„Recently Many Hungarians Are Traveling to the Civilized Abroad”

Political and Social Travelogues from the First Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

This paper examines how Hungarian travelers presented and characterized the legal system, constitutional life, political, educational and social institutions of Western European countries and the United States in their travel diaries and travelogues in the first half of the 19th century. The authors of these works such as Bertalan Szemere, Sándor Farkas Bölöni, Miklós Wesselényi and others, were among the supporters of the constitutional, political and social reforms in Hungary during the reform era. The basic goal and the prior aim of these travel diaries was to make comparisons between the Hungarian constitutional, political and social institutions with the similar institutions of western states and societies.