Korall. Journal for Social History provides a forum for Hungarian and international scholarship that explores historical processes and the deeper historical context of social, economic, political and cultural phenomena, and that undertakes their interdisciplinary analysis from new perspectives.

The journal was founded in 1999 on the initiative of a group of young historians, sociologists and anthropologists; the first issue appeared in August 2000. Korall is an independent scholarly journal: it is not attached to any state, academic or university institution. It is published by the Korall Social History Association, which was established for the purpose of publishing the journal and whose core membership consists of the editors; the association is chaired by the journal’s editor-in-chief.

Until the end of 2007 Korall appeared three times a year (two single and one double issue); since 2008 it has been published quarterly. Each issue is organised around a theme announced in advance, chosen by the editorial board in the year preceding publication. We consider it important to make key international scholarship available to Hungarian readers, and therefore regularly publish translations of studies that first appeared in international journals and volumes — while we equally welcome original submissions from authors outside Hungary. Alongside the articles belonging to the thematic block, every issue also offers space to studies addressing other significant questions.

The journal considers the critical review of new Hungarian and international scholarship part of its mission; this is the purpose of the regular Books section. Similar in aim is the occasional Journal Review section. Our further occasional sections are Sources and Readings, which presents a source or document of particular interest, usually in connection with the thematic block; Forum, which hosts scholarly debate; and Panorama, a miscellaneous section carrying reports on significant professional events and reflections on particular research problems. In our Interview section we publish conversations with historians and social scientists about their careers and their scholarly views.

Why “Korall”?

The editors of Korall are guided by the conviction that the historical analysis of how societies work is not merely entertaining reading, and matters not only for the sake of recording and interpreting the events of the past, but above all because a discerning understanding of the past is the key to understanding the problems of the present.

The name of the journal was chosen to express this outlook. István Hajnal, the most significant Hungarian social historian of the first half of the twentieth century, once compared the historical development of humanity to that of a coral: the once-living layers later form only a dead, immovable skeleton, yet they determine where and out of what the living body can develop further. Its future growth, though it rests on solid foundations, may still take unpredictable directions. In other words, the historical formation of human society is at once determined and contingent.

“From the beginning of time, everything created by man has come down to us in material form; we build upon and with them. Our present life is a deposit on this material structure and, much like a coral reef, human society vegetates.”
— István Hajnal

Journal information

  • Title: Korall. Journal for Social History (Korall. Társadalomtörténeti Folyóirat)
  • Publisher: Korall Social History Association, Budapest
  • ISSN (print): 1586-2410
  • DOI prefix: 10.52656
  • Frequency: quarterly (four issues a year)
  • Language of publication: Hungarian, with English abstracts
  • Peer review: double-blind
  • Article processing charges: none
  • Founded: 1999; first issue August 2000

Editorial Board

  • Gábor Koltai – Editor-in-Chief – Budapest City Archives
  • Zsombor Bódy – ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences
  • Gábor Czoch – ELTE Faculty of Humanities
  • Péter Granasztói – Museum of Ethnography, Budapest
  • Gábor Kármán – ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History
  • Judit Klement – ELTE Faculty of Humanities; ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History
  • István Lengvári – Reviews Editor – University Archives, University of Pécs
  • Judit Majorossy – University of Vienna
  • Patrik Mravik – ELTE Faculty of Humanities
  • Orsolya Ring – ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Political Science; ELTE Faculty of Humanities
  • Szabolcs Somorjai – Budapest City Archives

Advisory Board

Tamás Faragó · Zoltán Fejős · Gábor Gyáni · Gábor I. Kovács · György Kövér · Csaba Sasfi · Béla Tomka · Zsuzsanna Varga

Former editors

Gergely Krisztián Horváth · András Keszei · Péter Pozsgai · Csaba Sasfi · Péter Szegedi

Former members of the Advisory Board

Vera Bácskai · Pál Beluszky · Gyula Benda · Zoltán Tóth · Tibor Valuch