People in Spite of History

"Várady earlier published accounts of some of these case files, first in Hungarian in 2013, then in Serbian in 2015, and then in German in 2016. Anglophones are fortunate now to have access. For a social historian, interest lies in what the cases reveal about the life of a multi-ethnic community living through difficult times. A lawyer reading the book will wonder how s/he would have dealt with the situations that confronted the Várady law firm. An introduction by Professor Richard Buxbaum, former editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law, notes the book’s broader importance. It could well serve as a model for writers on law and social history, even those who do not have elders who practiced law through two world wars and one social revolution." -- John Quigley * Law and History Review *
"The book reveals new sides of institutions and regimes, a pragmatic side to German officials’ legal decision-making that sometimes conflicted with their racial agendas and a complexity to communist revolutionary policies as lived experience. The result is a book in which we, as readers, feel as though we are accompanying the author to his attic, unpacking boxes, and making sense of the people whose lives comprised this tumultuous and devastating moment in the region’s history." https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2023.29 -- Emily Greble * Slavic Review *