For two hundred years, the social sciences have been writing about how people live, work, enjoy, and suffer in different times and circumstances. This is what Mária Szikszai did when she created the world of her book using a unique process, based on a single person’s archive of letters, memos, official documents, and photographs. The earliest document dates from 1937, the latest from 1997. What was this period like in Romania and in the region of Central and Eastern Europe in general? In this world, people with whom the priest Mihály Tyukodi had direct or indirect contact from history come to life, and the feelings and thoughts that preoccupied and influenced them, that they spoke and wrote about, emerge. Mária Szikszai’s book is a microhistory written with methodological consistency, sensitive problematization, and nuanced language. This book exposes the diverse functions of writing, the organization of the private world, and the development and role of the network of relationships.
— Vilmos Keszeg, Babeș-Bolyai University
Szikszai’s book is special for several reasons. One of its peculiarities is the sheer volume of written documents she examines: more than 2,400 documents, of which she provides an anthropological interpretation. The special situation of this book’s protagonist also makes the story unique. This book’s protagonist is an Eastern European Catholic priest who lived through the twentieth century, world wars, and political regime changes, including the Romanian dictatorship. Szikszai has used the information in the documents to create a fascinating story about the individual who took the notes.
— Csaba Zoltán Novák, director of the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities
This book offers a lot of interesting data for anthropologists and historians. An impressive number of written documents are examined. Szikszai’s experience on the study of minorities from Romania contribute here to the success of the professional presentation of an exciting correspondence of a very controversial period of history reflected through the life of an Eastern European man who lived almost throughout the twentieth century.
— Győző Zsigmond, University of Bucharest