Movement of the People

"This marvelous study of táncház dance is at once a social history of socialist and post-socialist Hungary, an ethnography of Hungarian folk culture, and a meditation on how culture can be galvanized as both a form of collective action and ethnonationalism. A lively and thought-provoking work."—Sujatha Fernandes, author of The Cuban Hustle: Culture, Politics, Everyday Life, author of The Cuban Hustle: Culture, Politics, Everyday Life

"Combining ethnographic and historical detail with theoretical rigour, Mary Taylor uses her exploration of the Hungarian táncház movement, stretching from the socialist to the postsocialist period, to uncover complex relations between cultural form and practice, collective memory, citizenship, and state formation. By offering a refreshing critique of the global 'heritage regime,' her analysis also reveals how 'local' cultural practices and traditions are shaped by global economic and political forces."—Emilia Barna, co-editor of Popular Music, Technology and the Changing Media Ecosystem: From Cassettes to Stream, co-editor of Popular Music, Technology and the Changing Media Ecosystem: From Cassettes to Stream

"Hungary is now an avant-garde case of 21st century neo-nationalist politics. Folk dance became one of its historical and contradictory venues, Mary Taylor explains, as she digs into the complex lived and danced history of the idea of the Magyar 'folk.'"—Don Kalb, University of Bergen, Norway, University of Bergen, Norway

"Hungary's táncház movement, or folk dance revival, is an expression of nostalgia for the virtues of the agrarian past, a hotbed of ethnonationalism, a system for transmission of 'intangible cultural heritage' recognized by international organizations, and a social dance scene that can be an awful lot of fun. Taylor's meticulously researched book fleshes out the complex cultural and intellectual history for this movement, demonstrating through her fieldwork and documentary research how 21st-century folk dancing emerges from discourses and institutions that can be traced over 100 years, and how it participates in the maintenance and development of ideas of citizenship promoted by Hungary's populist politicians."—Lynn M. Hooker, author of Redefining Hungarian Music from Liszt to Bartók, Purdue University, author of Redefining Hungarian Music from Liszt to Bartók, Purdue University

"This empirically grounded and historically informed analysis of a revived folk dance practice introduces an innovative approach to studying the perplexing relation between nationalism, culture, neoliberalism and heritage politics in the socialist and post-socialist Hungary and the present-day European context."—Ioannis Manos, University of Macedonia