Margaret Mead’s Efforts to Instill American Values in the Hungarian Ethnic Community of Toledo

Gazsó, Dániel and Ludányi, András (2025) Margaret Mead’s Efforts to Instill American Values in the Hungarian Ethnic Community of Toledo. HUNGARIAN JOURNAL OF MINORITY STUDIES, 8 (1). pp. 29-49. ISSN 2560-080X

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Abstract

The present paper attempts to show how the influence of an eminent social scientist, Margaret Mead, contributed to the broader “justification” of American internal national integration and foreign policy purpose at the global level. The paper approaches this issue through a micro-analysis of one American neighborhood—the so-called Birmingham community in Toledo, Ohio—and its major medium of self-definition, the weekly Hungarian-American newspaper Toledo. The focus of the study is provided by the personal journey of Géza Farkas, the editor of the weekly, and by the syndicated articles he selected from the writings of Margaret Mead. The period under examination is World War II and the immediate post-war years, when the United States entered the world stage as a victorious atomic superpower. The method of the study is a content analysis of Margaret Mead’s articles that appeared in Toledo in 1945, combined with an examination of the reasons for their favorable reception by Géza Farkas. In addition, a separate part is devoted to an overview of Margaret Mead’s anthropological framework, the understanding of which is essential for an adequate interpretation of her articles addressed to the local Hungarian community.

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