Elites all over the place : An interview with Viktor Karády

Abstract

Borbála Zsuzsanna Török interviews Professor Viktor Karády of the Department of History at the Central European University, Budapest. The topic of the discussion is Professor Karády's career and life-long interest in the history of the elites in post feudal societies under modernization. A social historian, with a background in literary studies, Professor Karády has worked in close proximity to the most brilliant representatives of the field, Pierre Bourdieu, Raymond Aron, Jean-Claude Passeron, George Gurvitch and Jean Stoetzel. It is thus easy to understand his commitment to sociological methods and his interest in educational institutions. His professional trajectory has taken him from Hungary to Vienna and then to Paris and back to Budapest. The interview touches upon first hand experience of the major political upheavals of the twentieth century.