Absztrakt

president of the István Hajnal Circle (Hajnal István Kör: HIK), launched a questionnaire-based survey to build a database of scholars engaged in social history in Hungary, including their topics and methods, as well as their education, fellowships abroad, language and computer proficiency, and so on. In practice, the project entailed two questionnaires: one collecting personal data and another focusing on research. The surviving data clearly remained incomplete, either because HIK members failed to return the questionnaires in sufficient numbers or because the processing of the material was interrupted. I rediscovered, in my desk drawer, completed questionnaires from fifty-seven individuals, so I decided to process them for the anniversary issue of Korall. On the one hand, the analysis charts social-historical dimensions such as generational and regional distribution, recruitment, prior education, academic qualifications, occupational groups, and theoretical and methodological orientations. On the other hand, in order to map individual motivations, I have collected personal records (curricula vitae) from archives and record offices and, where necessary, conducted interviews. These biographical fragments allow for a more vivid picture to emerge of the early institutionalisation of social history, its state, standard, and overall character.