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 …
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
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
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
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
Patrick C. Leech 