Keyword – United States

Szekeres, Tamás:

Iconoclasm in the US alternative media: the 2020 statue removals in the articles of an alt-right and a liberal news site

This paper observes the presentation of iconoclasm as a tool of memory politics in the articles of Breitbart, one of the main representatives of American alt-right media, in the light of the events of the series of protests in the summer of 2020. During the wave of demonstrations held after George Floyd was killed, several statues and memorials were toppled by protesters or removed by authorities because of their difficult heritage or objectionable historical characters. The issue was widely covered by the press. This paper presents the possibilities of using monuments and their destruction for political objectives, and performs a thematic analysis with qualitative and quantitative methods on how an extremist news outlet portrays and comments these events. In an attempt to stress the complexity of the issue, it also analyses articles from the other end of the political spectrum, Vox, and compares the different approaches in search of similarities and differences.

Keywords: alt-right, alternative media, memory politics, memory, monument, iconoclasm, statue, statue toppling, protest, United States

Paár, Ádám:

The Agrarian movement, the journal Köztelek and the USA (1892–1908)

In the late 1800s, when the USA became the leading economic and military power, a new Hungarian political group described as ‘agrarian’ began to look into American life, politics and economics. The Agrarians criticised the Hungarian governments for their exaggerated support granted to the industries and for ignoring the interests of the peasant population. The Agrarians refused to establish a political party of their own, and represented and popularised their values and ideas via their press. Their representative journal, Köztelek, took account of the foreign news in the areas of economic, social and agrarian science. This journal was specalised in the education of smallholders and reported on economic and political news from abroad. By examining the way Köztelek reflected on American life, one can establish that the Agrarian authors focused on three topics, including the American economy (agriculture, trade and transport), the way of life of farmers, and political tensions. Köztelek did not mention the Populist movement, the agrarian democratic movement in the USA, but it criticised the McKinley government which came to power in 1896.

Keywords: agrarian conservative, agriculture, democracy, farmer, Hungary, Köztelek, populism, press, United States