A lyukas zászló hung on Leonardo da Vinci Street in central Budapest. (Nov. 1956) Credit: Fortepan.hu / Colorization: Patrick C. Leech On October 23, 1956, university students in Budapest, Hungary organized a march in solidarity with the anti-Soviet events in Poland. The students were joined by workers and other residents of Budapest and eventually over 20,000 people …
One of the things I love about historical research is meeting people; sometimes that is at a conference or in the archive. And being a historian, sometimes those people are no longer living. No, historical research is not necromancy, rather history is similar to how G.K. Chesterton described tradition – it invites those from the …
After an unexpectedly long hiatus, I can finally return to the semi-scheduled programing, but first a brief update. In August, I finally graduated with my doctorate. All of my creative energies had been directed toward writing a dissertation which is why this languished. Additionally, I began moved to South Carolina to start teaching as an …
As my time in Budapest comes to an end, I find myself returning to some the places with special meaning, one of which is the “Shoes of the Danube Bank” Memorial. I find this simple memorial quite moving, and despite the inhumanity of its historical antecedents there is something deeply human about the place. Along …
Continue reading Jane Haining, Stolpersteines, and Bearing Witness
Last week I wrote about the role of religion in the Solidarność movement, while I would not normally write about the same experience twice, there was another facet of my visit to the European Solidarity Centre that I need to tell. -PCL As a historian, I am rarely surprised by the critical role women play …
This past week I visited Gdańsk, Poland to guest lecture for the wonder Dr. Ania Marzurkiewicz and her graduate class on US-Polish relations. While in Gdańsk, my wife and I visited the European Solidarity Centre which houses archival collections related to Solidarność, the independent labor union that formed in Poland during the socialist era. The …
Continue reading European Solidarity Centre & Father Jerzy Popiełuszko
Late this week I had to privilege to attend a conference celebrating the work of the historians C.A. Macartney and László Péter. The conference was jointly hosted by Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem (KRE) in Budapest and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College London (UCL) and held in the beautiful …
Continue reading Conference in Memoriam: C.A. Macartney & László Péter
Last week I had the privilege of attending the EU-US Young Leaders Seminar in Brussels, Belgium. Organized by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States, the U.S. Department of State, the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., the Fulbright Commission in Brussels, and the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission, …
Continue reading EU-U.S. Young Leaders Seminar: “The Security Implications of Climate Change”
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia) plays a critical role in the development of Hungarian culture, education, and scholarship. Founded in 1825, the Akadémia served as a center for the development of a formalized Hungarian language, literature, and a repository for scientific knowledge. It is housed in a beautiful Renaissance Revival building overlooking …
Continue reading Library and Information Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Sometimes I forget the various Hungarian connections to daily life that sit just below the surface. A few days back a friend came over from the United States to experience Budapest, while showing him around the city I was reminded of this. My friend’s son, like many people enjoys solving Rubik’s Cubes. Yet, most people …
Early this week I travelled to Debrecen (in Northeastern Hungary) to present at a conference at the University of Debrecen. The conference went well, I met great scholars and received immensely helpful feedback on my research. My trip began at the Nyugati Pályaudvar (Western Train Station) in Budapest. It is a striking structure build by Gustave Eiffel …
This week’s post is about the digital humanities work—using computers to assist with the research process—I am doing here in Hungary. Since that can be rather technical, I thought I would provide the direct connection up front and then for those interested a description of the technical part follows. Thanks for reading! -PCL Summary: A …
Continue reading You, Me, & AI: Opportunities for collaboration
It has been nearly a month since the last post. There are several developments related to my work that I plan to describe in future posts. But for now a few highlights from the last month seems a good way to wrap up 2023. Scenes from Budapest & the Christmas Tram A White Christmas Eve …
Continue reading December Recap: Snapshots from the Holiday Season
One of the most common complaints I have heard about historians is that they do not simply “tell what happened” they bring their own interpretations to the past. In some ways that is correct, yet it is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding about the past. In prior posts I described the role of memory and …
One of the first readings I assign to students is this article1 by Jason Steinhauer because it allows students to engage with the core aspects of the historian’s craft, particularly the difference between memory, myth, history, and the past. In last week’s post, I talked about Thanksgiving, its mythology, and the purpose of that myth. So, …
Continue reading How do we remember? Memory, myth, and Memento Park
Happy Thanksgiving! My apologies for the hiatus, my work here picked up sharply but now I hope to return to the usual weekly posts. -Patrick Due to the timing of the 1956 Revolution, the Hungarian refugee crisis started at the beginning of the American “holiday season”—Thanksgiving through Christmas. This timing proved fortuitous as the refugees …
Earlier this week my language tutor asked me this question: “Milyen politikus volt Nagy Imre?” (What kind of politician was Imre Nagy?). The answer is complicated and not just because my Hungarian is not at the level needed to answer that question. Aside from being a good question for me to practice with, it is …
Note: This post is later than expected partly because my schedule was unusually busy last week but also because the post I started to write was too long and winding. I will come back to that topic, but in the interim I thought I would offer this brief glimpse into how historian’s work. -PCL Yesterday …
Continue reading The historian’s life: tales of intersecting sources
Last week I visited the Zene Háza (Music House) in Budapest’s City Park and while there I stumbled on a minor site that I wanted to find, a statue of George Washington. I am interest in this statue for a couple of reasons including that it is purported to be the only statue of Washington …
On Monday, I met up with friend to visit the Dohanyi utca Synagogue and Holocaust Museum. The synagogue is the largest in Europe and features several unusual design elements that reflect the unique theology of the congregation. The lovely building was initially completed in 1859 and features a large pipe organ and multi-level seating with …
One of my favorite moments when teaching history is when a student realizes the way a specific event in the past directly affects them. The American Historical Association is fond of the phrase “Everything has a History.” Yet this disconnect between past and present is rather foreign to Hungarian culture, a notable example of this …
Continue reading The Treaty of Trianon (1920) & the Memorial of National Unity (2020)
Another aspect of my work is the attempt to answer historical questions with computers, a concept known as digital history or digital humanities.[1] Before starting my doctorate program, I worked fulltime in Information Technology for twelve years. During that time, I worked in several sectors and verticals and across various subspecialties within the IT domain. So, …
If Rome is the city of seven hills, Budapest is the city of seven bridges. In fact, Budapest did not come in existence until 1873, prior to that it was two cities, Buda and Pest, divided by the Danube River. The process that would merge the two cities began in 1840 with the commencement of …
On September 1, the New York Times carried an article about the new Russian history textbook and its descriptions of Ukraine and the ongoing “special military operation.” The next week, The Hill, a US political news site ran a similar piece. Both panned the new textbooks as inaccurate and propaganda. Unless you closely follow US politics or Eastern Europe, it …
Continue reading Hungary, Russia, and the History Textbook Feud
This past week I attended orientation with the Hungarian-American Fulbright Commission which allowed me to meet the other students and scholars visiting Hungary from the US. In addition to crash courses in language, culture, music, politics, economics, higher education, and living abroad, we also had a couple of guided tours. So, it seems an appropriate …
Continue reading Travelogue: Visegrád & Mátyás Királyi Palota
As I continue this series of introductory posts, it seemed time to answer one of my most frequent questions: Why Hungary? Prior to 2013 I had no known connection to Hungary or Hungarians. Yet that year, my wife and I visited Saint George, Romania (RO: Sfântu Gheorghe, HU: Sepsiszentgyörgy) as she was invited to provide …
was recently asked the perennial graduate school question: "What do you do?" While my answer was much shorter, this overview of my current work seems like a good place to kickoff a short series to introduce myself. -PCL On 23 October 1956, a Hungarian student-led march in support of their Polish confreres swiftly turned into a demonstration, then a protest, to a mob, and finally to a revolt...
I'm Patrick and over the next nine months I will be living, researching, and traveling in Hungary. This is where I will record some of my experiences and reflect on Hungarian history and culture. I'll also highlight the intersection of technology with historical research and teaching. Perhaps you are wondering about the title. Gulyás*, aka …
Patrick C. Leech 