Past Imperfect (Journal)
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“I Have Often Walked Down This Street Before…But What Was it Called?”: Changes to Street Names in Budapest from the End of Turkish Rule to the Present
No full textMy essay examines patterns of meaning in the nomenclature chosen to designate street names of Budapest, Hungary’s present-day capital city, over a period of about three hundred years. I attend to the magyarization of Budapest and how street signage reflected the change of Budapest from a German to a Hungarian city. After the changeover to Magyar I continue to address how Budapest street toponymy was consistently utilized to express national identity. As consensus over national identity changed over time, so did its metaphorical expression in Budapest street nomenclature. Examples of these changes include the creation of cults of collective remembrance and personality in the nineteenth century and irredentism in the twentieth century. I also argue that Budapest street naming during the socialist period served the purpose of legitimizing the purported domestic origin of the ruling political philosophy. Currently, the erasure and retention of street names from previous regimes is a deliberate policy of symbolic reconciliation of Hungary’s past with its present
The French Revolution and the Discourse of Change in Restoration France and Post-1815 England
No full textThe conception of revolution was changed drastically by the French Revolution of 1789 from its original use in astronomy to imply a return to a previous state of being. Henceforth, revolution came to signify a drastic rupture with past practices. For French and English liberals in post-Napoleonic Europe, the word revolution also became loaded with negative connotations associated with the French Revolution’s radical turn from 1792 to 1794, and the fear of popular violence. My paper examines and compares how the stigma associated with the French Revolution influenced the discourse of change in France and England, and how the fear of revolutionary violence influenced the actions of both governments
Christina Twomey, Australia’s Forgotten Prisoners: Civilians Interned by the Japanese in World War Two
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“I Die, I Take It, For Maintaining the Fifth Commandment”: Patriarchy and the Last Dying Speeches of Royalists and Regicides
No full textIn January 1649, King Charles I was tried and found guilty of high treason and condemned to be “put to death, by the severing of his Head from his Body.” At ten in the morning on the day of his execution he was accompanied to the scaffold by a regiment on foot, “colours flying, drums beating.” After having addressed the crowd in an uncharacteristically eloquent manner the King lifted his eyes and hands towards the sky, placed his head on the executioner’s block and gave the sign that he was ready to die. With one swift blow the executioner decapitated the King and held up his head for the crowd to see. Philip Henry, then a boy of seventeen, remembered that there came from the crowd “such a groan as I never heard before, and desire I may never hear again.
Seattle in the 1960s: Music, Identity, and the Struggle for Civil Rights
No full textDuring the 1960s, the American civil rights movement fundamentally altered the identity of Seattle’s black community. During the proceeding decades, its process of identity formation hinged on a shared appreciation and understanding of Rhythm and Blues music. Artists like Ray Charles and Jimi Hendrix benefited from this rich musical tradition. However, the intensification of racial discord politicized the African-American community. Black music became infused with overt political melodies. While remaining a key factor in shaping black identity, it also served to mobilize the broader community against racial inequality. This article explores the role of music in the construction of black identity, a process that indelibly altered the Emerald City. By drawing upon a diverse range of contemporary sources, as well as more recent literature written on thePacific Northwest, this article highlights the ways in which a specific community relates to, and is shaped by, one of its own cultural constructs. Ultimately, the article examines 1960s Seattle as a case study of the transition within black identity that occurred all across America
Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Plague and the Athenian Imagination: Drama, History and the Cult of Asklepius
No full textTroop Withdrawals from Europe: Cold War American Foreign Policy and Military Strategy
No full textIn 1971, U.S. Senator Mike Mansfield introduced a proposal calling for a fifty percent reduction of the number of U.S. troops stationed in Europe. The proposal was ultimately voted down in the Senate but it sparked sweeping changes in the defence policies of some major NATO nations. This paper examines the pre and post “Mansfield Amendment” defence policies of Britain, France, and West Germany, and strives to answer the question of how a single failed Senate proposal could lead three major NATO countries to drastically change their defence policies
