Ash heap of history

The phrase "ash heap of history",^{[lower-alpha 1]} is a derogatory metaphoric reference to oblivion of things no longer relevant.^[1]

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][lower-alpha 2]}

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]

See also

• Memory hole

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. 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.