"Gender and Memory in Hungary is a rich and thoroughly engaging exploration of older women's lives and memories, which are often kept at the margins of official history. Pope Fischer holds firmly to an anthropological approach that embraces and highlights the complex and often contradictory nature of people's memories and views this not as a weakness, but in true feminist intellectual tradition, as a reflection of the dynamic nature of memory as a 'living document'. Through generous and lengthy interview excerpts spanning decades as well as her own deep understanding of Hungarian history, Pope Fischer reminds and gives us the best of what anthropological methods have to offer. Richly detailed, the women's narratives reflect the polyphonic nature of cultural memory and the important overlapping of people's unique life experiences. For anyone curious about shifts in 21st Century ideology and the role of neo-revitalization movements in framing past and present, Gender and Memory in Hungary offers a dynamic account of transforming a culture of dissatisfaction into a new form of action. The value of this book in post-socialist studies cannot be overstated, but the real impact might well be in its methodological significance, forging together the memories people live with the sociopolitical landscapes they inhabit today."

Liesl L. Gambold, Dalhousie University