‘The year of living anxiously‘, Inside Story, 26 June 2018
Long review of the recently published book by Phillipa McGuinness, NewSouth publisher. The book is called The Year Everything Changed: 2001. The book offers, says Davison
an understanding of how history is seen and felt, from the vantage point of a candid, historically literate, morally engaged witness to an extraordinary time. In reliving the year with her, we better understand how events, often considered distantly and separately, concatenated in time and reverberated in the minds of contemporaries to generate a palpable sense that “everything” had changed. Since there is no sign that everything will stop changing, we may need such perceptive, humane histories more rather than less in the uncertain years ahead.
Davison’s essay includes some interesting reflections on the writing of history and some references to the Bicentennial ‘slice’ histories master-minded by the late Ken Inglis.
Other reviews of McGuinness’s book: The Australian; Australian Book Review (paywall). An extract. McGuinness on ABC Nightlife.