Everyday and Private Life of a Communist Ruling Class

An archivally based exploration of the everyday life in Hungary’s communist apparatus class after 1956, this book covers consumption, mobility, and leisure. Péteri shows how class power and privilege as well as Western patterns asserted themselves in the everyday of state-socialist society.

György Péteri is professor emeritus at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway.

Foreword Prologue Chapter 1: Consumerism and Demand Side Abundance Chapter 2: New Sobriety: Comrade Kucsera and His Legacy Chapter 3: The Acquisitive Functionary Chapter 4: Hunting Chapter 5: Holidays and Class Struggle under State Socialism Chapter 6: Forgetting the Simple Art of Walking: The Social Order of Apparatus Mobility Conclusion