The key aspect of this volume is to place Hungary on the map of European literacy rates over the whole period between the initial stimuli of Renaissance and Reformation and the developed, state-organized educational systems of the later 19th century. Toth's work is a broad international comparative analysis, concentrating on the long-term development of literacy rates and the use of written and oral culture in early modern societies. An examination is provided of elementarey schools and their teachers, as well as book reading among peasants and noblemen throughout the 16th to 19th centuries in Hungary. Significant sections are included on the development of libraries during the period and on the use of different languages, particularly Latin. By way of illustration examples are taken of village life, legal and administrative issues and the clergy to contribute to major debates in the field of language, literacy, linguistics and social history.

There has been a remarkable upsurge of debate about increasing inequalities and their societal implications, reinforced by the economic crisis but bubbling to the surface before it. This has been seen in popular discourse, media coverage, political debate, and research in the social sciences. The central questions addressed by this book, and the major research project GINI on which it is based, are: - Have inequalities in income, wealth and education increased over the past 30 years or so across the rich countries, and if so why? - What are the social, cultural and political impacts of increasing inequalities in income, wealth and education? - What are the implications for policy and for the future development of welfare states? In seeking to answer these questions, this book adopts an interdisciplinary approach that draws on economics, sociology, and political science, and applies this approach to learning from the experiences over the last three decades of European countries together with the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, and South Korea. It combines comparative research with lessons from specific country experiences, and highlights the challenges in seeking to adequately assess the factors underpinning increasing inequalities and in identify the channels through which these may impact on key social and political outcomes, as well as the importance of framing inequality trends and impacts in the institutional and policy context of the country in question.

Religious beliefs, their practice and expression, were fundamental to the cultural fabric of early modern Europe. They were representations of belonging, identity, power and social meaning. In the era of Europe's reformations and subsequent confessionalizations coinciding with its first colonial empires and its conflictual relations with other faiths on its eastern borderlands, this volume, first published in 2007, examines the role of religion as a vehicle for cultural conflict, cohabitation and cultural exchange. Essays by leading historians show the complexity and diversity of the processes of religious differentiation that contributed to the making of modern Europe, with case studies ranging from Transylvania and Lithuania to Spain and Portugal and from Italy to England. The volume will appeal to scholars in early modern European history, history of religion, as well as social and cultural history.

Religious beliefs, their practice and expression, were fundamental to the cultural fabric of early modern Europe. They were representations of belonging, identity, power and social meaning. In the era of Europe's reformations and subsequent confessionalizations coinciding with its first colonial empires and its conflictual relations with other faiths on its eastern borderlands, this volume, first published in 2007, examines the role of religion as a vehicle for cultural conflict, cohabitation and cultural exchange. Essays by leading historians show the complexity and diversity of the processes of religious differentiation that contributed to the making of modern Europe, with case studies ranging from Transylvania and Lithuania to Spain and Portugal and from Italy to England. The volume will appeal to scholars in early modern European history, history of religion, as well as social and cultural history.