Go East

For more than two centuries, Hungarians believed they shared an ethnic link with people of Japanese, Bulgarian, Estonian, Finnish, and Turkic descent. Known as "Turanism," this ideology impacts Hungarian politics, science, and cultural and ethnic identity even today. In Go East!: A History of Hungarian Turanism, Balázs Ablonczy examines the rise of Hungarian Turanism and its lasting effect on the country's history. Turanism arose from the collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary, when the nation's intellectuals began to question Hungary's place in the Western world. The influence of this ideology reached its peak during World War I, when Turanian societies funded research, economic missions, and geographical expeditions. Ablonczy traces Turanism from its foundations through its radicalization in the interwar period, its survival in emigrant circles, and its resurgence during the economic crisis of 2008. Turanian notions can be seen today in the rise of the extreme right-wing party Jobbik and in Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán's party Fidesz. Go East! provides fresh insight into Turanism's key political and artistic influences in Hungary and illuminates the mark it has left on history.

Keturah rescued from certain death in the desert by Ishmael, she was brought to Abraham's dwelling to be nursed back to health. Abraham married Keturah and six sons were born to them, some having scripture references inferring they had providential purposes. Abraham was over one hundred and forty years old when the six sons were born. Being adventuresome lads brought problems Abraham and Keturah had to deal with: one traumatic instance was after a disobedient trip to Sodom where demons afflicted and influenced the lads to act out weird activities. One of many problems they had to work through. Abraham knew Keturah's six sons had to be sent away in order to avoid conflict with future descendants of his first wife Sarah and their son Isaac, heir to the Promised Land. Keturah's sons were educated sufficiently and had vocations to get them started in life. When would be the right time to send them away? If he sent them east where he hoped they would go, how far east would they go? And would they stay away?

For more than two centuries, Hungarians believed they shared an ethnic link with people of Japanese, Bulgarian, Estonian, Finnish, and Turkic descent. Known as "Turanism," this ideology impacts Hungarian politics, science, and cultural and ethnic identity even today. In Go East!: A History of Hungarian Turanism, Balázs Ablonczy examines the rise of Hungarian Turanism and its lasting effect on the country's history. Turanism arose from the collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary, when the nation's intellectuals began to question Hungary's place in the Western world. The influence of this ideology reached its peak during World War I, when Turanian societies funded research, economic missions, and geographical expeditions. Ablonczy traces Turanism from its foundations through its radicalization in the interwar period, its survival in emigrant circles, and its resurgence during the economic crisis of 2008. Turanian notions can be seen today in the rise of the extreme right-wing party Jobbik and in Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán's party Fidesz. Go East! provides fresh insight into Turanism's key political and artistic influences in Hungary and illuminates the mark it has left on history.

A brand-new collection of Sinclair Lewis's prolific body of short fiction, focusing on the author's primary concerns: the issue of class, work and money in America.

Go East, Young Man, the sequel to Dreamfarer, is an "on the road" adventure story that takes place 150 years in the future. Sam Adams, along with Boone and Alan Webster, travelsfrom San Francisco all the way to Denver, having dangerous encounters on the way. Sam, who played a vital role in shutting down the San Francisco Dream Services Center and waking up half a million dreamers, hopes to meet a mysterious contact in Denver who will recruit him for his next mission. The goal of the nationwide Resistance is to cripple the Dream Factories completely and wake up all Americans, saving them from their psychic dependence on machine-induced dreams, which are far more exciting and fulfilling than the often dull existence of ordinary life. Severely injured, Sam almost died in his narrow escape from the Center. He feels lucky to be alive and to have the two companions he does. Alan was a pol (policeman) in San Francisco, and Boone is a jack-of-all-trades who’s good at fixing things. Later, though, Sam wonders if Boone appeared too conveniently in his customized car to rescue them, and if he can be trusted. They have barely begun their quest across an America that has regressed to being a lawless frontier. Wherever they stop, thieves and murderers attack them. Will they ever survive to reach their destination?

Transference of orientalist images and identities to the American landscape and its inhabitants, especially in the West—in other words, portrayal of the West as the “Orient”—has been a common aspect of American cultural history. Place names, such as the Jordan River or Pyramid Lake, offer notable examples, but the imagery and its varied meanings are more widespread and significant. Understanding that range and significance, especially to the western part of the continent, means coming to terms with the complicated, nuanced ideas of the Orient and of the North American continent that European Americans brought to the West. Such complexity is what historical geographer Richard Francaviglia unravels in this book. Since the publication of Edward Said’s book, Orientalism, the term has come to signify something one-dimensionally negative. In essence, the orientalist vision was an ethnocentric characterization of the peoples of Asia (and Africa and the “Near East”) as exotic, primitive “others” subject to conquest by the nations of Europe. That now well-established point, which expresses a postcolonial perspective, is critical, but Francaviglia suggest that it overlooks much variation and complexity in the views of historical actors and writers, many of whom thought of western places in terms of an idealized and romanticized Orient. It likewise neglects positive images and interpretations to focus on those of a decadent and ostensibly inferior East. We cannot understand well or fully what the pervasive orientalism found in western cultural history meant, says Francaviglia, if we focus only on its role as an intellectual engine for European imperialism. It did play that role as well in the American West. One only need think about characterizations of American Indians as Bedouins of the Plains destined for displacement by a settled frontier. Other roles for orientalism, though, from romantic to commercial ones, were also widely in play. In Go East, Young Man, Francaviglia explores a broad range of orientalist images deployed in the context of European settlement of the American West, and he unfolds their multiple significances.

"Go East: The Romance of Abraham and Keturah," the first book concludes with Abraham sending his six sons born to him by his third wife, Keturah, east. (See Genesis 25:1 2.) Wanting adventure and to explore (hypothetically) they went west where two brothers had already done in-tern ship in Sidon, one a ship-builder, the other in government administration. These two brothers talked the other four into going back to Sidon with them. Settled in, things went well, why go east now? Having put east on hold it took a catastrophe, (the act of the "god machine") to bring them to their intended destiny and so it was with Abraham and Keturah's six sons. Though baggage comes along with the mistakes in our lives, sometimes it has a mixed blessing; for stabilizing obligations, corrections, or direction to further the destiny making it more meaningful and appreciated as it happened in the lives of Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah, the sons of Abraham and Keturah. Story-line is based on scripture and history along with adventure, tragedy and romance young men may be involved in.