budapest House was interesting on two levels. One, was the personal story of Frances Pinter who while born in Hungary, was raised in New York and California and received her higher education in London. But the other was the Hungarian mind set. In a chapter entitled Lost Track the author quotes Gabor Heller, a television consultant who emigrated to New York from Hungary in 1980 as saying : "Being born in Hungary is like a wound you carry with you from birth." Strong words indeed. But the show more author backs up these words with a discussion of how being on the loosing side of both Word Wars, actually helping the Germans exterminate Hungarian Jews, and then suffering decades of oppression under Communist Soviet rule has given The Hungarian people a very negative outlook on life. Thankfully, many have overcome this. Billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros is one of them. Frances Pinter started her own printing business in London at the tender age of 23 but it was George Soros who started an organization with, Frances Pinter as the head, in order to once again supply textbooks to the schools devastated by The Bosnian War. Despite all she accomplished, Frances was still troubled by her Hungarian heritage and the book serves as an interesting discussion on how she finally came to terms with it. show less

This is a difficult book for me to review because it attempts to be so comprehensive in its coverage. There are so many parts and statements with which I disagree, but that does not go to the question of the value of the book. Ferrar gives us the purpose for the book when he writes (This book) “does not purport to be a comprehensive history of the fight for freedom, which would stretch to several volumes. It gives an overview of the struggle in a few hundred pages, and focuses on a few show more individuals who have distinguished themselves in the modern times.” (Kindle Locations 62-64). Ferrar fulfills his purpose.

I recommend this book be used in a carefully constructed survey course about freedom. This book would be one of several; the others would be chosen to focus on some of the complex issues that were glossed over in this book. It has value at grade levels eight and nine in a US high school. To be used in a curriculum, a knowledgeable teacher would be necessary to point out some of the inconsistencies that result from generalizing about such a vast temporal expanse of history.

Therefore, the book comes with warnings: Use cautiously, read at your own risk, and don’t accept a lot of these assertions as fact.

Perhaps because I am a student of history and political science, this book provided no (as in none or zero) new information for me. I was dismayed by the idea that a reader might finish the book and think they knew a lot of stuff about a lot of things and therefore did not have to do any more reading. That is why I included the warnings above.

The bibliography was good. Readers should select some books in their area of interest and do follow-up reading. My Kindle edition book has 141 cites notes. I would never cite the Encyclopedia Britannica, but that was the author’s choice.

The basic tenet of the book is that people, everyone, wants freedom. It is the central motivator for a person’s actions. Ferrar then goes on with specific instances, stories of specific personalities, to support his case. The specific examples are fine; it is the generalizations drawn from his chosen specifics that give me problems. But, as he writes, “that would stretch to several volumes.” (above) show less