Book excerpt: This monograph examines the relationship between the entrpreneurial elite, govenment, and society through the lens of the hostory of the Association of Industrialists prior to the first World War in Hungary. Their occupations as well as their largely Jewish background excluded the business elite from the direct exercise of political power in a country ruled by its historic classes. The pragmatic efforts of this economically vital group of businessmen to legitimize themselves in an inimical social and political contecxt has important parallels to events in Hungary and other Soviet Bloc noations experiencing the reemergence of market economies today.