Very sad!
historical memory
“Hungary: Unearthing Suleiman the Magnificent’s tomb” – News from Al Jazeera
“Small Hungarian town hopes discovery of Ottoman sultan’s tomb will bring much needed visitors and revival.”
This is really exciting!! And maybe just maybe it could help turn around Hungarian-Turkish/Muslim relations!! (Doubtful as long as Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Oban continues to stoke the flames of nationalism and Islamophobia!)
Source: Hungary: Unearthing Suleiman the Magnificent’s tomb – News from Al Jazeera
“The Historian Whitewashing Ukraine’s Past “| Foreign Policy
This is indicative of another troubling trend across the globe: “When it comes to politics and history, an accurate memory can be a dangerous thing. In Ukraine, as the country struggles with its identity, that’s doubly true. While Ukrainian political parties try to push the country toward Europe or Russia, a young, rising Ukrainian historian named Volodymyr Viatrovych has placed himself at the center of that fight. Advocating a nationalist, revisionist history that glorifies the country’s move to independence — and purges bloody and opportunistic chapters — Viatrovych has attempted to redraft the country’s modern history to whitewash Ukrainian nationalist groups’ involvement in the Holocaust and mass ethnic cleansing of Poles during World War II. And right now, he’s winning.”
Read the entire article here: The Historian Whitewashing Ukraine’s Past | Foreign Policy
Ken Burns Jefferson Lecture | National Endowment for the Humanities
In a speech for the National Endowment for the Humanities earlier this month, the talented documentarian Ken Burns gave a powerful and compelling defense of the humanities. He mixes life lessons with insights into our current state of affairs gleaned from his immersion in the humanities. It’s really worth reading the entire speech.
Here’s and excerpt: “In a larger sense, the humanities helps us understand almost everything better–and they liberate us from the myopia our media culture and politics impose upon us. Unlike our current culture wars, which have manufactured a false dialectic just to accentuate otherness, the humanities stand in complicated contrast, permitting a nuanced and sophisticated view of our history, as well as our present moment, replacing misplaced fear with admirable tolerance, providing important perspective, and exalting in our often contradictory and confounding manifestations. Do we contradict ourselves? We do!”
Read the entire speech here: Ken Burns Jefferson Lecture | National Endowment for the Humanities
” Polish leaders threaten fate of nearly finished WWII museum” – Daily Reflector
The Museum of the Second World War may be a casualty of Poland’s rightward turn. Only a Polish-centered museum will do for this nationalist government. This would be unfortunate. As the historian Timothy Snyder points out, “the government’s concept of a museum focusing solely on Westerplatte and Poland’s military struggle in 1939 would result in a narrowly focused exhibit that would not appeal to a wider international audience.”
Read the entire story here: – Daily Reflector
We Should Remember the Past: “Damnatio Memoriae” | History News Network
Claire McCaffery Griffin makes the case for preserving our past: History News Network | Damnatio Memoriae
History Chick in AZ 