Daniel J. Mahoney, Raymond Aron Prize-winning political philosopher and professor at Assumption University in Massachusetts, reviews Margit Balogh's book “Victim of History”: Cardinal Mindszenty in Catholic World Report magazine.
“With the Hungarian historian Margit Balogh and her recent book “Victim of History”: Cardinal Mindszenty (CUA Press, 2022), coming in at a very readable 724 pages, Cardinal Mindszenty has found his biographer. She is at once thorough, judicious, and sympathetic, while offering criticism where she deems it necessary and appropriate. Balogh is even-handed without being insensitive to Mindszenty’s evident courage and greatness of spirit. That is probably the best we could reasonably expect from a biographer who is a professional historian. She does not approach Mindszenty’s life as a hagiographer might. But nor does she wish to belittle the considerable virtues displayed by a man who combined thoughtful and heartfelt piety with a deep-seated love of country.”
“We are all in Margit Balogh’s debt for recovering Mindszenty’s story with such balanced judgment yet real appreciation. Kudos to Catholic University of America Press for making this invaluable book available to the Anglophone world.”
