Ash heap of history

Last updated
Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran and his prediction about Trump in "Ash heap of history", after his loss to Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election. Khamenei's prediction failed as Trump won the 2024 presidential election and became president.

The phrase "ash heap of history", [a] is a derogatory metaphoric reference to oblivion of things no longer relevant. [1]

Contents

In 1887 the English essayist Augustine Birrell (1850–1933) coined the term in his series of essays, "Obiter Dicta": that great dust heap called 'history.' [1]

A notable usage was that of the Russian Bolshevik Leon Trotsky referring to the Mensheviks: "Go where you belong from now on – into the dustbin of history!" as the Menshevik faction walked out of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 25 October 1917 in Petrograd. [2] [3] [4] [5] [b]

In a speech to the British House of Commons, on 8 June 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan later responded that "freedom and democracy will leave Marxism and Leninism on the ash heap of history". [6] The speech was written by Reagan's chief speechwriter, Anthony Dolan, who stated that they had deliberately echoed Trotsky's statement "to throw it back in the communists’ faces.” [7]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Alternatively: "dustbin of history", "dust heap of history", "trash heap of history", "garbage heap of history", and "ashcan of history". [1]
  2. ↑ Trotsky actually said "на свалку истории", "to the dump of history".

References

  1. 1 2 3 Safire, William (16 October 1983). "On Language; Dust Heaps of History". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  2. ↑ Liberman, Mark (23 December 2011). "The What of History?". Language Log. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  3. ↑ Sonne, Paul, "The Dustbunnies of History" [usurped] , The Oxonian Review 8 June 2009 • Issue 9.7. ISBN   978-0-571-22875-1
  4. ↑ Bertrand M. Patenade (2009) Stalin's Nemesis: The Exile and Murder of Leon Trotsky, Faber and Faber, pp. 193–194, 352. ISBN   978-0-571-22875-1
  5. ↑ Maureen Healey (2004), "11 Dictator in a Dumpster: Thoughts on History and Garbage", in Alun Munslow, Robert A. Rosenstone (ed.), Experiments in Rethinking History (illustrated ed.), Routledge, p. 225, ISBN   978-0-415-30146-6
  6. ↑ Pipes, Richard (3 June 2002). "Ash Heap of History: President Reagan's Westminster Address 20 Years Later". Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on 17 September 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2007.
  7. ↑ "Ronald Reagan famously spoke of the 'ash heap of history.' So do several GOP candidates today". AP News. September 27, 2023. Retrieved November 27, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.