Lajos Kossuth and Multiple Imperialisms: Computational analysis and the international assessment of Empire*

Abstract

This paper uses international newspaper corpora from the oceanic exchanges digital humanities project to examine transnational perceptions of imperialism in the nineteenth century. Through the figure of Lajos Kossuth, whose publicity tour of the United States in 1852 generated support for Hungarian independence, this paper demonstrates that big-data and digital analysis tools such as topic modeling can reveal key details about how states and communities perceived European imperialism, depending on their own national circumstances. The paper shows how his journey came to be refracted through national and international political goals as well as the popular consumption of celebrity news.