This book offers a comprehensive thousand-year history of the land, people, society, culture and economy of Hungary, from its nebulous origins in the Ural Mountains to the elections of 1988. It tells above all the thrilling story of a people which became a great power in the region and then fought against - and was invaded by - Ottomans, Germans and Soviets. The Hungarian people preserved nevertheless a continuous individuality through its Ural-born language and a specifically Hungaro-European culture. Dominated from the sixteenth century by the Habsburgs, while ruling its own national minorities, Hungary was deprived of two-thirds of its lands and peoples through successive treaties which followed the two World Wars, after which it fell under Soviet domination for nearly fifty years. Free and independent since 1990, Hungary continues to seek its rightful position in Europe. --Publisher description.