Forgotten History Research Articles

War and Diaspora: The Memories of South Vietnamese Soldiers

War veterans of the former Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF) form a significant component of the Vietnamese refugee and migrant community overseas and yet their experiences remain under-researched and under-explored, with their histories having been largely silenced in the wider historiography of the war and erased within the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This article draws on oral history interviews in order to reclaim some of these forgotten histories. In all, the post-war experiences of veterans who reconstructed new lives in Australia form a marked contrast with those of veterans who stayed in Vietnam. Oral history provides a rich source of personal testimony, and this article examines the veterans' formulation of their wartime memories and experiences, and identifies strategies developed by the veterans to deal with war, trauma, loss and migration.

Testing wars in the public schools: a forgotten history

Testing wars in the public schools: a forgotten history

The March on Washington: jobs, freedom, and the forgotten history of civil rights

The March on Washington: jobs, freedom, and the forgotten history of civil rights

Selective remembrance: Scottish sensibilities and forgotten Irish contributions to reformed Presbyterianism in America

It has been fashionable for scholars to focus upon the Scottish identity of Covenanters in America. Indeed, Covenanters, themselves often focus upon and celebrate their ‘Scottishness.’ Yet, Covenanting in America owes much – indeed, its existence – to Ireland and to Irish immigrants. This piece explores that forgotten history and its implications for Covenanter identity and for the state and future of scholarship surrounding Covenanters in America.

Diasporic citizenship and militarization: Punjabi soldiers in the world wars

This article delves into the uses of history and examines how the enlisting of Indian soldiers – particularly from Punjab – into the British Indian Army during the First and Second World Wars has been memorialized and remembered in contemporary Britain. This issue has become particularly salient in the light of the politics of the so-called ‘war on terror’ or ‘new imperialism’, which Paul Gilroy and Vron Ware argue has heightened tendencies towards militarism in British society. Using examples from the public sphere – remembrance day events, TV documentaries and army recruitment fairs – as well as interview material, I argue that Britain's Punjabi communities have been organizing in order to weave themselves into the national tapestry by memorializing role played by Punjabis in the First and Second World Wars – iconic to the national fantasy, using this forgotten history to demand recognition from the state and stake a claim for citizenship. In the ‘new imperialism’, however, it is not equally possible for Sikh and Muslim Punjabis to argue for their inclusion on the terms of militarized citizenship, and the various chords within the diaspora seem to be increasingly disharmonious, effacing their composite and shared colonial history.

Speaking Barbara

This article (re)constructs the life of Barbara Rose Johns, a pivotal character in the American Civil Rights movement. Through a collection of poems, I tell Barbara’s story from multiple voices and vantage points. I use ethnographic historical fiction to allow both the documented facts and the imagined “truths” to coexist. I use poetry to add vibrancy and breadth to her story while accommodating multiple voices and perspectives. A reflective analysis considers the trouble of wedding fact and fiction. The piece ends with a brief discussion of how poetry can be used to highlight forgotten histories.

Theodore Schroeder and the Pre-1919 Defenses of Free Speech: The Case for Freedom of Sexual Expression

The modern First Amendment began with a turn of the clock, on a Monday on March 13, 1919, the moment of the release of Justice Holmes’s seminal opinion in Schenck v. United States. At that pinpoint in time, First Amendment history was reconfigured and the liberty-denying past gradually began to fade away in the years and opinions that followed. Holmes laid his claim to the conceptual turf and what followed is what we call modernity. True, Learned Hand had his moment, too, in 1917 with his district court opinion in Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten. But that opinion, for all its insights, took on meaning primarily as a comparative point to the work of the Great Holmes. And then there is the work of Zechariah Chafee, the scholar who lent his own measure of staying power to the Holmesian notion of free speech law. Before these three Harvard men, however, there was Utah born man who came onto the First Amendment scene, a man far less credentialed and polished, a University of Wisconsin Law School trained lawyer who championed a libertarian creed and contested the will of a very powerful man, Anthony Comstock. That radical lawyer, whose name and work have largely remained cabined in the confines of forgotten history, was Theodore A. Schroeder. Like Holmes, he too had a vision of free speech law. What follows is the first of a series of articles that introduces the reader to Schroeder and his many works concerning free expression. Those works first took root not in political speech, but in area of freedom far more important to the progressives of his day – sexual expression. We come to his story thirteen years before Holmes’s glorious moment in 1919, on an occasion when Messrs. Schroeder and Comstock were to debate the topic of sexual expression. Several months later, Theodore Schroeder published an article in the Albany Law Journal (“The Constitution and Obscenity Postal Laws”), which is the main focus of this article. Drawing on a measure of history and analysis, the aim is to provide the reader with an idea of how Schroeder conceptualized his vision of free speech freedom.

Slavery, Executive Power and International Law: The Haitian Revolution and American Constitutionalism

The Haitian Revolution and its aftershocks had a profound impact on American constitutionalism. The six administrations from George Washington through John Quincy Adams responded to the slave revolt and establishment of Haitian independence in ways that greatly expanded executive power and changed the nation’s approach towards the law of nations. The Executive took effective control over the nation’s most important dimensions of foreign policy, creating and employing instruments of power that are used to this day. For the first time, presidents unilaterally provided funds and military equipment to a foreign belligerent, intervened in a foreign civil war, negotiated secret commercial, diplomatic and military agreements with a foreign nation and the leader of a rebellion, used military force abroad, expanded the treaty and recognition powers and, with the acquiescence of the Supreme Court, violated accepted doctrines of the law of nations. These actions formed a blueprint for executive dominance over foreign policy, war and international law. This forgotten history is essential for a contemporary understanding of the foundations of modern presidential power over foreign affairs and war. Many of the most controversial questions presidents face in the modern era — whether to support regime change, use military force to protect American interests abroad, intervene in civil wars, arm foreign rebellions, form secret agreements with governments or belligerents, adhere to the requirements of international law — were first faced in the American reactions to the Haitian Revolution. Those decisions set precedents for the expansion of executive power whose legacies still exert a deep if unrecognized influence today. This article also illuminates the relationship of slavery to American foreign policy in the early Republic. The near-universal abhorrence and fear of a slave revolt was a powerful force in executive foreign policy decisions. But two other factors also influenced presidents in dealing with the Haitian Revolution — trade and geopolitics. When these other forces overcame domestic pro-slavery demands, presidents supported blacks fighting for their freedom and helped to create independence from the crucible of a slave revolt. However, when these forces were aligned with, or at least did not conflict with, the existential threat of a permanently successful slave revolt, the determination to isolate or crush the Haitian Revolution prevailed. As Haiti lost its strategic and economic importance to the United States, a consensus developed in the executive, legislative and judicial branches that, in the legal contemplation of the American government, the nation of Haiti did not exist.

Hungary 1930 and the Forgotten History of a Mass Protest

"Hungary 1930 and the Forgotten History of a Mass Protest." Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 21(1), pp. 123–124

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with focal findings: caveats to current diagnostic criteria

The clinical diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is largely based on the 1998 World Health Organization diagnostic criteria. Unfortunately, rigid compliance with these criteria may result in failure to recognize sporadic CJD (sCJD), especially early in its course when focal findings predominate and traditional red flags are not yet present. A 61-year-old man presented with a 3-week history of epilepsia partialis continua (jerking of the left upper extremity) and a 2-week history of forgetfulness and left hemiparesis; left hemisensory neglect was also detected on admission. Repeated brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed areas of restricted diffusion in the cerebral cortex, initially on the right but later spreading to the left. Electroence-phalography (EEG) on hospital days 7, 10, and 14 showed right-sided periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges. On day 20, the EEG showed periodic sharp wave complexes leading to a diagnosis of probable sCJD and subsequently to definite sCJD with brain biopsy. Neurological decline was relatively fast with generalized myoclonus and akinetic mutism developing within 7 weeks from the onset of illness. CJD was not immediately recognized because of the patient's focal/lateralized manifestations. Focal/lateralized clinical, EEG, and MRI findings are not uncommon in sCJD and EEG/MRI results may not be diagnostic in the early stages of sCJD. Familiarity with these caveats and with the most current criteria for diagnosing probable sCJD (University of California San Francisco 2007, MRI-CJD Consortium 2009) will enhance the ability to recognize sCJD and implement early safety measures.

Slavery, Executive Power and International Law: The Haitian Revolution and American Constitutionalism

The Haitian Revolution and its aftershocks had a profound impact on American constitutionalism. The six administrations from George Washington through John Quincy Adams responded to the slave revolt and establishment of Haitian independence in ways that greatly expanded executive power and changed the nation’s approach towards the law of nations. The Executive took effective control over the nation’s most important dimensions of foreign policy, creating and employing instruments of power that are used to this day. For the first time, presidents unilaterally provided funds and military equipment to a foreign belligerent, intervened in a foreign civil war, negotiated secret commercial, diplomatic and military agreements with a foreign nation and the leader of a rebellion, used military force abroad, expanded the treaty and recognition powers and, with the acquiescence of the Supreme Court, violated accepted doctrines of the law of nations. These actions formed a blueprint for executive dominance over foreign policy, war and international law. This forgotten history is essential for a contemporary understanding of the foundations of modern presidential power over foreign affairs and war. Many of the most controversial questions presidents face in the modern era — whether to support regime change, use military force to protect American interests abroad, intervene in civil wars, arm foreign rebellions, form secret agreements with governments or belligerents, adhere to the requirements of international law — were first faced in the American reactions to the Haitian Revolution. Those decisions set precedents for the expansion of executive power whose legacies still exert a deep if unrecognized influence today. This article also illuminates the relationship of slavery to American foreign policy in the early Republic. The near-universal abhorrence and fear of a slave revolt was a powerful force in executive foreign policy decisions. But two other factors also influenced presidents in dealing with the Haitian Revolution — trade and geopolitics. When these other forces overcame domestic pro-slavery demands, presidents supported blacks fighting for their freedom and helped to create independence from the crucible of a slave revolt. However, when these forces were aligned with, or at least did not conflict with, the existential threat of a permanently successful slave revolt, the determination to isolate or crush the Haitian Revolution prevailed. As Haiti lost its strategic and economic importance to the United States, a consensus developed in the executive, legislative and judicial branches that, in the legal contemplation of the American government, the nation of Haiti did not exist.

Abandoning Evolution: The Forgotten History of Antievolution Activism and the Transformation of American Social Science

From its inception, antievolution activism has been aimed not only at the natural sciences but also, and almost as often, at the social sciences. Although almost entirely overlooked by scholars, this activism played a significant part in the development of American social science in the early twentieth century. Analyzing public writings and private papers of antievolution activists, academic social scientists, and university officials from the 1920s, this essay recalls this forgotten history, showing how antievolution activism contributed to the abandonment of evolutionary theory and the adoption of a set of secular, scientific, and professional characteristics that have come to define much of modern social science.

The first frontier: the forgotten history of struggle, savagery, and endurance in early America

The first frontier: the forgotten history of struggle, savagery, and endurance in early America

The Forgotten History of Domestic Debt

The Forgotten History of Domestic Debt

The gilded stage: a social history of opera

The Gilded Stage is a comprehensive tour of the world of opera. From its origins in the courts of northern Italy, to its internationally recognised position in modern culture, Snowman explores the social history of opera houses and impresarios, composers and patrons, artists and audiences. Even the most flamboyant composers could scarcely have imagined the global reach of opera in our own times. More opera is performed, financed, seen, heard, filmed and broadcast than ever before, and the world's leading performers are worshipped and paid like pop stars. Yet the art form is widely derided as 'elitist' and parts of the classical recording business appear close to bankruptcy. Pinpointing the scandals, forgotten history and key revolutions in the form with light erudition and a brilliant anecdotal eye, Daniel Snowman reveals that the world of opera has always known crisis and uncertainty - and the resulting struggles have often proved every bit as dramatic as those portrayed onstage.

U.S. Policy in Israel/Palestine, 1948: The Forgotten History

U.S. Policy in Israel/Palestine, 1948: The Forgotten History

From Dandakaranya to Marichjhapi: rehabilitation, representation and the partition of Bengal (1947)

The Partition of India (1947) is commonly understood as a violent territorial and political separation of peoples, their forced evictions and migration as well as communal upheavals. But India's Partition can be seen as something more than separation of communities and the creation of distinct national identities. This paper suggests that refugee rehabilitation, one of the important processes of the post-Partition years, formed the rubric through which we remember 1947. Rehabilitation and resettlement of refugees formed the narrativizing principle of a number of novels that were written in the 1960s and 1970s in Bengal that deliberately looked at the fall-outs of the Partition other than communal tensions and migrations. Rehabilitation created a different experiential reality for a large number of refugees, and issues of home, settlement, livelihood, and work created a new body of literature that re-looked at Partition in important ways. In the course of this paper I examine some such novels in Bangla; one of which, Shaktipada Rajguru's Dandak Theke Marichjhapi (From Dandakaranya to Marichjhapi), is the story of a group of refugees’ journey to Dandakarnaya and then onto Marichjhapi in the Sunderbans that probes the circumstances behind one of Partition's most forgotten histories.

Niepamiętane historie miasta. Żydowska przeszłość Białegostoku i Lublina w (nie)pamięci obecnych mieszkańców

Niepamiętane historie miasta. Żydowska przeszłość Białegostoku i Lublina w (nie)pamięci obecnych mieszkańców

The Telling of Memory in La sombra del viento by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

This article argues that the return of the apparently absent past in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's La sombra del viento represents trans-generational haunting as in the theory of Abraham and Torok. The belated emergence of memory a generation later symbolizes the longevity of the official history of the civil war in Francoist Spain and the connected erasure of Republican identity. The novel reflects the inter-generational silence about the war and the ensuing repression, but intertwines it with the recovery of the past to language. While the repeated telling of the apparently forgotten history characterizes it as a traumatic event, instead of an overwhelming experience, which could not actually be registered when it occurred, the indication of the past as traumatic relates to its designation as unspeakable in the previous generation(s). Though Ruiz Zafón's novel is set in the Francoist era, the article shows how its theme of trans-generational secretion of memory also applies to the Spanish Transition. It casts light on the effects of the so-called pacto del olvido on the succeeding generation. The need to put the identity of the silenced past into narrative points to the ongoing retrieval of memor y in present-day Spain and, vitally, its reading for the future.

Commemoration, Memory, and Forgotten Histories: The Complexity and Limitations of Australian Army Biography

Military biography in Australia raises questions about the specific historiography more generally, and about the commemorative and celebratory tendencies in Australian military writing. Recent advances in the field illustrate the continuing tensions within the writing of military history in Australia, and reflect some of the same tendencies elsewhere in the English-speaking world.