| Summary/Abstract |
Hungary for antebellum Americans was difficult to characterize as a part of ‘western civilization,’ or outside it, as part of the ‘Orient.’ The Hungarian nationalist Lajos Kossuth brought not only Hungary but the larger ‘Orient’ into sharper relief. Kossuth was popular for hailing America as a model of a successful revolutionary republic. But he was also an ‘Oriental,’ arriving in the United States via rescue from Austria by the Ottoman Empire. Kossuth’s complicated celebrity challenged Americans’ understanding of Hungary as a ‘border’ nation, the Ottoman Empire as a symbol of eastern stagnation, and even Austria as a part of ‘Europe.’ In their encounter with the trans-civilizational figure Kossuth, Americans revealed a sense of themselves as part of ‘western civilization,’ but different from Europeans in their ties to liminal places like Hungary and the Ottoman Empire: ‘West’ and ‘East’ were permeable. These connections provided reassurance in an era when Americans were growing more conflicted about their place in the world.
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