A Transatlantic Central European on the Third Way: Oscar Jászi and his Intellectual Impact on the New Deal Debates

• In Event: Social Science Expertise Between the United States and Habsburg Austria

Abstract

The positivist sociologist and civic radical politician Oscar Jászi (1875–1955) was one of the most significant Hungarian intellectuals of his day – he even served as a minister for minority affairs in the fall of 1918 – who emigrated to the United States in 1925, became an active participant in American intellectual life as a regular contributor to American progressive journals and reviews. The life and American work of Oscar Jászi constitutes a bridge between intellectual traditions on either side of the Atlantic. The lecture – based on research on the archival legacy of Oscar Jászi held at Columbia University – will address the role that Jászi played in American intellectual debates, searching for a „Third Way” between Capitalism and Socialism,

Author

• Peter Csunderlik, Eötvös Loránd U / Inst of Political History (Hungary)