Andrew (András) Ludányi (who was a Fulbright Visiting Professor in Debrecen in 1992) will be at the American Corner to talk about his new book, My American Road Trip: From WWII to the 21st Century (Helena History Press, 2023) with Grant W. Currier (who is a current Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Debrecen).
Ludányi is a Hungarian-American political scientist, sociologist, historian and university professor. In 1945 he fled with his family to Austria and later to the United States. He lived in Virginia and then in New York City, and did his university studies at Elmhurst University and Louisiana State University. From 1968 to 2008, he was a professor at Ohio Northern University. A founding member of the Hungarian Communion of Friends, the Hungarian American Coalition and the American Hungarian Educators Association, he is an active organizer and participant in Hungarian-American public life. A Fulbright Hungary alum, Ludányi currently lives in Budapest and Ada, Ohio.
“Ludányi’s recollections offer a rare and valuable contribution to our understanding of American domestic and foreign policy and American-Hungarian relations. It has never been an easy task to arrive at a simple assessment of US policy, and this task is perhaps more difficult today than it has ever been. Ludányi nevertheless makes at attempt to do just this, and he does so without ever ignoring his own mistakes and disappointments. His insights are particularly engaging in part because he writes both from the perspective of a loyal, even patriotic American citizen but also from the viewpoint of an outsider, a concerned Hungarian who is committed to Western values…
The volume that the reader has now taken in hand has been published both in English and in Hungarian, as it will be of interest both to American and Hungarian audiences, not to mention to Hungarian Americans. It will serve to foster an increasingly nuanced understanding of Hungarian-American relations, while also appealing to readers who are simply enrapt by the thoughts and insights it offers, which are shared in a light style that will often bring a smile to the reader’s face.” (Zsolt Németh)
The event will take place on Friday, October 20, 2023 at 4:00 p.m
