Tibor Frank argues that fin-de-siècle Budapest had a unique intellectual environment, which gave birth to a cohort of Hungarian scientists and intellectuals who would make their reputations abroad, mainly in the United States and Germany. This environment was a product of shifting social boundaries that opened the door to previously marginal groups like Jews. As students they were influenced by a group of teachers committed to a pedagogy based on discovery, problem solving, and close student-teacher relationships. The students who thrived in this system had to leave Hungary as adults because of their Jewish background, for their participation in the revolutionary governments of 1918–1919, or for both reasons. Their intellectual background and experiences in exile shaped the emigrés' contributions to German, and later American, scientific and cultural life.

The argument is interesting and noteworthy, but it is only loosely sustained across the chapters of the book. The strongest and most articulate statements of Frank's larger arguments are in the Preface, Chapter One, and the brief Conclusion. Many of the individual chapters present compelling insights and information on their own, even though they might not directly advance the broader argument of the book.

The first chapter, “The Social Construction of Hungarian Genius,” gives a social history of elite high schools and of Budapest's new middle class between 1867 and 1918. The chapter is very interesting in its discussion of pedagogy, the elite education system, and the opportunities for social advancement available to young Jewish intellectuals, especially in the sciences.

Chapter Two, “The Hungarian Trauma,” is a narrative of Hungary's defeat in World War I, the subsequent democratic and Communist revolutions, as well as the counterrevolution under Admiral Horthy. This period is significant for Frank's argument because it provides the push factors that triggered the emigration of large numbers of Jewish and liberal Hungarian intellectuals and scientists. Most Hungarian emigrés sought academic positions in Germany. Chapter Three, “Berlin Junction,” describes their emigration and contributions to German intellectual life. This chapter ties in with the themes Frank developed in Chapter One and shows the importance of prewar German-Hungarian intellectual and cultural ties.

The fourth chapter, “Hungary and Selective Immigration to the U.S.,” provides a valuable overview of U.S. immigration policies in the postwar era and their impact on Hungarian immigration before and during World War II. The next chapter, “‘Incipit Hitler’: Double Expulsion, Double Trauma,” details the emigrés' individual and collective responses to Hitler's rise to power. The chapter also gives a detailed account of how they surmounted the barriers to their immigration to the United States with the help of a network of earlier Hungarian immigrants and American academic sponsors.

Chapter Six, “Problem Solving and the US War Effort,” connects the intellectual approaches developed in the Budapest's Mintagimnázium with the scientific efforts of emigré Hungarian scientists during World War II. The chapter also contains an interesting comparison of the political views of Leo Szilard and John von Neumann.

In terms of its broader argument and approach, the book relates most closely to the immigration history of twentieth-century Hungarian intellectuals. Frank's work compliments other books such as Lee Congdon's, Exile and Social Thought (Princeton, 1991), as well as György Litván's recent biography, A Twentieth Century Prophet: Oscar Jászi, 1875–1957 (Budapest, 2006). Frank's research is a valuable addition to this literature.

Individual chapters within Double Exile intersect with several other literatures. For example, Frank's first chapter on Budapest's intellectual milieu before World War I would be productively read next to Mary Gluck, Georg Lukács and His Generation (Cambridge, MA, 1985), Péter Hanák, The Garden and the Workshop (Princeton, 1998), and Carl Schorske, Fin-de-Siècle Vienna (New York, 1980). While these authors focused on psychoanalysis, music, journalism, architecture, fine arts, and literature, Frank makes it clear that the excited intellectual atmosphere of the late Habsburg monarchy also extended to mathematics and the sciences.

The greatest strength of Tibor Frank's Double Exile is his extensive archival research in North America and Europe. Frank's work is a great example of the potential of transnational history to connect otherwise disconnected national historiographies. The book contains footnotes, a detailed bibliography, numerous photographs, and an appendix of noteworthy Hungarian emigrés. The scholarly apparatus makes the book a useful reference. Above all, the book serves as a compelling guide for further research.