17th-century depiction of Rome, with ruins, by Willem van Nieulandt II

The phrase "ash heap of history",[n 1] literarily speaking, refers to ghost towns or artifacts that have lost their relevance.

Visiting Rome in the 14th century, Italian writer Petrarch called the city "a rubbish heap of history".[2] 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.[3][4][5][6]

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".[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Alternatively: "dustbin of history", "dust heap of history", "trash heap of history", "garbage heap of history", and "ashcan of history".[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Safire, William (16 October 1983). "On Language; Dust Heaps of History". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  2. ↑ Hibbert, Christopher (25 October 2001). Rome: The Biography of a City. Google books: Penguin Books. pp. Chapter six. ISBN 978-0140070781. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  3. ↑ Liberman, Mark (23 December 2011). "The What of History?". Language Log. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  4. ↑ Sonne, Paul, "The Dustbunnies of History", The Oxonian Review 8 June 2009 • Issue 9.7. ISBN 978-0-571-22875-1
  5. ↑ 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
  6. ↑ 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
  7. ↑ 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.
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