Ignác Acsády

Ignác Acsády (September 9, 1845 – December 17, 1906) was a Jewish-Hungarian historian, journalist, and fiction writer.

Life Acsády was born on September 9, 1845, in Nagykároly, Hungary. His last name was originally Adler until he changed it in 1875. His father was a wealthy landowner who served as head of the Jewish community in Hajdúszoboszló for thirty years and as a member of the board of Hajdú County.

Acsády attended school in Nagykároly, Debrecen, and Budapest and received his high school diploma in 1866. He initially wanted to be a lawyer, so he stayed in the capital to study law. He received a law degree from the University of Budapest in 1869 and a doctorate from there in 1877, but due to his interest in humanities he decided against a career in law. He was one of the first Hungarian historians to make use of the German kulturgeschichte, the predominant trend in the second half of the 19th century. He and Charles Taganyi were the founders of the modern school of modern Hungarian economic history.

Acsády was on the editorial staff of Pesti Napló under the editor Zsigmond Kemény from 1870 to 1893. Influenced early in his career by Ferenc Deák's politics and József Eötvös's liberal ideas, he opposed Prime Minister Kálmán Tisza and supported the Egyesült Ellenzék (United Opposition), which at the time was led by Albert Apponyi and Dezső Szilágyi. He was a founder of the Jewish periodical Egyenlőség and served as a lifelong anonymous contributor. In his articles and an 1883 pamphlet called Zsidó és nem zsidó magyarok az emancipáció után (Jewish and Non-Jewish Hungarians after the Emancipation), he expressed support for Jewish assimilation and opposition to the immigration of Galician Jews to Hungary. He was elected a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1888 and served on its historical committee, although this was the only official acknowledgement he received: his opposition to official Hungarian and Jewish politics made it impossible for him to receive an academic appointment.

After World War II, a Budapest street was named after him and a plaque was dedicated in his memory.