This is the first book in English to comprehensively examine the crucial first five years of Istvan Bethlen's premiership when, following the catastrophe of 1918-1920, he began the reconstruction of the country. Thomas Lorman argues that from 1920 to 1925, Bethlen engaged in a protracted and closely fought struggle to restore political, social, and economic stability. Bethlen achieved his objectives by re-constructing the governing party, which had been employed so effectively by Kálmán and István Tisza prior to World War One. Like the Tiszas' model, Bethlen's governing party was designed not to carry through a particular ideological agenda but rather to dominate Hungarian politics, which allowed Bethlen to consolidate the regime and restore stability.

This book recognizes Bethlen's pragmatism. Lorman conducts extensive original research in Hungarian state and local archives and uses a methodological approach that examines, in detail, each stage of the political process by which Bethlen carried through the consolidation of the regime's power and the restoration of political stability.