Update 26 May 2018: David Wroe and Sally White in Fairfax with some reaction from the Memorial’s Dr Nelson, who says the Memorial will not be giving Dr Chau’s money back. Update 25 May 2018: Sally Whyte in Fairfax goes…
Taflaga, Marija: The end of the era of mass politics?
Marija Taflaga ‘The end of the era of mass politics?‘, Inside Story, 26 February 2018 Historical look at the trajectory of the major parties in Australia. Healthy or not, our parties are here to stay. The combination of the preferential…
Schultz, Julianne & Jane Camens, ed.: Griffith Review 59: Commonwealth Now
Julianne Schultz & Jane Camens, ed. Griffith Review 59: Commonwealth Now, January 2018 At the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April athletes from countries that were once a part of the British Empire will battle for gold –…
Abbott, Derek: Griffith Review 59: a timely survey of ‘Commonwealth Now’
Derek Abbott* ‘Griffith Review 59: a timely survey of “Commonwealth Now”’, Honest History, 28 February 2018 Derek Abbott reviews Griffith Review 59: Commonwealth Now, edited by Julianne Schultz and Jane Camens Given the current and continuing debates in this country…
Reynolds, Henry: A hundred years of mateship?
Henry Reynolds ‘A hundred years of mateship?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 27 February 2018 updated A passionate piece from veteran historian Henry Reynolds. I was astonished! An SBS news report about the Turnbull visit to Washington declared that the two countries…
New Deputy PM’s workload raises questions about treatment of Veterans’ Affairs, Centenary of Anzac and Defence Personnel: new Ministry list
Update 5 March 2018: new Ministry List released. Update 1 March 2018: Sorted. McCormack’s former jobs (and the ticket for Villers-Bretonneux in April) passed to Chester. Update 28 February 2018: Reports (for example, this one) circulating of a reshuffle of…
Australians’ perceptions of historic events vary subtly across the country
A recent survey of Australians’ perceptions of important historic events shows some variation across states and territories. There are also some differences across gender and age. The survey was conducted in November last year by the Social Research Centre and…
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Moses, John: The contingency factor in national historiography: Germany and Australia
John Moses* ‘The contingency factor in national historiography: Germany and Australia’, Honest History, 25 February 2018 ABSTRACT This paper observes that what historians choose to write about is determined by the circumstances of their time and place. The paper does…
Abjorensen, Norman: Keeping the country in the coalition
Norman Abjorensen ‘Keeping the country in the coalition‘, Inside Story, 23 February 2018 Useful background to the current upheavals within and beyond the National Party. Regardless of how this latest conflict plays out, it is just another chapter in a…
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If Michael McCormack becomes Leader of the Nationals, there’ll be an opportunity to abolish Veterans’ Affairs
Update 26 February 2018: how it turned out. Michael McCormack: the last of the line? (Queensland Times) After a glitch a few days ago, Michael McCormack MP seems to be favourite to become Leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime…
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Clarke, Patricia: Political journalist Joe Alexander: establishing Canberra’s heritage — Parliament, diplomacy and life in suburbia
Patricia Clarke* ‘Political journalist Joe Alexander: establishing Canberra’s heritage — Parliament, diplomacy and life in suburbia‘, Honest History, 23 February 2018 Originally a lecture to the ACT Heritage Symposium in August 2017. An exploration of the career of a significant…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (34): Shire at War blog looks at alcohol, temperance and attitudes to the war
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (34): Shire at War blog looks at alcohol, temperance and attitudes to the war’, Honest History, 21 February 2018 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Phil Cashen’s assiduous research for his Shire at War blog has…
Bombing of Darwin 76 years on: Territory tourism to have even stronger khaki tinge (but focus is still too narrow)
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs pro tem* Michael McCormack reminds us that today marks the 76th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin in February 1942. Around 400 people were killed in Darwin and in later raids on other northern towns. SS…
Stephens, David: How does the tax-paying record of large Australian companies square with our much-vaunted Australian egalitarian ethos?
David Stephens ‘How does the tax-paying record of large Australian companies square with our much-vaunted Australian egalitarian ethos?’ Honest History, 18 February 2018 updated The ABC’s chief economics correspondent, Emma Alberici, this week put out some articles on the tax…
Brock, Peggy & Tom Gara, ed.: Colonialism and its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia
Peggy Brock & Tom Gara, ed. Colonialism and its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2017 The colonial process in South Australia began decades before formal annexation with unregulated interactions between coastal Aboriginal people and European…
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Gerritsen, Rolf: A seminal contribution to South Australian and Australian history
Rolf Gerritsen* ‘A seminal contribution to South Australian and Australian history’, Honest History, 16 February 2018 Rolf Gerritsen reviews Peggy Brock and Tom Gara, ed., Colonialism and its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia Aboriginal history has gone through…
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Latimore, Jack: The stolen generations apology anniversary should stand as a day of shame
Jack Latimore ‘The stolen generations apology anniversary should stand as a day of shame‘, Guardian Australia, 13 February 2018 The difficulty and reluctance in recognising the way this intergenerational trauma impacts upon the lives of First Nations people says a…
Broinowski, Alison: The trust deficit in Canberra
Alison Broinowski ‘The trust deficit in Canberra‘, Pearls and Irritations, 13 February 2018 Looks at the implications of the appointment of Admiral Harry B. Harris as United States Ambassador to Australia. The Prime Minister has said we are joined at…
Menadue, John: We are in denial about the risks in our relationship with the United States. Part 1 of 2
John Menadue ‘We are in denial about the risks in our relationship with the United States. Part 1 of 2′, Pearls and Irritations, 8 February 2018 updated We are a nation in denial that we are “joined at the hip”…
Broinowski, Alison: Is militarism in Australia’s DNA?
Alison Broinowski ‘Is militarism in Australia’s DNA?’ Pearls and Irritations, 6 February 2018 updated Australians who don’t live in other countries don’t realise how our self-image differs from the perception, particularly in Asia, that we were militarists from the start.…
Honest History E-newsletter No. 49, 30 January 2018
ISSN: 2202-5561 © New on the Honest History site Honest History in 2018 – and possibly beyond: a prospectus from HH HQ The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, The Settlers and the Protectors: Ben Wilkie reviews Bain Attwood’s new book…
Victorian government survey on Anzac Day recognition of Frontier Wars provokes predictable pile-on
In August last year, the Victorian government did some research on ‘the social value of war commemorative events’. Among many other questions, the research (using a sample of about 500 people) asked whether the deaths of Indigenous Australians in the…
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Daley, Paul: Beating the khaki drum: how Australian identity was militarised
Paul Daley ‘Beating the khaki drum: how Australian identity was militarised‘, Guardian Australia, 1 February 2018 Pulls together the themes of Anzackery, arms manufacturers inflicting advertising on Canberra airport users, and the same manufacturers donating to the Australian War Memorial…
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Honest History in 2018 – and possibly beyond
Honest History in 2018 – and possibly beyond The Honest History website (and the Honest History association) began in mid-2013. Since then we have placed on the website nearly 2800 posts and another 70 pages (including two editions of Honest…
Attwood, Bain: The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, The Settlers and the Protectors
Bain Attwood The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, the Settlers and the Protectors, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 A local history of the Djadja Wurrung people of Central Victoria, looking at the relationship between the people of this Aboriginal nation,…
Shield, John: All the Green Year: Don Charlwood between war and depression
John Shield* ‘All the Green Year: Don Charlwood between war and depression’, Honest History, 30 January 2018 When Honest History discovered the Australia Explained website and I turned to the books page thereon it gladdened my heart to see there…
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National Museum’s Australian Journey looks like a useful resource for secondary and tertiary students
The National Museum of Australia has just unveiled a new resource for secondary and tertiary students. It is called Australian Journey: The Story of a Nation in 12 Objects and it can be found on the NMA website and on…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (33): The second conscription referendum viewed from Gippsland
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (33): The second conscription referendum viewed from Gippsland’, Honest History, 30 January 2018 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Once again, we find some very useful research on Phil Cashen’s Shire at War blog, based in…
Wilkie, Ben: Complex stories of the Djadja Wurrung in Victoria’s Good Country
Ben Wilkie* ‘Complex stories of the Djadja Wurrung in Victoria’s Good Country’, Honest History, 30 January 2018 Ben Wilkie reviews Bain Attwood’s The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, the Settlers, and the Protectors. Bain Attwood’s most recent book appears, at…
Centenary Watch February-March 2018
Update 29 March 2018: Commemorative dates for the rest of the year Minister Chester’s presser on important dates for the rest of the year, including the opening of the Monash Interpretive Centre on 24 April. ‘As the last year of…
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Awards for Australian historians, Janet McCalman AC and Marilyn Lake AO
Congratulations to Professor Janet McCalman, awarded AC in today’s list, and Professor Marilyn Lake, awarded AO. Both are at the University of Melbourne. Marilyn Lake was a member of Honest History’s original committee in 2013-14. 26 January 2018
Broinowski, Alison: Murky wars and missions unaccomplished
Alison Broinowski ‘Murky wars and missions unaccomplished‘, Pearls and Irritations, 25 January 2018 This [Syria] longest war in Australia’s history is the latest in the list of foreign conflicts in which we have joined Americans, supposedly fighting communists or terrorists,…
Miller, Geoff: White Paper versus White’s paper: some questions about Australian policies
Geoff Miller ‘White Paper versus White’s paper: some questions about Australian policies‘, Pearls and Irritations, 23 January 2018 Former senior Australian diplomat compares the official government publication with the recent Quarterly Essay by Professor Hugh White. The former is essentially…
New study to investigate culture of abuse and bullying in the Australian Defence Force
Academics James Connor (UNSW Canberra) and Ben Wadham (Flinders University) have a grant to investigate ‘the culture behind abuse and bullying in the Australian Defence Force’. The media release has more. Our research [said Dr Connor] will look at the…
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Repost of Humphrey McQueen 2017 on Australia Day – plus other material on this perennial but important set of issues
Update 8 February 2018: Paul Daley in Guardian Australia on what the confected fuss about flying the Indigenous flag on a large Sydney coathanger says about Australia 2018: It is regrettable that anything approaching public argument over such a fundamental…
Broinowski, Alison: Incorrigible Optimist review: Gareth Evans’ account of his public life
Alison Broinowski ‘Incorrigible Optimist review: Gareth Evans’ account of his public life‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2018 This book was launched by Bob Hawke and has been widely reviewed. (See especially Norman Abjorensen in the Canberra Times and Jock…
Stephens, Jane: Review note: Stephen Foster: Zoffany’s Daughter: Love and Treachery on a Small Island
Jane Stephens* ‘Review note: Stephen Foster: Zoffany’s Daughter: Love and Treachery on a Small Island’, Honest History, 13 January 2018 This intriguing narrative, appropriately first published in the Channel Islands, is based on extensive research into an obscurely unsettling 19th…
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Three angles on security – including a bit of quis custodiet ipsos custodes
‘Three angles on security – including a bit of “quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”‘, Honest History, 10 January 2018 The Latin tag, for those who don’t know it, means roughly ‘who will guard the guards themselves?’ and it was coined by…
Grishin, Sasha: Arthur Streeton: The art of war at the National Gallery of Australia combines beauty and barbarity
Sasha Grishin ‘Arthur Streeton: The art of war at the National Gallery of Australia combines beauty and barbarity’, Canberra Times, 10 January 2018 Review of an exhibition at the National Gallery, Canberra, until 29 April, just after Anzac Day. Reminds…
The World Inequality Report 2018: latest word on an Honest History ‘special subject’
For the last three years, Honest History has tracked media (mainstream and not) articles and research-based reports on inequality, its multiple causes and manifestations. The Honest History Book also focused sharply on inequality, given what seemed to us to be…
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Bongiorno, Frank: An Iced Vovo and a broken heart
Frank Bongiorno ‘An Iced Vovo and a broken heart‘, Inside Story, 5 January 2018 Honest History president and ANU professor, Frank Bongiorno, reviews volume I of former PM Kevin Rudd’s autobiography. The two Rudd prime ministerships were probably not the…
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Cabinet papers from 1994-95 opened, including commentary by Honest History’s Frank Bongiorno
Every year about this time another pile of Cabinet papers is made public under the 25 year rule. This year’s tranche covers 1994-95 and there is good coverage in The Conversation, including an article by Honest History president and ANU…
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Dan Tehan promoted to Minister for Social Services; Michael McCormack is new man at Veterans’ Affairs-Centenary of Anzac
Minister Tehan (Twitter) The Honourable Dan Tehan, formerly Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Minister for Defence Personnel, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, and for Cyber Security, has been promoted to the job of Minister for…
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Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (32): Alfred Deakin in retirement supports conscription
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (32): Alfred Deakin in retirement supports conscription’, Honest History, 19 December 2017 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Deakin in his prime (Wikipedia) By the end of 1917, former prime minister Alfred Deakin had been out…
UPDATE: Dr Nelson reappointed to Australian War Memorial Director’s position
Update 15 August 2019: After a further reappointment, Dr Nelson’s final term expired on 31 December 2019. Update 30 January 2018: Dr Nelson’s new term expires on 30 May 2019. Update 31 December 2017: outgoing Minister Tehan announced the reappointment…
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Going deep into international taxation: these issues have been around for a long time
Many readers (and viewers) will have been following the recent publicity about the large companies who avoid paying much tax – or, in some cases, any tax. Most recently, Labor frontbencher, Andrew Leigh, weighed in, and before him there were,…
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What Honest History reviewed in 2017: might be some Christmas reading here
Honest History’s reviews are found here, with the latest at the top of the list. You can scroll down and find reviews of a wide range of books, of a generally historical bent, along with the occasional movie or television…
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Armstrong, John: Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. April 2015 – April 2019
John Armstrong* ‘Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. April 2015–April 2019‘, New Zealand Journal of Public History 27, 2017, pp. 59-63 This (pdf) is a long review of the Museum of New Zealand…
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New History Lab project gets under way at UTS and 2SER 107.3FM
Podcasts with a historical bent will be the output of a new project getting under way in Sydney. History Lab is Australia’s first investigative history podcast, hosted by historians Tamson Pietsch and Anna Clark The series is made in collaboration…
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Hyland, Tom: What have I become?
Tom Hyland ‘“What have I become?”‘ Inside Story, 14 December 2017 A review of – and a look at the politics behind – Chris Masters’ just published book No Front Line: Australian Special Forces at War in Afghanistan. Hyland notes…
Koch, Christoph, ed.: Das Potsdamer Abkommen (The Potsdam Agreement) 1945-2015
Christoph Koch, ed. Das Potsdamer Abkommen (The Potsdam Agreement) 1945–2015, Peter Lang, Bern, 2017 The book’s subtitle, ‘Rechtliche Bedeutung Und Historische Auswirkungen’, translates from the German as ‘Legal Meaning and Historical Impact’ and this is an accurate summary of the…
Tampke, Jurgen: Potsdam Conference 70th anniversary conference papers help us to understand European history since World War II
Jurgen Tampke* ‘Potsdam Conference 70th anniversary conference papers help us to understand European history since World War II’, Honest History, [date] Jurgen Tampke reviews Christoph Koch, ed., Das Potsdamer Abkommen (The Potsdam Agreement) 1945–2015 This book comprises eleven papers delivered…
ANU opens negotiations with Ramsay Foundation for studies in Western Civilisation
The Australian National University, Canberra, has announced that it is ‘currently negotiating with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation to develop a new program in Western Civilisation to add to the University’s suite of undergraduate programs that includes European studies,…
Patience, Allan: Confecting a new China hysteria
Allan Patience ‘Confecting a new China hysteria‘, Pearls and Irritations, 12 December 2017 Australia’s diplomacy with its Asian neighbours and contenders has always been awkward. In a similar manner to Britain’s awkward partnering with Europe, so Australia is Asia’s awkward…
Professor Tom Griffiths, Honest History distinguished supporter (and launcher of The Honest History Book), wins ACT Book of the Year 2017 for his book The Art of Time Travel
Congratulations to Professor Tom Griffiths AO of the Australian National University who has received the ACT Book of the Year Award for his book, The Art of Time Travel: Historians and Their Craft. The book had already received the Ernest…
Bongiorno, Frank: A nursery of unconventional ideas – sex radicalism in Australia
Frank Bongiorno ‘A nursery of unconventional ideas – sex radicalism in Australia‘, The Conversation, 11 December 2017 Honest History’s president and ANU professor, Frank Bongiorno, presents a historical smorgasbord of sex pioneers from William Chidley to Benjamin Law, via Germaine…
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Molony, John: Captain James Cook: Claiming the Great South Land
John Molony Captain James Cook: Claiming the Great South Land, Connor Court, Brisbane, 2016 In a unique and compelling matching of Cook’s journal entries with the journals of others on the voyage, including Joseph Banks, Sydney Parkinson and James Matra,…
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Myrtle, John: Another look at Cook
John Myrtle ‘Another look at Cook’, Honest History, 12 December 2017 John Myrtle* reviews Captain James Cook: Claiming the Great South Land by John Molony In mid-2018 the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich near London will be launching Pacific Encounters,…
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A Nobel achievement, partly Australian, unsung by the Australian government: the Nobel Peace Prize goes to ICAN
ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) has received its Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo. Margaret Beavis writes from the Medical Association for Prevention of War; Dr Beavis is an ICAN Board member. Also this from…
Stephens, David: Review note: Great Convict Stories by Graham Seal
David Stephens ‘Review note: Great Convict Stories by Graham Seal’, Honest History, 11 December 2017 This book contains about 85 little chunks of history (two to four pages each, mostly), bound into ten bundles, with seven to eleven chunks per…
Honest History E-newsletter No. 48, 30 November 2017
ISSN: 2202-5561 © New and recently on the Honest History website: original material, book reviews, links, announcements Banking Royal Commissions: a look back at the 1935-37 model The second First Lady, the pretend colonel, and the dogs of Ottawa: some alternative…
Kevin, Tony: President Putin opens the Wall of Sorrow Memorial in Moscow
Tony Kevin* ‘President Putin opens the Wall of Sorrow Memorial in Moscow’, Honest History, 8 December 2017 As part of Honest History’s continuing interest in the uses and abuses of history, we have previously noted President Vladimir Putin’s interest in…
Long Tan Cross repatriation a good time to put Vietnam War in perspective
The Long Tan Cross has been repatriated to Australia, as reported on Defence Connect, by the Prime Minister and Minister Tehan, and in the media. There are plans for the cross to go on permanent display at the Australian War…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (31): Returned soldiers speak out against conscription
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (31): Returned soldiers speak out against conscription’, Honest History, 6 December 2017 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series The newspaper, the Woman Voter, run by Vida Goldstein, Cecilia John and other radical women, was often a…
Broadcaster Genevieve Jacobs – a great friend of Honest History – reluctantly leaves ABC Canberra
Honest History notes with sadness the departure of presenter Genevieve Jacobs from the ABC’s Canberra bureau. Genevieve worked closely with Honest History to present a regular fortnightly ‘Honest History spot’ on ABC Canberra Local Radio 666. This spot ran for…
A chance to help the National Library get even better: 15 minutes, not of fame, but to complete an essential survey
We have received this message from the National Library of Australia: The Library is seeking your feedback on the extent to which our digitised material and online collections meet your research or study needs. We would like to know the…
Troughton, Geoffrey, ed.: Saints and Stirrers: Christianity, Conflict and Peacemaking in New Zealand, 1814-1945
Geoffrey Troughton, ed. Saints and Stirrers: Christianity, Conflict and Peacemaking in New Zealand, 1814-1945, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2017 New Zealanders, while generally peaceable and tolerant people, have seldom shied away from war. Even in the current era, Anzac Day…
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Hynd, Douglas: New Zealand Great War peacemaking history has Trans-Tasman relevance
Douglas Hynd* ‘New Zealand Great War peacemaking history has Trans-Tasman relevance’, Honest History, 5 December 2017 Douglas Hynd reviews Saints and Stirrers: Christianity, Conflict and Peacemaking in New Zealand, 1814-1945, edited by Geoffrey Troughton Contemporary critiques of Christianity, whether as…
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Eureka 163rd anniversary: resources on the Honest History site
Yesterday, 3 December 2017, was the 163rd anniversary of the Eureka stockade skirmish, which marked the end of a brief uprising of goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria. At least 20 miners and six soldiers were killed. The Honest History site has…
Ken Inglis 1929-2017
Ken Inglis, Australian historian, died in Melbourne last Friday afternoon, aged 88. Ken’s books on a wide range of topics are an outstanding legacy to the study of Australian history and to Australia. His work on commemoration and memory has…
The Australian banking Royal Commission of 1935-37: a precedent unlikely to be followed
Update 27 February 2018: Nicholas Gruen in Pearls and Irritations dives deep into the issues. Update 3 December 2017: Greg Jericho in Guardian Australia looks closely at the terms of reference this time around. And so does Kevin Davis in…
Newton, Douglas: First World War centenaries that really matter are looming
Douglas Newton ‘First World War Centenaries that really matter are looming‘, Pearls and Irritations, 30 November 2017 Centenary moments of huge significance are upon us: the centenary of the so-called “Lansdowne Peace Letter” of 29 November 1917, and the centenary…
Stephens, David: The second First Lady, the pretend colonel, and the dogs of Ottawa: some alternative decision-making scenarios for heads of state
David Stephens* ‘The second First Lady, the pretend colonel, and the dogs of Ottawa: some alternative decision-making scenarios for heads of state’, Honest History, 30 November 2017 One thing often leads to another in the blogging business. A little while…
Bolton, Geoffrey: The Gluckman Affair 1960: a bystander’s view
Geoffrey Bolton ‘The Gluckman Affair 1960: a bystander’s view‘, Labour History Canberra, 16 November 2017 Max Gluckman (makinganthropologypublic) John Myrtle, Honest History volunteer, author of our Online Gems, retired librarian and facilitator of this article’s republication explains its provenance: In…
Winkler, Heinrich August (trans. John A. Moses): And deliver us from the war guilt
[Note: This is a translation completed by Professor John A. Moses in November 2017 of a July 2014 review article in German by Professor Heinrich August Winkler on Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (Die…
Cornering posterity: support for the Internet Archive, a way in to a breathtaking amount of information
Honest History has always been taken with the suggestion that postings to the Internet are the 21st century version of what used to be said of journalism – ‘the first draft of history’. But who makes sure all the good…
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Nobel Peace Prize win to be marked in Canberra
The Nobel Peace Prize win by the Australian-born International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) barely rated on Canberra’s Capital Hill. It clashed with the debut of a young Australian in (we think) American ice hockey. There is a function…
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Stephens, David: The Australian War Memorial is still doing well out of arms manufacturers – how well, we don’t quite know
David Stephens* ‘The Australian War Memorial is still doing well out of arms manufacturers – how well, we don’t quite know’, Honest History, 30 November 2017 updated Update 13 September 2018: Senate Estimates information provides a partial update, showing $1.3…
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Centenary Watch December 2017-January 2018
Update 10 January 2017: Arthur Streeton: The art of war at the National Gallery of Australia combines beauty and barbarity Sasha Grishin’s Canberra Times review of an unconventional war artist, Arthur Streeton, on show at the National Gallery till after…
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Stephens, David: Faulty abacus? DVA and the cost of commemoration
David Stephens ‘Faulty abacus? DVA and the cost of commemoration’, Honest History, 30 November 2017 The Department of Veterans’ Affairs, working through the French government tourist bureau, Atout, recently squired a couple of Australian-based journalists around the battlefields of the…
Farhart, Claudia: Give Peace a Chance
Claudia Farhart Give Peace a Chance, YouTube, 6 November 2017 A 50 minute documentary featuring interviews with Australian protesters against conscription and against the Vietnam War, interspersed with comments from academics and archival film. The interviews were collected by Larry…
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Steady as she goes or wait and see? Some (mostly) non-Main Stream Media views of the Foreign Policy White Paper
The Foreign Policy White Paper would not have escaped most reasonably alert people’s notice, even as there began the cricketing equivalent of the Battle of Brisbane though, in that case, the Australians’ antagonists were Americans. (That battle was 75 years…
Black Inc.: The Wisdom of Oz: Australian Aphorisms from the Profound to the Profane
Black Inc. The Wisdom of Oz: Australian Aphorisms from the Profound to the Profane, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2017 A little book about truth, in a world defined by insidious lies. The Wisdom of Oz presents the finest pearls of wisdom from…
Laugesen, Amanda: Truths about the Australian character: aphorisms we have known and invented
‘Truths about the Australian character: aphorisms we have known and invented’, Honest History, 27 November 2017 Amanda Laugesen* reviews The Wisdom of Oz: Australian Aphorisms from the Profound to the Profane ‘Such is life.’ ‘Life wasn’t meant to be easy.’ ‘This is…
Bongiorno, Frank: Historical constructions of knowledge: Pymble Ladies College address
Frank Bongiorno ‘Historical constructions of knowledge: Pymble Ladies College address, 12 September 2017‘ This address was delivered to History Extension students from Pymble and other schools. (Honest History representatives do these engagements frequently: contact admin@honesthistory.net.au to discuss possibilities.) All documents,…
McCormack, Matthew: Historians and Twitter
Matthew McCormack ‘Historians and Twitter‘, Twitter/History at Northampton blog, 20 November 2017 This is a first for Honest History – turning a Tweet into a post – but it is done gladly because Matthew McCormack up there at the University…
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Coleborne, Catharine: The concept of ‘western civilisation’ is past its use-by date in university humanities departments
Catharine Coleborne ‘The concept of “western civilisation” is past its use-by date in university humanities departments‘, The Conversation, 21 November 2017 Critiques moves driven by the new Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation to revamp BA courses around the idea of ‘Western…
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Collins, Alan, Bo Yang & Grant Cox: What’s Australia made of? Geologically, it depends on the state you’re in
Alan Collins, Bo Yang & Grant Cox ‘What’s Australia made of? Geologically, it depends on the state you’re in‘, The Conversation, 21 November 2017 Tracks back billions of years to show that the western part of Australia is older than…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (30): Officially sponsored 2017 view of the conscription battles of 1916-17
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (30): Officially sponsored 2017 view of the conscription battles of 1916-17’, Honest History, 20 November 2017 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Some Fairfax papers today carry an article by Michael Grealy on the conscription referendums…
Davison, Graeme: Do we belong here? Reflections on family, locality and community
Graeme Davison ‘Do we belong here? Reflections on family, locality and community (Address to the Victorian Community History Awards, 16 October 2017)‘, RHSV News, November 2017, pp. 4-5 This speech was delivered in Melbourne. It asks some important questions: Do…
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Jenkins, Simon: No more remembrance days – let’s consign the 20th century to history
Simon Jenkins ‘No more remembrance days – let’s consign the 20th century to history‘, The Guardian, 9 November 2017 Other Honest History material on Remembrance Day 99 is here and linked therefrom. Simon Jenkins’ piece was shared 12 000 times…
Hugh White writing and talking about Australia in Asia, Xi in China, and Trump in the White House
Hugh White of ANU is bringing out a Quarterly Essay soon, entitled ‘Without America: Australia in the New Asia’. The link above has details of chats with Hugh White in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra from 28 November to 5 December.…
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Paradoxical purchase: War Memorial acquires APY ‘defence of Country’ painting Kulatangku angakanyini manta munu Tjukurpa
The Australian War Memorial has unveiled a large painting by artists from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands in South Australia. The painting, Kulatangku angakanyini manta munu Tjukurpa (‘Country and Culture will be protected by spears’) hangs in a conspicuous…
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Perry, Roland: Monash and Chauvel: How Australia’s Two Greatest Generals Changed the Course of World History
Roland Perry Monash and Chauvel: How Australia’s Two Greatest Generals Changed the Course of World History, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2017 The book ‘tells the story of the emergence and dominance of these brilliant Australian soldiers, who commanded the two…
Abbott, Derek: Another ripping yarn from Australia’s Great War
Derek Abbott* ‘Another ripping yarn from Australia’s Great War’, Honest History, 16 November 2017 A review of Roland Perry’s Monash and Chauvel: How Australia’s Two Greatest Generals Changed the Course of World History Let’s get it out of the way…
Four late offerings for Remembrance Day: what should we remember really?
We have already posted some material relevant to 11 November, Remembrance Day, the 99th of that designation. That little collection links to the other posts. There’s also Simon Jenkins from The Guardian, who says ‘enough already’ of Remembrance Day. Two…
Jones, Rebecca: Slow Catastrophes: Living with Drought in Australia
Rebecca Jones Slow Catastrophes: Living with Drought in Australia, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 Living with drought is one of the biggest issues of our times. Climate change scenarios suggest that in the next fifty years global warming will increase…
Winging it with Dr Chau: Clive Hamilton’s suppressed book has more about the War Memorial’s Fellow
Update 26 February 2018: the book has been published by Hardie Grant. Update 1 March 2018: Our take on the Dr Chau angle. Update 1 December 2017: Dr Chau hosts a policy conference in China, where speakers include President Xi.…
Letter to the Editor: Euphemisms are deadly
This in Fairfax today from Honest History secretary and editor: Every Anzac and Remembrance Day, we hear euphemisms for men and women who have died in war. They are “the fallen”, they “made the supreme sacrifice”, “they shall grow not…
Online Gem No. 14: Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet: an Australian Nobel Prize winner
‘Online Gem No. 14: Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet: an Australian Nobel Prize winner’, Honest History, 12 November 2017 According to Wikipedia, 16 Australians have been awarded a Nobel Prize since 1915, with the majority of these being in physiology or…
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Beyond the poppies row on row: Remembrance Day is a good day to think
Remembrance Day (Armistice Day, if you prefer) – like Anzac Day, Christmas, Easter, Passover, Ramadan, Diwali, Melbourne Cup Day, and other regular ceremonial and commemorative occasions – triggers virtually automatic reactions among many of us. Poppies, stories of old Diggers,…
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Down the Remembrance Trail to Villers-Bretonneux with the (fairly self-effacing – so far) DVA publicity machine
Readers of the Launceston Examiner, North-west Tasmania Advocate and Canberra Times earlier this week will have seen some articles under the byline of Michael Grealy. The articles in the Canberra Times were headed ‘New tribute to Diggers in Europe’, ‘“Mad…
Glover, Jeff: “Trying to be something they’re not”: grandfathers, Diggers, and Peter FitzSimons
Jeff Glover* ‘“Trying to be something they’re not”: grandfathers, Diggers, and Peter FitzSimons’, Honest History, 10 November 2017 As a 61-year-old avid reader of Australian military history, all too often these days I find inaccuracies, mistruths and even lies about…
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Letter to the Editor: War Memorial a great place but no ‘soul of our nation’
This in Fairfax today from Honest History secretary and editor: What nonsense from Bill Shorten (Private Capital, November 7, p. 13). The War Memorial no more “represents the soul of our nation” than any other place where Australians gather. It…
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Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (29): All at once – another conscription vote and news of Bolshevik revolution
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (29): All at once – another conscription vote and news of Bolshevik revolution’, Honest History, 9 November 2017 updated The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Another run at conscription The possibility of a second conscription referendum…
Faber, David: Beersheba, occupation and the mind of God: a reflection on the centenary of the Beersheba charge
David Faber* ‘Beersheba, occupation and the mind of God: a reflection on the centenary of the Beersheba charge‘, Honest History, 8 November 2017 The paper concerns the recent centenary of the Battle of Beersheba and what the author sees as…
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Beersheba, occupation and the mind of God: a reflection on the centenary of the Beersheba charge
David Faber* ‘Beersheba, occupation and the mind of God: a reflection on the centenary of the Beersheba charge’, Honest History, 8 November 2017 Can historians know the mind of God? It is a long time since most historians have scrutinised…
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The Honest History Book is on this non-fiction list – and well covered
Lisa Hill at popular blog ANZ LitLovers has done a list of books for non-fiction November. The Honest History Book is on Lisa’s list of 13 non-fiction books of 2017. (Lisa reviewed the book recently.) Also on the LitLovers list…
Butler, Richard: Iraq 2003: the fabricated war of choice
Richard Butler ‘Iraq 2003: the fabricated war of choice‘, Pearls and Irritations, 7 November 2017 Former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has revealed a report showing that US intelligence agencies knew Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction and…
Guardian Australia: From Louise Lovely to Nicole Kidman: 100 years of Australian film – in pictures
Guardian Australia ‘From Louise Lovely to Nicole Kidman: 100 years of Australian film – in pictures‘, Guardian Australia, 5 November 2017 Cheery on a wet day in Canberra, this is a promo for an exhibition, Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits, opening…
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Honest History E-newsletter No. 47, 25 October 2017
ISSN: 2202-5561 © New and recently on the Honest History website: original material, book reviews, links Michael Piggott reviews Ross McMullin’s new book, Pompey Elliott at War: In His Own Words. Kristen Alexander reviews Clare Makepeace’s new book, Captives of War: British…
Two reviews of – and a French riff off – The Honest History Book
The Honest History Book was published seven months ago and is still doing very well, thank you. There have been lots of reviews and comments (follow the link above) and here are some more. French-Australian historian, Romain Fathi, now at…
The Atatürk memorial at Anzac Cove has been restored but the words – though moving – are still dubious
The photograph below, taken on 29 October, shows the Atatürk memorial at Anzac Cove (Ari Burnu) after recent refurbishment. Honest History offered some advice to Turkish President Erdoğan about future options for the memorial but – not surprisingly perhaps –…
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Specially Forced? Odd outburst from Director of Australian War Memorial
ABC TV News yesterday (2 November 2017) repeatedly ran an interview by Defence reporter, Andrew Greene, with Australian War Memorial Director, Brendan Nelson, in which Dr Nelson questioned the time being taken by the Army’s review into the conduct of…
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Stephens, David: ‘Age shall not weary them’: questioning a Kokoda claim
David Stephens* ‘ “Age shall not weary them”: questioning a Kokoda claim’, Honest History, 3 November 2017 This week’s 75th anniversary of Kokoda has seen repeated claims about the average age of Australian soldiers in the Kokoda campaign. For example,…
Walsh: Nick: Kokoda Track: from the Honest History archives
[Note: this post was originally published in January 2016. Ministerial press release to mark 75th anniversary of Kokoda campaign.] Nick Walsh Kokoda Track, The author, 2nd edition, Melbourne 2012 This little book (70 pages, a dozen photographs, two clear maps) was…
Beavis, Margaret: US militarism: what are the costs to Australia?
Margaret Beavis ‘US militarism: what are the costs to Australia?‘, Pearls and Irritations, 31 October 2017 It is time to reflect on the close enmeshment of Australian and US foreign policy, and the real costs of such close military ties.…
Newton, Douglas: Beersheba and the scramble for the Ottoman Empire – and more on the Beersheba centenary boast
Update 8 November 2017: David Faber writes about the Beersheba centenary and the work of Kelvin Crombie (Gallipoli – The Road to Jerusalem), who has tried to put the Gallipoli campaign into a Christian context. Essentially, Crombie argues that the…
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Broinowski, Alison: A foreign affairs Alt-White Paper
Alison Broinowski ‘A foreign affairs Alt-White Paper‘, Independent Australia, 27 October 2017 Dr Broinowski suggests what should be in the foreign policy White Paper due for release soon. The themes are independence and innovation. For other material on this subject…
Brodie, Nick: The Vandemonian War
Nick Brodie The Vandemonian War, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2017; available electronically The Vandemonian War had many sides and shades, but it was fundamentally a war between the British colony of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and the Aboriginal people who lived…
Shield, John: A Vandemonian war story passionately told
John Shield* ‘A Vandemonian war story passionately told’, Honest History, 29 October 2017 John Shield reviews The Vandemonian War by Nick Brodie If you were slightly unsure about this book and its subject matter before, Nick Brodie does everybody a…
Gallagher, Emily: ‘Bang, bang, bang!’: the shock of a boy playing with a gun on a suburban street
Emily Gallagher ‘“Bang, bang, bang!”: the shock of a boy playing with a gun on a suburban street‘, The Conversation, 25 October 2017 A perceptive brief survey of the changing patterns of children’s urban play in Australia. Over the last…
Australian Historical Association National Conference July 2018: call for papers
The 2018 Conference of the Australian Historical Association, ‘The Scale of History’, is on at the Australian National University in Canberra, 2-6 July 2018. Historians make choices about the scale of their inquiry. They set parameters for their projects –…
Tell us What’s On – and we can tell other people
After running a separate What’s On page since we began the Honest History website, we now reckon the best way of keeping up with what’s happening – and adding value for readers – is for us to do individual website…
Hocking, Jenny: ‘A royal green light’: The Palace, the Governor-General and the dismissal of the Whitlam Government
Jenny Hocking ‘“A royal green light”: the Palace, the Governor-General and the dismissal of the Whitlam Government‘, Pearls and Irritations, 23 October 2017 Contrary to the accepted story that the Queen was not involved in the dismissal of the Whitlam…
Kahn, Matthew: How far must Trump ‘unravel’ before the 25th Amendment kicks in?
Matthew Kahn ‘How far must Trump “unravel” before the 25th Amendment kicks in?‘ Foreign Policy, 23 October 2017 A detailed and sober assessment of the possibilities of using the 25th Amendment (presidential disability) to the United States Constitution to remove…
Stephens, David: Here we go again: complaints about history curricula, this time tertiary
David Stephens ‘Here we go again: complaints about history curricula, this time tertiary’, Honest History, 25 October 2017 updated There’s been another sprouting of what commentators with a horticultural background once used to call ‘a hardy perennial’ – complaints about…
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McMullin, Ross: Pompey Elliott at War: In His Own Words
Ross McMullin Pompey Elliott at War: In His Own Words, Scribe, Melbourne, 2017; e-book available The wartime letters and diaries of Pompey Elliott, Australia’s most famous fighting general, are exceptionally forthright. They are also remarkably illuminating about his volatile emotions…
Piggott, Michael: Pompey Elliott’s war reporting, letters and diaries reveal a complex man and soldier
Michael Piggott* ‘Pompey Elliott’s war reporting, letters and diaries reveal a complex man and soldier’, Honest History, 25 October 2017 Michael Piggott reviews Pompey Elliott at War: In His Own Words Fifteen years ago, Ross McMullin published his massive and…
Centenary Watch October-November 2017
Update 20 November 2017: Officially sponsored 2017 view of the conscription battles of 1916-17 The Department of Veterans’ Affairs-Fairfax ‘contributed content’ partnership has produced a sober and balanced short article on the conscription plebiscites of 1916-17. Can it last? Update…
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1917: Year of War and Revolution seminar in Canberra, 4 November
The Canberra group of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History and the School of History at the Australian National University are holding a seminar at the ANU on 4 November. Aspects of the tumultous year 1917 will…
Alexander, Kristen: Captives of war make a compelling story of World War II
Kristen Alexander* ‘Captives of war make a compelling story of World War II’, Honest History, 22 October 2017 Kristen Alexander reviews Clare Makepeace’s Captives of War: British Prisoners of War in Europe in the Second World War Clare Makepeace’s grandfather…
Makepeace, Clare: Captives of War: British Prisoners of War in Europe in the Second World War
Clare Makepeace Captives of War: British Prisoners of War in Europe in the Second World War, Cambridge University Press, 2017 This book is of Australian interest, as some 8000 Australians were POWs in Europe during World War II, although they…
Australia Explained: a website by an ex-European for migrants who find themselves in the Wide Brown Land
We’ve caught up with Australia Explained, a website wrangled by Dr Ingeborg van Teeseling, who came here in 2006 from the Netherlands. The site has sections on history, Aussie mavericks, books, films, people, resources and opinions, as well as Ingeborg’s…
Stephens, David: Skirmish in Canberra Times letters column over a War Memorial that ‘has lost its way’
David Stephens ‘Skirmish in Canberra Times letters column over a War Memorial that “has lost its way”‘, Honest History, 18 October 2017 updated Today’s Canberra Times (online and hard copy) included a letter from me which was butchered by the…
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The Dunera Boys 77 years on: Dunera News No. 101
Thanks to our contacts in the Dunera community (still going strong after 77 years) for passing us their latest newsletter, dated October 2017. This edition includes a re-enactment, reunions and some interesting personal stories. For readers who don’t know, the…
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‘Anzackery’ definition included in the new edition of the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary
‘Anzackery’ is one of the new words included in the sixth and latest edition of the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary, edited by Mark Gwynn and Amanda Laugesen, and to be published on 26 October. As in the Australian National Dictionary…
Morrissey, Doug: The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly
Doug Morrissey* ‘The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly‘, Honest History, 15 October 2017 updated Ned Kelly, hero or villain, put-upon Irish victim or psychopathic killer? These questions have been around for almost the whole time since Kelly was executed almost…
The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly
Doug Morrissey* ‘The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly’, Honest History, 15 October 2017 Mention Ned Kelly and everybody has an opinion. To many people, Ned is a hero, a champion of the poor man, the quintessential Aussie battler. To others,…
Official Anzac pitch to schools deserves an alternative view: Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial; The Honest History Book
There is much more to Australia’s wartime history than its military history. There is much more to Australia’s history than the history of its wars. At a time when Minister Tehan is handing out Anzac Day Awards to schools across…
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Tocsin magazine brings out another edition … and here’s an apposite poem from 1917
Honest History noted a little while ago the launch of Tocsin, a publication from the John Curtin Research Centre. The centre’s inaugural gala dinner happens to be tonight, addressed by the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten. Tocsin‘s second number…
Shield, John: Dylan Voller, Kinchela and a long history of silence
John Shield* ‘Dylan Voller, Kinchela and a long history of silence’, Honest History, 9 October 2017 On 17 November, the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory will deliver its final report. No doubt…
Beavis, Margaret: A Nobel Peace Prize born in Australia
Margaret Beavis ‘A Nobel Peace Prize born in Australia‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 October 2017 updated Discusses the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to an Australian-founded organisation. The winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, the International Campaign to…
Gapps, Stephen: Blackbirding: Australia’s slave trade?
Stephen Gapps ‘Blackbirding: Australia’s slave trade?‘ Australian National Maritime Museum blog, 25 August 2017 updated Update 30 October 2017: (Waskam) Emelda Davis, president of Australian South Sea Islanders, writes in The Conversation: “Blackbirding” comes from the African slave trade and…
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Stephens, David: Who’s Schlesinger now? Something that may have happened in the Nixon era could be relevant today
David Stephens ‘Who’s Schlesinger now? Something that may have happened in the Nixon era could be relevant today‘, Pearls and Irritations, 5 October 2017 updated Update 19 November 2017: More on this issue in a post from the BBC (with…
St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne: Anzac Day, 25 April 2017: Truly, we will remember them
St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne Anzac Day, 25 April 2017: Truly, we will remember them (pdf supplied by Rev. John H. Smith). The order of service is headed, ‘An Ecumenical Service of Lament, Repentance and Hope for the Centenary of the…
Bowen, Chris; The case for engagement with Asia
Chris Bowen ‘The case for engagement with Asia‘ (speech to the Asia Society), Chris Bowen, 29 September 2017 updated Labor Shadow Treasurer says: Australia needs a step change in our economic relationship with Asia. Our economic relationship with Asia has…
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Higgins, Claire: Asylum by Boat: Origins of Australia’s Refugee Policy
Claire Higgins Asylum by Boat: Origins of Australia’s Refugee Policy, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2017 Claire Higgins’ [book] is driven by the question of how we moved from a humanitarian approach to policies of mandatory detention − including on remote islands…
Clark, Anna: Plenty of fish in the sea? Not necessarily, as history shows
Anna Clark ‘Plenty of fish in the sea? Not necessarily, as history shows‘, The Conversation, 3 October 2017 A look at the history of fishing in Australia, from pre-1788 and going back thousands of years, to now, with draft plans…
More thoughts on the memorials/statues debate: Don Watson and Tracey Spicer
We have collected lots of links from home and abroad on the recently aired (but perennial) issue of statues, monuments, memorials, remembering and forgetting. You can find them here, under the heading ‘The past, choosing our history, and memorials: an…
Stephens, David: What wars do to soldiers: Greg Lockhart’s The Minefield
David Stephens ‘What wars do to soldiers: Greg Lockhart’s The Minefield‘, Honest History, 2 October 2017 updated All wars are different yet all wars are the same. No matter which politicians garner credit or blame, regardless of which officers get…
Clarke, Patricia: Jennie Scott Griffiths: a Texas-born red ragger
Patricia Clarke ‘Jennie Scott Griffiths: a Texas-born red ragger‘, NLA Unbound: the National Library of Australia Magazine, June 2017 A biographical article on this feminist and anti-conscription campaigner during Australia’s Great War. She was an indefatigable worker in radical causes…
Abjorensen, Norman: The art of being prime minister (review of Strangio, ’t Hart & Walter)
Norman Abjorensen ‘The art of being prime minister‘, Inside Story, 29 September 2017 Long review of Paul Strangio, Paul ’t Hart and James Walter, The Pivot of Power: Australian Prime Ministers and Political Leadership, 1949–2016, which is the second volume…
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Corn, Aaron: Friday essay: Dr Joe Gumbula, the ancestral chorus, and how we value Indigenous knowledges
Aaron Corn ‘Friday essay: Dr Joe Gumbula, the ancestral chorus, and how we value Indigenous knowledges‘, The Conversation, 29 September 2017 An edited version of the Dr Joe Gumbula Memorial Lecture presented at the 16th Symposium on Indigenous Music and…
Honest History E-newsletter No. 46, 21 September 2017
ISSN: 2202-5561 © The Honest History Book The Honest History Book, published in early April, is still selling well, has been favourably reviewed in a number of places (including by Anna Clark below), and is now in its second print.…
War Memorial Director Brendan Nelson at the Press Club: speech or performance art? Centenary Watch update
David Stephens of Honest History analyses last week’s National Press Club address by the Director of the Australian War Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson. The speech was called ‘Tragedy and triumph – 1917’ and looked at Passchendaele and Beersheba, two key…
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Haultain-Gall, Matthew: Forgetting and remembering the Anzacs in Flanders Fields
Matthew Haultain-Gall ‘Forgetting and remembering the Anzacs in Flanders Fields‘, Overland, 26 September 2017 Discusses why the battles of Ypres (including Passchendaele) have not had a higher profile in Australian collective memory. The third battle of Ypres did not fit…
19th International Cinema of the Antipodes Festival, Saint Tropez
If you happen to be in St Tropez between 9 and 15 October, look out for the 19th International Cinema of the Antipodes Festival (19es Rencontres Internationales du Cinéma des Antipodes). Among the films on show are classics like Forty…
Daley, Paul: The Anzac skull that tells a shocking and tragic story of battlefield violence
Paul Daley ‘The Anzac skull that tells a shocking and tragic story of battlefield violence‘, Guardian Australia, 25 September 2017 updated Story of an Anzac soldier’s skull exhibited in an American medical museum’s online exhibition. The soldier was shot near…
Stanley, Peter: The Crying Years: Australia’s Great War
Peter Stanley The Crying Years: Australia’s Great War, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2017 Peter Stanley cleverly weaves his narrative around striking images [from the National Library’s collection]—many never seen before—to create a visual history that immerses the reader in…
Butler, Richard: The Alliance: the facts and the furphies
Richard Butler ‘The Alliance: the facts and the furphies‘, Pearls and Irritations, 19 September 2017 ‘A review of how we conduct our alliance relationship with the US is urgently required’, says the author, ‘not simply because it has elected a…
Haultain-Gall, Matthew: Same old relics, same old story? Displaying the third battle of Ypres at the Australian War Memorial, past and present
Matthew Haultain-Gall ‘Same old relics, same old story? Displaying the third battle of Ypres at the Australian War Memorial, past and present‘, History Australia, vol. 14, no. 3, August 2017, pp. 1-17 (link to online version supplied by author) When…
Political partisans: a conservative line of succession (culminating in Tony Abbott) and the Burkes of Perth
Two new books have hit the shelves. One is thicker than the other but both take the long view. They look at nominally different sides of politics, though readers of both books might suspect considerable overlap of views between the…
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Songlines need to be marked and followed: new at the National Museum of Australia
Just opened at the National Museum and running till February is Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters. Songlines – roughly, wisdom-bearing Dreaming paths – may be mysterious to many settler (non-Indigenous) Australians but this exhibition should at least begin to set…
Stephens, David: Carmen Lawrence’s 2006 book Fear and Politics is still very relevant more than a decade on
David Stephens ‘Carmen Lawrence’s 2006 book Fear and Politics is still very relevant more than a decade on’, Honest History, 19 September 2017 Carmen Lawrence is a professorial fellow in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Western…
Recently on the Honest History website (20 September 2017)
Our last few weeks have been rather quieter as far as new posts go. A little bit of illness has stalked the ranks of the Honest History elves and this has slowed us down a mite. However, we have still…
Centenary Watch September-October 2017
Update 28 September 2017 updated: War Memorial Director Brendan Nelson at the Press Club: speech or performance art? Polygon Wood ‘remembered’ We said (21 September, below) we would look more closely at Dr Nelson’s 19 September National Press Club speech…
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Lloyd, Christopher: The roots and limitations of Australian progressivism
Christopher Lloyd* ‘The roots and limitations of Australian progressivism’, Honest History, 20 September 2017 updated This article is a response to Frank Bongiorno’s piece in The Conversation, ‘On marriage equality, Australia’s progressive instincts have been crushed by political failure’, in…
Stephens, David: Here we go again with another lost commemorative opportunity: the Armistice Centenary Grants Program
David Stephens ‘Here we go again with another lost commemorative opportunity: the Armistice Centenary Grants Program’, Honest History, 20 September 2017 Minister Tehan has announced the Armistice Centenary Grants Program (Armistice Grants) a program of grants to commemorate the centenary…
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Clark, Anna: Trench warfare: The Honest History Book
Anna Clark ‘Trench warfare: The Honest History Book‘, Sydney Review of Books, 19 September 2017 Review of The Honest History Book (long read). [The authors, says Clark] provide a powerful argument against the superficial, the commercial, and the celebratory aspects…
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Johnstone, Ian M.: Armidale and the Great War
Ian M. Johnstone Armidale and the Great War, The author, Armidale NSW, 2017 The book describes the impact of World War I on this New South Wales town and its people. The author has previously written on aspects of New…
Armidale and the Great War (review of Johnstone)
‘Armidale and the Great War’, Honest History, 21 September 2017 Frank Bongiorno* reviews Armidale and the Great War, by Ian M. Johnstone One of the positive aspects of the centenary of World War I has been the stimulus it has…
Flora, Steve & David Stephens: Les Jauncey, radical Australian historian and person of interest to the FBI: Part II
Steve Flora & David Stephens ‘Les Jauncey, radical Australian historian and person of interest to the FBI: Part II’, Honest History, 19 September 2017 Part I of this post covered the first decade (1941-51) of the FBI’s interest in the…
Torsh, Daniela & Max Humphreys: On Sydney Harbour with the prime minister of South Vietnam, 1967
Daniela Torsh & Max Humphreys ‘On Sydney Harbour with the prime minister of South Vietnam, 1967‘, Honest History, 19 September 2017 This extended interview transcript is provided as a primary source for readers interested in the history of protest in…
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On Sydney Harbour with the prime minister of South Vietnam, 1967: Daniela Torsh interviews Max Humphreys
‘On Sydney Harbour with the prime minister of South Vietnam, 1967: Daniela Torsh interviews Max Humphreys’[1], Honest History, 19 September 2017 Kirribilli House from the Harbour (Wikipedia/Stephen Bain) Daniela Torsh: So Max, I’ve got a question to start with: tell…
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Cryle, Denis: Behind the Legend: The Many Worlds of Charles Todd
Denis Cryle Behind the Legend: The Many Worlds of Charles Todd, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 “Telegraph” Todd [the man behind the Overland Telegraph through Central Australia] became a legend in his own lifetime for introducing Australian colonists to a…
Abbott, Derek: Worlds behind the legend of Charles Todd, the Overland Telegraph man (review of Cryle)
Derek Abbott* ‘Worlds behind the legend of Charles Todd, the Overland Telegraph man’ (review of Cryle), Honest History, 19 September 2017 Derek Abbott reviews Denis Cryle’s Behind the Legend: the Many Worlds of Charles Todd Denis Cryle is to be…
Bongiorno, Frank: On marriage equality, Australia’s progressive instincts have been crushed by political failure
Frank Bongiorno ‘On marriage equality, Australia’s progressive instincts have been crushed by political failure’, The Conversation, 18 September 2017 In the context of the forthcoming postal survey, the author looks at aspects of the history of sexuality in Australia. He…
Whiteford, Peter: Income inequality ticks down as the rich see their incomes fall: ABS
Peter Whiteford ‘Income inequality ticks down as the rich see their incomes fall: ABS‘, Guardian Australia, 13 September 2017 Summarises the latest survey of Household Income and Wealth from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The richest 20% of the population…
Australian Peacekeeping: 70th anniversary and unveiling of memorial
This week marks the 70th anniversary of the first deployment of Australian forces in a peacekeeping role. After many years of effort and fundraising, a memorial to Peacekeepers will be dedicated in Canberra on Thursday, 14 September. Details are in…
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Straw, Leigh: After the War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War I
Leigh Straw After the War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War I, University of Western Australia Press, Perth, 2017 Of the 330,000 Australian men who enlisted and served in World War I, close to 60,000…
After the war way out in the West (review of Leigh Straw)
‘After the war way out in the West’ (review of Leigh Straw), Honest History, 8 September 2017 John Shield* reviews Leigh Straw’s After the War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War I After reading Leigh…
Tatz, Colin: Australians may well love their sport, but why don’t we delight in success elsewhere?
Colin Tatz ‘Australians may well love their sport, but why don’t we delight in success elsewhere?‘ The Conversation, 6 September 2017 The Australian nation and nationalism, we often proclaim, began at Gallipoli. This is a nonsense, as that sets aside the…
Ariotti, Kate & James E. Bennett, ed.: Australians and the First World War: Local-Global Connections and Contexts
Kate Ariotti & James E. Bennett, ed. Australians and the First World War: Local-Global Connections and Contexts, Palgrave-Springer, New York & Heidelberg, 2017; e-book available by chapters This book contributes to the global turn in First World War studies by…
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A war fought and felt around the world (review of Ariotti & Bennett, ed.)
‘A war fought and felt around the world’ (review of Ariotti & Bennett, ed.), Honest History, 4 September 2017 Martin Crotty* reviews Australians and the First World War: Local-Global Connections and Contexts edited by Kate Ariotti and James E. Bennett…
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Broinowski, Alison: Till war do us part
Alison Broinowski ‘Till war do us part‘, Pearls and Irritations, 30 August 2017 A Fairfax readers poll of some 1300 people showed resounding opposition to Australia sending even the token additional force to Afghanistan. The article also mentions the unwisdom…
Brett, Judith: The Enigmatic Mr Deakin
Judith Brett The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2017, e-book available This insightful and accessible new biography of Alfred Deakin, Australia’s second prime minister, shines fresh light on one of the nation’s most significant figures. It brings out from…
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Shooting the Past: Clare Wright presents radio with historical pictures on ABC RN
Coming up on ABC RN is Shooting the Past, a series of programs each starting with a single photograph and asking ‘what is going on in this picture?’ The series kicks off proper on Friday, 1 September, at 1.30 pm,…
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Carr, Andrew: I’m here for an argument: why bipartisanship on security makes Australia less safe
Andrew Carr ‘I’m here for an argument: why bipartisanship on security makes Australia less safe‘, The Australia Institute, 22 August 2017 updated While bipartisanship seems to be an innocuous idea it is actually making us less safe by restricting policy…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (28): More on the 1917 Great Strike in Australia
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (28): More on the 1917 Great Strike in Australia’, Honest History, 27 August 2017 Update 28 August 2017: Unions NSW advises of its exhibition on the Great Strike. See comment below – and three pictures…
Daley, Paul: Statues are not history. Here are six in Australia that need rethinking
Paul Daley ‘Statues are not history. Here are six in Australia that need rethinking‘, Guardian Australia, 25 August 2017 Daley targets statues of Lachlan Macquarie, John Batman, Thomas Mitchell, Angus McMillan, Alfred Canning and James Cook. We do not learn…
Handasyde, Kerrie: Anzac theology and women poets under the Southern Cross
Kerrie Handasyde ‘Anzac theology and women poets under the Southern Cross‘, Colloquium: The Australian and New Zealand Theological Review, Vol. 49 No. 1, May 2017, pp. 17-30 (pdf courtesy of author; open access) During the Great War Australians lived within…
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McQuire, Amy: Don’t just change the date of Australia Day … get rid of it all together
Amy McQuire ‘Don’t just change the date of Australia Day … get rid of it all together‘, Buzzfeed, 19 August 2017 Honest History doesn’t claim this is the only – or a representative – piece on the latest outbreak of…
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James, Jonathan D.: As Australia becomes less religious, our parliament becomes more so
Jonathan D. James ‘As Australia becomes less religious, our parliament becomes more so‘, The Conversation, 21 August 2017 An interesting examination as the marriage equality issue bubbles. Even though the 2016 Census revealed that more than 30% of the Australian population identify…
South China Sea, Korea and Pine Gap: three items on foreign and defence policy, historically and now
Former diplomat Mack Williams writes in Pearls and Irritations about the importance of involving South Korea in any ‘solution’ to the festering crisis on the peninsula. Williams is a former Australian ambassador to Seoul. Another former diplomat, Andrew Farran, speculates…
Aboriginal History now has 40 years of articles easily searchable three ways
Aboriginal History is published annually by the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra. The journal now offers an index of all of its articles, 450 of them 1977-2016, in Word, Excel or…
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The past, choosing our history, and memorials: an issue in Charlottesville and many other places
‘Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You … can’t change history, but you can learn from it.’: President Trump, Twitter, 17 August 2017…
Myrtle, John: Observing journalism for 80 years: The Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism
John Myrtle ‘Observing journalism for 80 years: The Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism’, Honest History, 18 August 2017 updated A paper in three parts: an introduction to Arthur Norman Smith and the endowed Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism;…
Observing journalism for 80 years: The Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism
John Myrtle[1] ‘Observing journalism for 80 years: The Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism’, Honest History, 18 August 2017 updated Introduction There are three parts to this paper: an introduction to Arthur Norman Smith and the endowed Arthur Norman Smith…
Want to spend the weekend with Constitution section 44? A useful backgrounder from the Parliamentary Library
Note: related material on ‘Australian values’. Update 12 November 2017: more from former Labor speechwriter, Graham Freudenberg, who links the unsuccessful Bicentennial celebrations of 1988 with various events since (Pearls and Irritations). The disqualification of members of parliament is only…
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Macintyre, Stuart, Lenore Layman & Jenny Gregory, ed.: A Historian for All Seasons: Essays for Geoffrey Bolton
Stuart Macintyre, Lenore Layman & Jenny Gregory, ed. A Historian for All Seasons: Essays for Geoffrey Bolton, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 Geoffrey Bolton [1931-2015] was the most versatile and widely travelled of his generation of Australian historians. As a…
‘[M]easured and analytical essays’: Sarah Burnside on Overland reviews The Honest History Book
Overland has posted a review note of The Honest History Book. Author Sarah Burnside of Perth says: I picked up The Honest History Book during the first wave of concerted right-wing attacks on Yassmin Abdel-Magied* for her seven-word facebook post on Anzac…
Better late than never: Minister says best form of commemoration is to look after today’s veterans and families
Update later 15 August 2017: Minister welcomes report of the Senate References Committee into suicide by veterans and ex-service personnel. (The report is here.) SBS Insight program ‘Coming Home’ on issues faced by ADF personnel coming back into the civilian…
Korea, the war that never ended, might be starting up again: some useful source material
Update 19 August 2017: Michael Leunig on being ‘joined at the hip’ in ANZUS (‘Australia and New Zealand’s Unquestioning Subservience’) As one who was almost jailed under the ANZUS treaty for resisting a notice of military conscription in the Vietnam…
‘Joined at the hip’ department: Melbourne conference on keeping Australia out of US wars
The prime minister says Australia will be involved if North Korea attacks the United States in the current heated atmosphere. Indeed, ‘we are joined at the hip’ with the United States. He cites the ANZUS treaty. Even more relevant now…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (27): Recruitment problems in Gippsland 1917 despite patriotic appeals, God and martial music
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (27): ‘Recruitment problems in Gippsland 1917 despite patriotic appeals, God and martial music’, Honest History, 10 August 2017 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series We have made use previously in this series and elsewhere of the…
Stanley, Peter, ed.: Charles Bean: Man, Myth, Legacy
Peter Stanley, ed. Charles Bean: Man, Myth, Legacy, UNSW Press, Canberra, 2017 Proceedings of a 2016 conference at UNSW Canberra. Australia’s official war correspondent during WWI, Charles Bean was also Australia’s first official war historian and the driving force behind…
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‘There is a land where summer skies are gleaming with a thousand dyes’: a 1977 voluntary vote plebiscite on a musical matter
Plebiscites are in the news. There have been plebiscites before in Australian history. There were two on conscription in 1916-17 and they were held against perhaps the greatest societal divisions in our history. (See our series, ‘Divided sunburnt country‘.) Forty…
From the Honest History archives: Lest We Forget Hiroshima 72 years ago this week
Repost from last year. Why? Well, we faithfully and annually commemorate wartime events involving Australians. Some of these events are relatively insignificant, even trivial, in the scheme of things or when compared with other wartime events. It seems only right…
Minister says stand-alone DVA will continue – but here’s some advice, just in case
We don’t quite know why he felt the need but Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, Minister for Defence Personnel, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security [pause for breath],…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (26): Lest We Forget the Great Strike of 1917
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (26): Lest We Forget the Great Strike of 1917’, Honest History, 7 August 2017 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series One hundred years ago this week, Australia confronted not only the horrors and privations of the…
Betty Cuthbert, Australian Olympic Athlete, dead at 79
Reposted from 12 April 2016. The senior citizens among us remember Betty Cuthbert as an athlete when we were all much younger, in a much simpler time. All of us noted her appearance at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and…
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Black Mist Burnt Country: touring exhibition tells the story of the Maralinga tests and their impact
The recent death of Yami Lester brings to prominence again the long struggle of activists regarding the impacts of the British atomic tests at Maralinga in the 1950s. Black Mist Burnt Country is a national touring exhibition, which commemorates the 60th…
Abjorensen, Norman: Australia’s great political shift
Norman Abjorensen ‘Australia’s great political shift‘, Inside Story, 28 July 2017 On the eve of Liberal and Coalition party meetings on an issue – marriage equality – which has, for some people at least, a religious element, this piece is…
Newton, Douglas: The centenary of the Third Battle of Ypres
Douglas Newton ‘The centenary of the Third Battle of Ypres‘, Pearls and Interpretations, 3 August 2017 The carnage at Ypres and Passchendaele is ‘an object lesson in what happens when an Australian government allows our Allies to dominate in the…
Lockhart, Greg: What were we fighting for at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front?
Greg Lockhart ‘What were we fighting for at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front?’ (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5), Pearls and Irritations, 24-28 July 2017 updated Update 15 August 2017: Lockhart’s further thoughts,…
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Inequality is a much more complex issue than kneejerk political responses suggest: a dozen links
Honest History has had a special interest in inequality for more than three years. Under our homepage Inequality thumbnail we have collected a mass of links to resources – reports, comments, even some policy proposals from government – which track…
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Dark irony and dishonesty of Dunkirk: misrepresentations, exaggerations, and clunky bits
‘Dark irony and dishonesty of Dunkirk: misrepresentations, exaggerations, and clunky bits’, Honest History, 1 August 2017 Peter Stanley* reviews Dunkirk Just as Theresa May’s government writhes over the implications of Brexit, there is a dark irony in the appearance of…
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Nolan, Christopher (dir.): Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan Dunkirk, Syncopy, Warner Brothers and others, UK, US, France, Netherlands, 2017 Set during the Second World War, [the film, with an ensemble cast] portrays the Dunkirk evacuation … Nolan wrote the script, told from three perspectives—the land, sea, and air—to contain…
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Honest History E-newsletter No. 45, 25 July 2017
ISSN: 2202-5561 © The Honest History Book: now into its second printing New on the Honest History website The generations of us: exploring interactions, overlaps and inflections: Michael Piggott reviews Australian Lives: an Intimate History, edited by Anisa Puri and Alistair Thomson…
Stumbling Past the recent Australian Historical Association conference in Newcastle
Blogger Yvonne Perkins (Stumbling through the Past) has performed a great service by collating material from the recent Australian Historical Association conference in Newcastle. There is an analysis of tweets and blogs, some papers, and lots of other material which…
Graham, Chris: How we failed Elijah Doughty, and countless others
Chris Graham ‘How we failed Elijah Doughty, and countless others‘, New Matilda, 23 July 2017 updated Riffs from the recent conviction and sentencing (to a relatively short time in gaol) of a West Australian man for running down and killing…
Australian racism and how we see each other: poems by Steven Oliver and a film by Warwick Thornton
We have never come across this poet and comic, Steven Oliver, before – which says more about our lack of awareness than about his talent and perspicacity – but New Matilda ran two videos of his poetry this week and…
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Harris, Rhondda, ed.: Ashton’s Hotel: The Journal of William Baker Ashton, First Governor of the Adelaide Gaol
Rhondda Harris, ed. Ashton’s Hotel: The Journal of William Baker Ashton, First Governor of the Adelaide Gaol, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2017 South Australia was meant to be the perfect colony: free settlers, no crime, and no mental illness. But good…
Puri, Anisa & Alistair Thomson, ed.: Australian Lives: an Intimate History
Anisa Puri & Alistair Thomson, ed. Australian Lives: an Intimate History, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2017; e-book available Australian Lives: An Intimate History illuminates Australian life across the 20th and into the 21st century: how Australian people have been shaped by…
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Flynn, Rosetta: Politics (from The Woman Voter, May 1917): Honest History document
Rosetta Flynn* ‘Politics‘, The Woman Voter, 11 May 1917 (Honest History document) ‘Father, what’s politics?’ the inquiring son demanded. ‘Um – well – er – er – it’s like this, my son. There are two boys, one’s name is Liberal…
Centenary Watch July-August 2017
Update 15 August 2017: Better late than never: Minister says best form of commemoration is to look after today’s veterans and families Comment on the inaugural Ministerial Statement on Veterans and their Families, pointing to the Minister’s creative accounting, which…
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Recently on the Honest History website (25 July 2017)
We continue to move posts through the site fairly quickly so the place to go, if you know you have missed something or, indeed, to check what you may have missed unwittingly, is under our home page thumbnails, First Peoples,…
Honest History: Some extracts from Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial
Honest History ‘Some extracts from Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial, Second edition, June 2017’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 updated We have produced the second edition of Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial.…
The Vimy Trap rings Anzackery bells (review of McKay & Swift)
‘The Vimy Trap rings Anzackery bells’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 David Stephens* reviews The Vimy Trap Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War, by Ian McKay and Jamie Swift The Battle of Vimy…
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Aktar, Ayhan: Rewriting the history of Gallipoli: a Turkish perspective
Ayhan Aktar * ‘Rewriting the history of Gallipoli: a Turkish perspective‘, Honest History, 25 July 2017 updated The history of the Gallipoli campaign has been contested in Turkey for many decades. The commemorations of the Ottoman naval victory of 18…
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Rewriting the history of Gallipoli: a Turkish perspective
Ayhan Aktar * ‘Rewriting the history of Gallipoli: a Turkish perspective’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 updated [This piece draws upon my article originally published in the Turkish daily newspaper Taraf (Istanbul), 18 March 2014. An earlier English translation by…
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McKay, Ian & Jamie Swift: The Vimy Trap Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War
Ian McKay & Jamie Swift The Vimy Trap Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War, Between the Lines Books, Toronto, 2016; e-book available The story of the bloody 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge is, according…
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A gaol story from the city of churches (review of Ashton/Harris)
‘A gaol story from the city of churches’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 John Shield* reviews Ashton’s Hotel: The Journal of William Baker Ashton, First Governor of Adelaide Gaol, edited by Rhondda Harris We Australians love a good gaol story.…
Flora, Steve & David Stephens: Les Jauncey, radical Australian historian and person of interest to the FBI: Part I
Steve Flora & David Stephens ‘Les Jauncey, radical Australian historian and person of interest to the FBI: Part I’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 Leslie Cyril Jauncey (1899-1959) has been a fellow traveller in the Honest History enterprise almost since…
The generations of us: Australian Lives (review of Puri and Thomson, ed.)
‘The generations of us: Australian Lives’ (review of Puri and Thomson, ed.), Honest History, 25 July 2017 Michael Piggott* reviews Australian Lives: an Intimate History, edited by Anisa Puri and Alistair Thomson The imperative to secure research grants is one…
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Les Jauncey, radical Australian historian and person of interest to the FBI: Part I
Steve Flora & David Stephens ‘Les Jauncey, radical Australian historian and person of interest to the FBI: Part I’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 Reintroducing Les and Bee Jauncey Leslie Cyril Jauncey (1899-1959) has been a fellow traveller in the…
Clarkson, Chris, Ben Marwick, et al: Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years
Chris Clarkson, Ben Marwick, Lynley Wallis, Richard Fullagar & Zenobia Jacobs ‘Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years‘, The Conversation, 20 July 2017 updated A report of work in the Kakadu area…
Broinowski, Alison: Beware: armed response
Alison Broinowski ‘Beware: armed response‘, Pearls and Irritations, 19 July 2017 updated Honest History vice president comments on the government’s anti-terrorism measures. If Turnbull’s plan [National Security Statement, last month] becomes law – and the prospects of the Opposition stopping…
Arms spending and war: which comes first, at home and abroad?
Christopher Pyne, Minister for Defence Industry, has been talking up the possibilities of Australia growing its arms exports industry. Fairfax’s David Wroe says Pyne ‘wants Australia to become a major arms exporter on par with Britain, France and Germany and…
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Art and design: 1930s Australia: the art deco designs ushering in a brave new world – in pictures
Art and design ‘1930s Australia: the art deco designs ushering in a brave new world – in pictures‘, Guardian Australia, 14 July 2017 We normally try to find an author for our posts. No luck this time, but we’ll still…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (25): The Free Religious Fellowship: anti-conscription – and unexpected family history
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Chris Wade’s article, ‘Practical idealists: the Free Religious Fellowship, the Great War and conscription‘, reminds us of the breadth and depth of feeling against conscription in Great War Australia: the cause was taken up by…
Bongiorno, Frank: Donald Horne’s ‘lucky country’ and the decline of the public intellectual
Frank Bongiorno ‘Donald Horne’s “lucky country” and the decline of the public intellectual‘, The Conversation, 11 July 2017 updated Honest History’s president reviews Donald Horne: Selected Writings, edited by Nick Horne. Horne’s message [in his most famous book, The Lucky…
Australian diversity and what we think about each other – and do to each other
We’ve heard a lot recently about ‘Australian values’ and what the government expects of new arrivals in relation to them. (The term ‘Australian values’ seems to be relatively recent in our history though it has popped up previously.) There is…
Reynolds, Henry: Memories and massacres
Henry Reynolds ‘Memories and massacres‘, Pearls and Irritations, 10 July 2017 For over 30 years, Henry Reynolds has been writing about massacres of Indigenous Australians. The culmination of his research was the well-received book Forgotten War in 2013. This brief…
Cain, Frank: The Wobblies at War: A History of the IWW and the Great War in Australia
Frank Cain The Wobblies at War: A History of the IWW and the Great War in Australia, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2017; first published 1993 Driven by Marxist ideology, the Industrial Workers of the World sought to draw the Australian…
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The Wobblies at War (review of Cain)
‘The Wobblies at War’ (review of Cain), Honest History, 11 July 2017 Rowan Day* reviews Frank Cain’s The Wobblies at War: A History of the IWW and the Great War in Australia This is a republication of Frank Cain’s 1993…
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Sherratt, Tim: Historic Hansard: Commonwealth of Australia parliamentary debates presented in an easy-to-read format for historians and other lovers of political speech
Tim Sherratt Historic Hansard: Commonwealth of Australia parliamentary debates presented in an easy-to-read format for historians and other lovers of political speech This is a searchable database of Commonwealth Hansard, Reps and Senate, from 1901 to so far, 1980. You…
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United Nations adopts treaty banning nuclear weapons despite opposition from nuclear nations – and Australia
While the posturing around Korea (here and use our Search engine) proceeded, the United Nations on Friday adopted the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. States will begin signing the treaty on 20 September. The treaty comes into force…
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Stephens, David: Hidden in plain sight: Aboriginal massacre map should be no surprise
David Stephens ‘Hidden in plain sight: Aboriginal massacre map should be no surprise‘, Pearls and Irritations, 7 July 2017 updated Follow-up to Professor Lyndall Ryan’s map, unveiled at the Australian Historical Association conference, of settler massacres of Indigenous Australians. The…
Two blogs about North Korea on Pearls and Irritations: taking a level-headed view of brinkmanship
Update 11 July 2017: another former Ambassador to Korea, Mack Williams, weighs in, suggesting that Australian alliance links with the United States are the most likely cause of our being a target for North Korean missiles (Pearls and Irritations). Dennis…
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The Conversation on cancer, comrades and cyber warfare: helping Dear Reader to keep up
Honest History has often sung the praises of The Conversation because it provides readable, evidence-based material from people who know their stuff. We suspect that many of our readers also read The Conversation. But we still think it is worth…
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Wahlquist, Calla: Map of massacres of Indigenous people reveals untold history of Australia, painted in blood
Calla Wahlquist ‘Map of massacres of Indigenous people reveals untold history of Australia, painted in blood‘, Guardian Australia, 5 July 2017 updated Reports a paper by Professor Lyndall Ryan (University of Newcastle) at the Australian Historical Association conference in Newcastle.…
This week in the Russian Revolution 1917: courtesy of the World Socialist Web Site – and Alexander Kerensky
We have previously respectfully drawn readers’ attention to the resources of the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), which tracks world politics from the perspective of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). The Fourth International was founded by Leon…
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Death of Emeritus Professor Antonio (Tony) Sagona of the University of Melbourne
Honest History notes the death on 29 June of Emeritus Professor Antonio (Tony) Sagona of the University of Melbourne, and offers condolences to his friends and family. A death notice is here and the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Glyn…
Allen, Liz: Australia doesn’t have a population policy – why?
Liz Allen ‘Australia doesn’t have a population policy – why?’, The Conversation, 3 July 2017 updated Despite recommendations from inquiries over a number of years, Australia lacks a population policy. Includes key graphs covering decades and concludes as follows: A…
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Armenian Genocide 1915-23: 43 distinguished Australians call on SBS to change its approach to this historic humanitarian disaster
Honest History has provided many resources on the Armenian Genocide (use our Search engine with term ‘Armenian’). The Honest History Book includes a chapter by Vicken Babkenian and Judith Crispin on Australian involvement with Armenians after the Genocide, which is…
Gillard, Julia: John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library Anniversary Lecture, Perth
Julia Gillard ‘John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library Anniversary Lecture, Perth‘, Beyond Blue, 28 June 2017 Former prime minister, now chairperson of a mental health organisation, Beyond Blue, speaking about another former prime minister who had mental health issues. Curtin’s determination…
Gainsborough, Vance: Tocsin first and Meanjin latest: alarm bells at the bend in the river: review note
Vance Gainsborough* ‘Tocsin first and Meanjin latest: alarm bells at the bend in the river: review note’, Honest History, 2 July 2017 A ‘tocsin’ is an alarm bell or signal and ‘Meanjin’ is an Indigenous word for the bend in…
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Highlights reel: Hilary Mantel, historical novelist, on what history is all about
Dame Hilary Mantel (author of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and other books) is this year’s Reith Lecturer for the BBC. You can find transcripts and audio of the lectures (weekly, 13 June 2017 for five weeks) on the…
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Menadue, John: By accepting funding from weapons suppliers the Australian War Memorial demeans Australia’s war dead
John Menadue ‘By accepting funding from weapons suppliers the Australian War Memorial demeans Australia’s war dead‘, Pearls and Irritations, 30 June 2017 John Menadue, former senior public servant and businessman, wrote to Brendan Nelson, Director of the War Memorial, to…
Hayes, Sarah: Gold Rush Victoria was as wasteful as we are today
Sarah Hayes ‘Gold Rush Victoria was as wasteful as we are today‘, The Conversation, 29 June 2017 Archaeological excavations across Melbourne have uncovered masses of rubbish dating back to the Gold Rush era of the 1850s and 1860s. Artefacts recovered…
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Census results: 45.5 per cent of us had one or both parents born overseas – but does the Anglo-Celtic narrative still dominate?
The Conversation has a comprehensive coverage of the results of the 2016 Census (six articles from this week, plus earlier material), released yesterday. The Census website goes into further detail. There is also a video on the Guardian Australia site…
Eligon, John: Australia through American eyes (New York Times and ABC Foreign Correspondent)
John Eligon ‘Australia through American eyes‘, New York Times, 26 June 2017 Journalist Eligon, who writes about race for the Times, visits the Kimberley, Murray Island, Inala (Brisbane) and other parts of Australia, talking to Indigenous Australians. The article complements…
Australian War Memorial’s $16.1 million shed for big war things: money well spent?
As reported in the Canberra Times, the Australian War Memorial is making its case to the parliamentary Public Works Committee to build a $16.1 million facility at Mitchell in Canberra. On past form, the PWC will put a tick on…
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Stephens, David: “Australian values” and security: have we been here before?
David Stephens ‘”Australian values” and security: have we been here before?’ Honest History, 26 June 2017 updated Note: related material on section 44 of the Constitution. Update 19 October 2017: the Government’s proposed citizenship changes fail to pass the Senate.…
Piccini, Jon: Amnesty International and conscientious objection in Australia’s Vietnam War
Jon Piccini ‘Amnesty International and conscientious objection in Australia’s Vietnam War‘, JHI Blog, 13 June 2017 This small case study provides insights into how the idea of human rights has been contested over time. Australia’s two Amnesty Sections – not…
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McGuinness, Phillipa: How to… write a book proposal
Phillipa McGuinness ‘How to … write a book proposal’, AHA Early Career Researchers Blog, 22 June 2017 What a buzzy little production this blog is and this is a really useful short note on it from the Executive Publisher of…
Stephens, David: Graham Freudenberg, elegant and erudite scribe of an important era in Australian politics – and earlier
David Stephens ‘Graham Freudenberg, elegant and erudite scribe of an important era in Australian politics – and earlier’, Honest History, 22 June 2017 Norman Graham Freudenberg AM is 83 years old this year. He has written speeches for Labor leaders,…
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Lowy Institute Poll 2017 shows some shifts in Australians’ opinions about the world out there
The Lowy Institute annually polls Australian opinions on international relations. This year’s poll (1200 respondents by telephone in the first half of March) yielded these results (key points only, Executive summary, more at the link above): Most Australians (79%) are…
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Talking about The Conversation: five easy pieces in just a few days
Update 22 June 2017: and, lo, just as we ruled a line and settled on the headline, The Conversation came good again with: three charts on looming differential access to the National Broadband Network (digital divide, another form of inequality);…
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Muller, Denis: Mixed media: how Australia’s newspapers became locked in a war of left versus right
Denis Muller ‘Mixed media: how Australia’s newspapers became locked in a war of left versus right‘, The Conversation, 19 June 2017 updated Historical view of the ownership and attitudes of Australian newspapers since the 19th century, though nowadays it is…
Daley, Paul: The legacy reverberates: how a repulsive image reminds us of our ugly past
Paul Daley ‘The legacy reverberates: how a repulsive image reminds us of our ugly past‘, Guardian Australia, 19 June 2017 Riffs off Every Mother’s Son is Guilty: Policing the Kimberley Frontier of Western Australia 1882-1905, by Chris Owen, the cover…
Stephens, David: Now that the Ataturk Memorial at Gallipoli is being restored … some options for President Erdogan to consider
David Stephens ‘Now that the Atatürk Memorial at Gallipoli is being restored … some options for President Erdoğan to consider’, Honest History, 18 June 2017 updated Update 13 July 2017: interesting questions posed (in Turkish) by veteran Gallipoli tour guide,…
Honest History E-newsletter No. 44, 13 June 2017
ISSN: 2202-5561 © The Honest History Book New on the Honest History website Democratic opposition to war: the 1916-17 anti-conscription campaigns: Barry Jones’ keynote speech to the Brunswick-Coburg conscription conference, 20 May Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War…
Stephens, David: Anzac is not just the One Day of the Year: the myth that just keeps on giving
David Stephens ‘Anzac is not just the One Day of the Year: the myth that just keeps on giving’, Honest History, 16 June 2017 While we have been promoting The Honest History Book – which is doing very well, thank…
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Turkish Gallipoli memorials refurbishment takes out Ataturk’s apocryphal ‘Those heroes’ words – for now at least
Update 18 June 2017: our considered view on all of this, including three options for what to do next – addressed to President Erdogan. Update 18 June 2017: Yahoo 7; Courier Mail; Stuff Co NZ; Daily Mail; News Limited; West…
Winter, Geoffrey: AFL Aficionados!! Not many people know this
Geoffrey Winter* ‘AFL Aficionados!! Not many people know this’, Honest History, 15 June 2017 Jock McHale (Wikipedia) In 120 years of VFL-AFL premiership competition (1897-2016), 25 coaches have led their clubs to just one premiership each. Another 25 coaches have…
Butler, Richard: Turnbull, Trump and the Alliance
Richard Butler ‘Turnbull, Trump and the Alliance‘, Pearls and Irritations, 14 June 2017 updated Update 3 August 2017: Richard Broinowski in Pearls and Irritations on the broader implications of the Talisman Sabre/Talisman Saber joint military exercise. Update 31 July 2017:…
Russell, Sophie & Eileen Baldry: Three charts on: Australia’s booming prison population
Sophie Russell & Eileen Baldry ‘Three charts on: Australia’s booming prison population‘, The Conversation, 14 June 2017 Ten years of ABS statistics on remand versus sentenced prisoner numbers (remand numbers going up more), Indigenous imprisonment rates (going up), women in…
Henley, Ben & Nerilie Abram: The three-minute story of 800,000 years of climate change with a sting in the tail
Ben Henley & Nerilie Abram ‘The three-minute story of 800,000 years of climate change with a sting in the tail‘, The Conversation, 13 June 2017 Includes a short video which puts recent climate change and carbon dioxide emissions into the context…
New edition of Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial complements The Honest History Book
Fourteen months ago, we posted on this website Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial. Since then the Guide has been downloaded more than 2000 times. A little more than two months ago, NewSouth published The Honest History…
Patience, Allan: It’s time for new politics
Allan Patience ‘It’s time for new politics‘, Pearls and Irritations, 12 June 2017 Looks at the recent success of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn and detects the fall of old politics and the rise of new. Only by implication are…
Moore, Robyn: History textbooks still imply that Australians are white
Robyn Moore ‘History textbooks still imply that Australians are white‘, The Conversation, 12 June 2017 Looks at textbooks from the 1950s on and concludes: Australian history textbooks have made considerable progress towards presenting more inclusive and balanced narratives. However, this…
Schultz, Julianne & Jerath Head, ed.: Griffith Review 56: Millennials Strike Back
Julianne Schultz & Jerath Head, ed. Griffith Review 56: Millennials Strike Back, April 2017 Millennials, those born in the final decades of the twentieth century, have had bad press for a long time. Now they are fighting back as they…
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Democratic opposition to war: the 1916-17 anti-conscription campaigns – impacts and legacies
Barry Jones ‘Democratic opposition to war: the 1916-17 anti-conscription campaigns – impacts and legacies (Keynote address, Brunswick-Coburg Anti-Conscription Commemoration Campaign Conference, 20 May 2017)’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 The conscription referendums as a turning point in Australian politics I…
Jones, Barry: Democratic opposition to war: the 1916-17 anti-conscription campaigns – impacts and legacies
Barry Jones ‘Democratic opposition to war: the 1916-17 anti-conscription campaigns – impacts and legacies (Keynote address, Brunswick-Coburg Anti-Conscription Commemoration Campaign Conference, 20 May 2017)’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 This one day conference addressed a number of aspects of the…
Rosen, Sue: Scorched Earth: Australia’s Secret Plan for Total War under Japanese Invasion in World War II
Sue Rosen Scorched Earth: Australia’s Secret Plan for Total War under Japanese Invasion in World War II, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2017 In 1942 the threat of Japanese invasion hung over Australia. The men were away overseas, fighting on other…
Munday, Bruce: Those Wild Rabbits: How They Shaped Australia
Bruce Munday Those Wild Rabbits: How They Shaped Australia, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2017 Those Wild Rabbits highlights not only the damage done but also Australia’s missed opportunities for real rabbit control. It recognises the bush’s paradoxical love affair with an…
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Britain, Australia, New Zealand, SEATO, the secret war in Laos, and counter insurgency expert Colonel “Ted” Serong
Willy Bach ‘Britain, Australia, New Zealand, SEATO, the secret war in Laos, and counter insurgency expert Colonel “Ted” Serong’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 updated Australia’s war in Vietnam has been relatively well documented. Less is known, however, about what…
Honest History: Second edition of Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial
Honest History ‘Second edition of Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial‘, Honest History, 13 June 2017 updated Update 1 October 2017: the For Country, For Nation exhibition (discussed in the Alternative Guide) closed in Canberra in September…
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Time-travelling millennials: Griffith Review 56
‘Time-travelling millennials: Griffith Review 56’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 Emily Gallagher* reviews Griffith Review 56: Millennials Strike Back There is no such thing as a normative childhood. Generations of children might share in a collection of culturally specific circumstances,…
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Bach, Willy: Britain, Australia, New Zealand, SEATO, the secret war in Laos, and counter insurgency expert Colonel “Ted” Serong
Willy Bach ‘Britain, Australia, New Zealand, SEATO, the secret war in Laos, and counter insurgency expert Colonel “Ted” Serong’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 updated Update 28 June 2017: Willy Bach died yesterday. Honest History sends condolences to his friends…
Scorched earth flames are fanned again (review of Rosen)
‘Scorched earth flames are fanned again’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 Derek Abbott* reviews Sue Rosen’s Scorched Earth: Australia’s Secret Plan for Total War under Japanese Invasion in World War II The reality of the threat of a Japanese invasion…
Myrtle, John: How wild rabbits shaped the wide brown land (review of Munday)
John Myrtle* ‘How wild rabbits shaped the wide brown land’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 John Myrtle reviews Those Wild Rabbits: How They Shaped Australia by Bruce Munday It is strange but undoubtedly the fact that animals brought from Europe…
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Leadbeater, Kate: Teaching Indigenous archaeology: when the evidence is just next door
Kate Leadbeater* ‘Teaching Indigenous archaeology: when the evidence is just next door’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 When I took on the Stage 1 Ancient Studies class my thoughts instantly went to the Roman Empire, Egypt, Greece, and all those…
Centenary Watch June-July 2017
Update 5 July 2017: Enlistment news from a century ago: Australians prefer not to be there We run this graph from time to time (courtesy of Joan Beaumont, Broken Nation, where the original graph and Ernest Scott’s figures appear in…
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Recently on the Honest History website (13 June 2017)
We launched the Honest History website in November 2013. At that time we had about 600 posts on the site. In June 2017, we have more than 2500 posts on the site and most of those posts include links to…
Taylor, Elizabeth & Andrew Butt: Three charts on: Australia’s declining taste for beef and growing appetite for chicken
Elizabeth Taylor & Andrew Butt ‘Three charts on: Australia’s declining taste for beef and growing appetite for chicken‘, The Conversation, 9 June 2017 Just what it says on the tin. ‘Australians were once world champion beef-eaters but now you’re much…
Michael Piggott AM: Honour for Honest History’s Treasurer
Congratulations to Michael Piggott, who has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday honours list, ‘for significant service to the community as an archivist with national and international educational and cultural organisations, and…
Sparrow, Jeff: Internment is so hot right now, but it’s nothing new in Australia
Jeff Sparrow ‘Internment is so hot right now, but it’s nothing new in Australia‘, Guardian Australia, 10 June 2017 Pauline Hanson and others have discussed the possibility of interning perceived suspicious persons. Sparrow recalls how internment was carried out in…
Breen, Sally: Friday essay: the 90s – why you had to be there
Sally Breen ‘Friday essay: the 90s – why you had to be there‘, The Conversation, 9 June 2017 Review of – and thoughts provoked by – a new exhibition, Every Brilliant Eye: Australian Art of the 1990s, at the National…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (24): Soldiers’ farewells and welcomes 1917
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Phil Cashen shows in this post on the excellent Shire at War blog (‘Soldiers’ farewells and welcomes in the first half of 1917’) how intense agendas ran deep beneath the apparently simple gesture of farewelling…
Daley, Paul: Tim Fischer’s ties
Paul Daley ‘Tim Fischer’s ties‘, Museum of Australian Democracy Old Parliament House Blog, 7 June 2017 An example of how to hang an insightful biographical piece off a clothing accessory (which, in this case, itself hangs, but hangs correctly only…
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Reed, Liz & Lee Arnold: Naracoorte, where half a million years of biodiversity and climate history are trapped in caves
Liz Reed & Lee Arnold ‘Naracoorte, where half a million years of biodiversity and climate history are trapped in caves‘, The Conversation, 6 June 2017 About the Naracoorte Caves in South Australia, one of the world’s best fossil sites, where…
Australian Bureau of Statistics: GDP growth moderates as dwelling investment and exports detract from growth
Australian Bureau of Statistics ‘GDP growth moderates as dwelling investment and exports detract from growth‘ (Media release, 7 June 2017) Growth actually slowed in the March quarter (0.3 per cent) and the ABS presser was ‘just the facts’ but those…
Wright, Clare: How Australia became a nation, and women won the vote
Clare Wright ‘How Australia became a nation, and women won the vote‘, The Conversation, 6 June 2017 Article to mark the 120th anniversary of the Australasian Federal Convention in Adelaide (Queensland absent). Among the outcomes of the Convention was votes…
Abjorensen, Norman: Ben Chifley’s botched attempt to nationalise Australia’s banks
Norman Abjorensen ‘Ben Chifley’s botched attempt to nationalise Australia’s banks‘, Canberra Times (Public Sector Informant), 6 June 2017 Against the background of another poke at banking power, this time by a conservative government, this is a concise summary of Chifley’s…
Boucher, Leigh: Only Heaven Knows brings 1940s queer Sydney roaring back to life
Leigh Boucher ‘Only Heaven Knows brings 1940s queer Sydney roaring back to life‘, The Conversation, 6 June 2017 A revived musical gives an insight into a Kings Cross lifestyle that flourished during the war years, then faded for a while. The…
‘A passionate argument for a wider Australian history’: The Honest History Book reviewed in Newtown Review of Books
Posted today in the Newtown Review of Books is a review of The Honest History Book by Adelaide author, Bernard Whimpress. This [the book] is a passionate argument for a wider Australian history. Never have so many ringing phrases from…
Five links from left field: communism, radicalism, war and peace, utopia, Tiananmen Square
Sometimes we like to post miscellanies of links – small collections that range reasonably widely but still have a theme. These five are from left field, if not entirely from the left-hand end of that rather glib and facile left-right…
Myrtle, John: Vale David Biles: A pioneer of Australian criminology
John Myrtle* ‘Vale David Biles: A pioneer of Australian criminology‘, Age, 6 June 2017 (an earlier, edited version appeared in the Canberra Times) ‘David Biles was a pioneer of criminology in Australia. Over many years he contributed to the development of…
Blight, David: The Battle for Memorial Day in New Orleans
David Blight ‘The Battle for Memorial Day in New Orleans‘, The Atlantic, 29 May 2017 Examines the recent Memorial Day oration of Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, at a time when the former Confederate states of America are again…
Mendelssohn, Joanna: Defying Empire: the legacy of 1967
Joanna Mendelssohn ‘Defying Empire: the legacy of 1967‘, The Conversation, 26 May 2017 Review of National Gallery of Australia exhibition on till 10 September. ‘Curator Tina Baum has woven a narrative and an argument around the legacy of that remarkable…
Lee, Nicole: Three charts on: Australia’s changing drug and alcohol habits
Nicole Lee ‘Three charts on: Australia’s changing drug and alcohol habits‘, The Conversation, 1 June 2017 updated Australians are using less alcohol, tobacco and other drugs than they did a decade ago, according to the Australian Institute of Health and…
Three thought-provoking foreign and defence policy posts (no, actually four) on the Pearls and Irritations blog
Even when the times are out of joint, the Australian media is not good at looking intelligently at issues of foreign and defence policy. Stories that can be linked to striking pictures – of oddball leaders gloating over missile test…
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Broinowski, Alison: The Merkel moment: wherever that works
Alison Broinowski ‘The Merkel moment: wherever that works‘, Pearls and Irritations, 30 May 2017 Chancellor Merkel’s remark that the United States is no longer reliable, and that Europe should look after itself, should also be a wake-up call for Australia.…
Hudson, Marc: Who tilts at windmills? Explaining hostility to renewables
Marc Hudson ‘Who tilts at windmills? Explaining hostility to renewables‘, The Conversation, 29 May 2017 Looks at the history of why Australian policy makers have opposed solar and wind energy options. In a search for explanations for this, my paper…
Head, Mike: Australia’s billionaires celebrate a “wealth boom”
Mike Head ‘Australia’s billionaires celebrate a “wealth boom”‘, World Socialist Web Site, 29 May 2017 Useful analysis of this year’s Australian Financial Review (AFR) Rich 200 List. The article nicely captures the breathless style of John Stensholt’s original piece (which…
Robertson, Joshua: Australian convict pirates in Japan: evidence of 1830 voyage unearthed
Joshua Robertson ‘Australian convict pirates in Japan: evidence of 1830 voyage unearthed‘, Guardian Australia, 28 May 2017 An amateur historian [Nick Russell] has unearthed compelling evidence that the first Australian maritime foray into Japanese waters was by convict pirates on…
Putting Reconciliation Week in context: Lest We Forget Queensland Genocide
Reconciliation Week runs annually from 27 May, the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, to 3 June, the anniversary of the Mabo decision in 1992. The theme for this year is ‘Let’s take the next steps’, which is appropriate, given the…
Patience, Allan: Australia’s involvement in an “Anglosphere” is the delusion of a golden age that never existed
Allan Patience ‘Australia’s involvement in an “Anglosphere” is the delusion of a golden age that never existed‘, The Conversation, 24 May 2017 Post-Brexit, some in Britain are turning to a resurrected Commonwealth as the basis of an alternative to Europe.…
Baker, Phillip: Fat nation: the rise and fall of obesity on the political agenda
Phillip Baker ‘Fat nation: the rise and fall of obesity on the political agenda‘, The Conversation, 26 May 2017 Tackling obesity should be a political priority but it is a tough challenge: many causes, no quick fix, lack of regulatory…
Yu, Ouyang: Billy Sing
Ouyang Yu Billy Sing, Transit Lounge, Melbourne, 2017 William “Billy” Sing was born in 1886 to an English mother and Chinese father. He and his two sisters were brought up in Clermont and Proserpine, in rural Queensland. He was one of…
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A gun that shoots right through history (review of Ouyang Yu on Billy Sing)
‘A gun that shoots right through history’, Honest History, 27 May 2017 Christina Spittel[*] reviews Ouyang Yu’s novel, Billy Sing Is there anything new to be said about Chinese-Australian sniper Billy Sing, who killed so many Turks at Gallipoli that…
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‘A long overdue reassessment’: Steven Carroll on The Honest History Book
The Sydney Morning Herald has a review note by Steven Carroll in which he describes The Honest History Book as ‘[a] long overdue reassessment’ of an Australian history long Anzac-dominated. There is more about the book here, including reviews by…
Bottoms, Timothy: Genocide in colonial Queensland, Australia
Timothy Bottoms ‘Genocide in colonial Queensland, Australia‘, Honest History, 26 May 2017 The attached pdf is a revised and extended version of the prologue to the author’s 2013 book, Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland’s Frontier Killing Times. Honest History thanks Timothy…
Atkinson-Phillips, Alison: Remembering Colebrook and the Stolen Generations, 1997 and 20 years
Alison Atkinson-Phillips* ‘Remembering Colebrook and the Stolen Generations, 1997 and 20 years on’, Honest History, 26 May 2017 Twenty years ago, on ‘Reconciliation Sunday’, 1 June 1997, some 2000 people gathered on a vacant lot in the Adelaide hills to…
Daley, Paul: Five factors that will shape the outcome for ‘recognise’ at Uluru
Paul Daley ‘Five factors that will shape the outcome for “recognise” at Uluru‘, Guardian Australia, 24 May 2017 updated Surveys the state of play as the Uluru conference gets under way. The ‘five factors’: the lack of interest of many…
James Brown elected as president of NSW RSL
Author and commentator James Brown has been elected president of the New South Wales Branch of the Returned and Services League. Brown, now at the University of Sydney and formerly with the Lowy Institute, is a retired Captain in the…
Online Gem No. 13: Researching Australia’s prime ministers
‘Online Gem No. 13: Researching Australia’s prime ministers’, Honest History, 23 May 2017 The Australia’s Prime Ministers website, published and curated by the National Archives of Australia (NAA) provides useful information on every one of Australia’s 29 prime ministers, from…
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Donate to the National Library to help share the story of Sidney Nolan
The National Library of Australia is raising funds to preserve and improve access to the papers of Australian artist, Sidney Nolan. There are 160 boxes of material needing rehousing and description. Selective digitisation will give researchers and art-lovers access to…
Better not forget The Forgotten People: 75 years since RG Menzies’ direction-setting speech
There is to be a big dinner at Parliament House tonight to mark the 75th anniversary of a broadcast delivered on radio station 2GB, 3AW and others by a former prime minister, but then humble backbencher, the Right Honourable Robert…
Werskey, Gary: The Anzac Christmas card
Gary Werskey ‘The Anzac Christmas card‘, Honest History, 22 May 2017 Tells the story of the Anzac Christmas card of 1915, produced under the direction of Lady Birdwood, wife of General Birdwood, and illustrated by the Australian artist AH Fullwood,…
Gallagher, Emily: The first war for country, for nation
Emily Gallagher ‘The first war for country, for nation‘, Inside Story, 18 May 2017 A review of the For Country, For Nation exhibition at the Australian War Memorial. Another review, by David Stephens for Honest History, is here and should…
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Appleby, Gabrielle & Sean Brennan: The long road to recognition
Gabrielle Appleby & Sean Brennan ‘The long road to recognition‘, Inside Story, 19 May 2017 updated Updated 24 May 2017: Paul Daley in Guardian Australia: Given the disparate experiences [says Daley] of delegates and their divergent views (on recognition versus…
Stephens, David: Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (23): ‘A wartime police state’: Australia’s War Precautions Act during the war for freedom
David Stephens ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (23): ‘A wartime police state’: Australia’s War Precautions Act during the war for freedom’, Honest History, 19 May 2017 updated The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Every country at war takes measures to protect…
Stephens, David: Afghanistan infinitum or walking away? The possible cost of shared values
David Stephens ‘Afghanistan infinitum or walking away? The possible cost of shared values’, Honest History, 18 May 2017 updated Update 30 May 2017: Defence Minister Payne announces 30 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan, in a training capacity. Comments.…
SBS, The Australian and the Armenian Genocide: a recent exchange of views
Update 26 June 2017: more on this story from Mitchell Bingemann again in The Australian of 26 June and from Michael Ebeid of SBS in Senate Estimates (from page 87 of the proof Hansard). George Donikian, Armenian-Australian, former SBS and…
Butler, Richard: The Honest History Book (UNSW Press 2017)
Richard Butler ‘The Honest History Book (UNSW Press 2017)‘, Pearls and Irritations, 15 May 2017 A review of The Honest History Book. This is a book of singular importance [says Butler]. It provides the evidence and materials for the correction…
Broinowski, Alison: Reading Room: Fighting with America (review of James Curran)
Alison Broinowski ‘Reading Room: Fighting with America‘, Australian Outlook, 8 May 2017 This is a review note of James Curran’s book, Fighting with America: Why Saying No to the US Wouldn’t Rupture the Alliance. Honest History previously linked to an…
Bongiorno, Frank: Is Australian history still possible? Australia and the global Eighties: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Australian National University, 10 May 2017
Frank Bongiorno ‘Is Australian history still possible? Australia and the global Eighties: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Australian National University, 10 May 2017‘, Honest History, 15 May 2017 This lecture canvasses some of the themes and subject matter in the author’s prize-winning…
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Is Australian history still possible? Australia and the global Eighties: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Australian National University, 10 May 2017
Frank Bongiorno* ‘Is Australian history still possible? Australia and the global Eighties: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Australian National University, 10 May 2017’, Honest History, 15 May 2017 It is a mark of the limiting character of a purely national perspective that…
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Haslam, Nick: Aussies don’t always copy the US – unlike Americans, our self-esteem has stayed the same since the 70s
Nick Haslam ‘Aussies don’t always copy the US – unlike Americans, our self-esteem has stayed the same since the 70s‘, The Conversation, 11 May 2017 An article about Australian psychology over the decades, reviewing 141 studies of Australian self-esteem between 1978…
Ross, Fiona: Humane and intimate, how the Red Cross helped families trace the fates of WW2 soldiers
Fiona Ross ‘Humane and intimate, how the Red Cross helped families trace the fates of WW2 soldiers‘, The Conversation, 11 May 2017 The University of Melbourne Archives now holds the series ‘Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Cards’, which…
Budget provisions on commemoration, Veterans’ Affairs, more space at the War Memorial, cultural institutions – and a machinery of government proposal
Update 12 May 2017: For a non-mainstream media view of the overall Budget, see the articles by Michael Keating, former Secretary of the Departments of Finance and Prime Minister and Cabinet, in Pearls and Irritations. Part 1, Part 2. There’s…
Abjorensen, Norman: The party switchers
Norman Abjorensen ‘The party switchers‘, Inside Story, 9 May 2017 Provoked by the puzzling switch of former Labor leader, Mark Latham, to the Liberal Democrats, this is a concise summary of rats, code switchers and swappers of horses, state and…
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Moss, Tristan & Tom Richardson, ed.: New Directions in War and History
Tristan Moss & Tom Richardson, ed. New Directions in War and History, Big Sky Publishing, Newport, NSW, 2016 (download full text) Papers from a Canberra conference (February 2016) held by the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and…
ABC Q&A comments by Minister Tehan and others show how far past Peak Anzac we have come
The ABC’s Q&A program last night (video; transcript; Twitter; ABC story) tackled a number of questions with compere Virginia Trioli and panellists including Dan Tehan, Minister for a number of things including the Centenary of Anzac and Veterans’ Affairs. Honest…
Lever, Susan: Reaping what was sown
Susan Lever ‘Reaping what was sown‘, Inside Story, 4 May 2017 A review of the book Like Nothing on this Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt by Tony Hughes-d’Aeth. The book examines the clearing of land in Western Australia…
Remembering 1967 (an excellent year) in Heidelberg
The hardworking Heidelberg (Melbourne) Historical Society announces its ‘Remembering ’67’ exhibition, now open at the Heidelberg Historical Society Museum, Jika Street, Heidelberg, every Sunday between 2.00 and 5.00 p.m until December. The poster below gives a flavour – brings it…
Shield, John: How to teach and commemorate Anzac: a view from Darwin High School
John Shield* ‘How to teach and commemorate Anzac: a view from Darwin High School’, Honest History, 6 May 2017 Part 1: Teaching I went teaching in 1988 and in every school there were always class sets of two texts in…
Phillips, Richard: Australia: Anzac Day and the official silence about anti-war opposition in WWI
Richard Phillips ‘Australia: Anzac Day and the official silence about anti-war opposition in WWI‘, World Socialist Web Site, 4 May 2017 The article notes the dominance this Anzac season of the received view of Anzac in Australia and, by contrast,…
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Honest History E-newsletter No. 43, 2 May 2017
ISSN: 2202-5561 © The Honest History Book is now well and truly launched (and sailing very well) New on the Honest History website Events like ‘Yassmin-gate’ are inherent in our often politically-driven sentimentality about war memory: Roger Markwick (University of…
Three Anzac season stories from the University of Melbourne’s Pursuit research report
The University of Melbourne does a regular report, Pursuit, on research being undertaken at the university. Recently, it posted: Michelle Moo on women doctors who fought to be able to provide medical services during World War I; Phill Cobbin on…
The Honest History Book: second Sydney launch at Australian Institute of International Affairs
At Glover Cottages, Kent Street, on 2 May, the first Tuesday after Anzac Day, a timely book edited by Dr David Stephens and Dr Alison Broinowski was on show to members and guests of the AIIA, New South Wales Branch.…
Hassan, Toni: Why does the War Memorial proudly display this booty from an illegal war?
Toni Hassan ‘Why does the War Memorial proudly display this booty from an illegal war?‘, Canberra Times, 3 May 2017 Also in other Fairfax and in Canberra Times hard copy. Reports the disappointment of former Australian War Memorial education officer,…
The Honest History Book media coverage
Our regularly updating promotional package on The Honest History Book includes links to media mentions of the book, including a number of articles which include excerpts from the book. As well, Guardian Australia published David Stephens’ op ed on the…
Brunswick-Coburg Anti-Conscription Commemoration Campaign Conference, 20 May
This important conference is to be held in Brunswick on Saturday, 20 May, at roughly the half-way point between the centenaries of the two unsuccessful conscription plebiscites during World War I. This all day event will cover details of the…
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Stephens, David: Anzac and Anzackery: have Australians normalised war?
David Stephens ‘Anzac and Anzackery: have Australians normalised war?’ Daily Review, 30 April 2017 Might we wade through the emotional sludge of Anzackery – the over-the-top, jingoistic bastardisation of the Anzac legend – to address some important questions about ‘our…
Lest we forget Lest We Forget: Rudyard Kipling’s Recessional: Honest History document
‘Lest we forget Lest We Forget: Rudyard Kipling’s “Recessional”: Honest History document’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 updated Update 4 June 2017: an Army musician sang ‘Recessional’ at the opening of the Boer War memorial in Canberra last week. Last…
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Broinowski, Alison: What Australian foreign policy?
Alison Broinowski ‘What Australian foreign policy?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 26 April 2017 updated Discusses Allan Gyngell’s new book, Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World since 1942. Gyngell, she concludes, ‘doesn’t endorse [former Prime Minister Malcolm] Fraser’s radical call for…
Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University: Contemporary Histories Blog
The group has commenced a new series on exploring contemporary histories and decision-making. It gets under way with a note from Carolyn Holbrook on ‘The Australian Federation of the Mind’. She points to something of a contradiction in the way…
Turnbull, Noel: Anzac Day at Port Melbourne
Noel Turnbull ‘Anzac Day at Port Melbourne‘, Noel Turnbull Blog, 25 April 2017 Noel Turnbull, a Vietnam veteran and former media and communications executive, spoke at the Anzac Day service at Port Melbourne. Most of those young men didn’t enlist…
Recently on the Honest History site (2 May 2017)
We at Honest History are very much aware that posts rumble through our site fairly rapidly. This note is to help you catch up with recent posts you might have missed. You can also go to the tagged lists under…
Centenary Watch May-June 2017
Update 22 May 2017: The Anzac Christmas card Gary Werskey on the project run by Lady Birdwood and the artist AH Fulwood to produce 50 000 Christmas cards for Anzac troops to send home in 1915. Update 20 May 2017:…
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Bond, Catherine: Anzac: The Landing, The Legend, The Law
Catherine Bond Anzac: The Landing, The Legend, The Law, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 The year 2016 marks an ‘Anzac’ anniversary of a different kind: the centenary of legal regulation over use of the term ‘Anzac’ in Australia and internationally.…
Pender, Margaret: High flying and capital crime between the wars: The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller (review of Baxter)
Margaret Pender* ‘High flying and capital crime between the wars: The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Margaret Pender reviews The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller, by Carol Baxter This is the story of Jessie ‘Chubbie’ Miller, the…
Baxter, Carol: The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller
Carol Baxter The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2017 When the young Jessie left suburban Melbourne and her newspaperman husband in 1927, little did she know that she’d become the first woman to complete an England to…
Word War One: how the law shaped the Anzac legend (review of Bond)
‘Word War One: how the law shaped the Anzac legend’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Jo Hawkins reviews Catherine Bond’s Anzac: The Landing, The Legend, The Law In the weeks leading up to the 2015 centenary of the Gallipoli landing,…
Piggott, Michael: Indigenous war service: two exhibitions at the National Archives of Australia
Michael Piggott ‘Indigenous war service: two exhibitions at the National Archives of Australia’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 A review of two exhibitions, Indigenous Australians at War from the Boer War to the Present (touring from the Shrine of Remembrance,…
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Indigenous war service: two exhibitions at the National Archives of Australia
Michael Piggott* ‘Indigenous war service: two exhibitions at the National Archives of Australia’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Showing at the moment in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is an exhibition of work by the renowned World War…
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Markwick, Roger D.: The “sacralisation” of history and state legitimation
Roger D. Markwick ‘The “sacralisation” of history and state legitimation’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 The furore over the recent remarks of Yassmin Abdel-Magied raises important issues about the possibility of dissent against received – and state-promoted – views of…
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The “sacralisation” of history and state legitimation
Roger D. Markwick* ‘The “sacralisation” of history and state legitimation’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 This is a slightly edited version of a paper presented to a conference, History and Authority: Political Vocabularies of the Modern Age, Humanities Research Centre,…
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Wallace, Donald M.: The Web of Empire (1902): highlights reel of a royal visit to Brisbane
Donald Mackenzie Wallace ‘The Web of Empire (1902): highlights reel of a royal visit to Brisbane’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Members of the Royal Family have visited Australia regularly since Prince Alfred was here in 1867. (He was shot…
Stephens, David: ‘Afghanistan: The Australian Story shows war is about much more than “love and friendship”
David Stephens ‘Afghanistan: The Australian Story shows war is about much more than “love and friendship”’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 A review of Chris Masters’ double DVD for the Australian War Memorial. (Trailer; ABC story.) The DVDs contain footage…
Afghanistan: The Australian Story shows war is about much more than “love and friendship”
David Stephens ‘Afghanistan: The Australian Story shows war is about much more than “love and friendship”’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Serendipity can be illuminating. This reviewer began to watch Chris Masters’ double DVD, Afghanistan: The Australian Story, on the…
Angry Anzac Day 2017: three pieces from Guardian Australia: get those responses rolling in
Update 1 October 2017: Autobiographical piece from Yassmin Abdel-Magied covers the Anzac fuss. Update 18 August 2017: Yassmin Abdel-Magied talks about being Australia’s most publicly hated Muslim. Update 7 August 2017: Yassmin Abdel-Magied wonders where the free speech defenders were…
On every Anzac Day: a rapid round-up of reports before rumbling on to the next ridge
Related material: earlier; later. *** Two years ago, media academic Sharon Mascall-Dare wrote about how journalists every year slip into a standard Anzac Day reporting mode. Look for an old Digger, some attractive young kiddies waving flags, and someone crying,…
The full set: seven pieces of non-mainstream, non-marked up, non-profit commentary for Anzac Day
Related material: later; later still. *** Updated with a few more on Anzac Day itself This Anzac season, as in a number of previous years, Australian children – and possibly some adults, too – can pick up some Anzac mementoes…
Stephens, David: ‘”Johnnies and Mehmets”: Kemal Ataturk’s “quote” is an Anzac confidence trick
David Stephens ‘“Johnnies and Mehmets”: Kemal Ataturk’s “quote” is an Anzac confidence trick‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 April 2017 updated Edited version of David Stephens and Burcin Cakir’s chapter 7 of The Honest History Book. The words attributed to Ataturk,…
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West, Brad & Ayhan Aktar: How a more divided Turkey could change the way we think about Gallipoli
Brad West & Ayhan Aktar ‘How a more divided Turkey could change the way we think about Gallipoli‘, The Conversation, 21 April 2017 Discusses how the classical Turkish (essentially Kemalist) narrative of Gallipoli is being replaced under Erdogan by a more…
Four cautionary views about North Korea, including from the Australian perspective
Update 24 April 2017: Ramesh Thakur, James O’Neill, and Mack Williams in Pearls and Irritations. The recent voyage of the USS Carl Vinson will for some time tie Australia and North Korea together, as the ship’s original destination and the…
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McKenna, Mark: Friday essay: King, Queen and country – will Anzac thwart republicanism?
Mark McKenna ‘Friday essay: King, Queen and country – will Anzac thwart republicanism?‘ The Conversation, 21 April 2017 updated Update 31 July 2017: Benjamin T. Jones in Guardian Australia wonders what is holding Prime Minister Turnbull back from a referendum…
Successful launch of The Honest History Book in Melbourne with Jonathan Green
The Honest History Book launchathon ended last evening at Readings Carlton with about 50 people in attendance. Jonathan Green of Meanjin and ABC RN cycled up Lygon Street from the ABC to do the launch honours and co-editor David Stephens…
Jericho, Greg: Malcolm Turnbull’s myth of “middle Australia” ignores both gender and reality
Greg Jericho ‘Malcolm Turnbull’s myth of “middle Australia” ignores both gender and reality‘, Guardian Australia, 18 April 2017 Looks at taxation statistics to ‘highlight that middle Australia earns much less than the government would have you believe and that women…
Welcome to what? A note on immigration, multiculturalism and ‘Australian values’
Update 19 March 2018: proposal by Minister Dutton to bring white South African farmers to Australia is linked by Jon Piccini in The Conversation to a historic Australian whiteness trope. Update 19 October 2017: the Government’s proposed citizenship changes fail…
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Goodall, Jane: Waking up a quiet country, five nights a week
Jane Goodall ‘Waking up a quiet country, five nights a week‘, Inside Story, 13 April 2017 Is it really 50 years since This Day Tonight started? The late Bill Peach, TDT’s first compere, had a good grasp on the significance…
Mnemosyne: online opportunity for feminist writers on the New South Wales South Coast
Mnemosyne is a new online journal wrangled by feminist writers on the south coast of New South Wales. It ‘celebrates the power and vitality of women’s storytelling and acknowledges the deep connection that many South Coast women, particularly Indigenous women,…
Grant, Bruce: Subtle Moments: Scenes on a Life’s Journey
Bruce Grant Subtle Moments: Scenes on a Life’s Journey, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 Veteran journalist and foreign affairs commentator writes about his long life and his views of the world. Bruce Grant was Australian High Commissioner to India (1973–76),…
Stephens, David: Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (22): The Finland Station and Flinders Street
David Stephens ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (22): The Finland Station and Flinders Street’, Honest History, 16 April 2017 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Today (16 April) is exactly one hundred years since Lenin arrived at the Finland Station in…
John Pilger’s The Coming War on China is on SBS on Sunday: here’s a resource package
Late last year, John Pilger, journalist and film-maker, released his documentary, The Coming War on China. It didn’t get much of a run in theatres though it got a review in the Sydney Morning Herald and another in The Age,…
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The Honest History Book launched in Sydney with great speech from Associate Professor Michelle Arrow
A wet night in Glebe yesterday saw the Sydney launch of The Honest History Book. Around 80 people braved the rain and found their way to the upper room at Gleebooks, where proceedings were wrangled efficiently by James Ross. David…
Biddle, Nicholas: First results from the 2016 Census paint a picture of who the “typical” Australian is
Nicholas Biddle ‘First results from the 2016 Census paint a picture of who the “typical” Australian is‘, The Conversation, 11 April 2017 For the statistical agency of a supposedly diverse country to bother presenting a picture of ‘a typical Australian’…
Five points for John Clarke, also known as Fred Dagg, Trans-Tasman observer: incisive but no prick
The death of John Clarke, comedian and satirist, has brought forth some nice pieces of an obituarial bent. The present writer recalls snuffling with glee over Fred Dagg books and, a little later, chuckling at Farnarkling (a much more plausible…
McMullin, Ross: Bill Leak and Will Dyson: cartoonists and artists compared across a century
Ross McMullin* ‘Bill Leak and Will Dyson: cartoonists and artists compared across a century’, Honest History, 10 April 2017 When Bill Leak delivered a typically engaging presentation in Sydney a decade ago on the remarkably talented Australian cartoonist Will Dyson,…
The Constitution, White Australia and population shifts: recently on The Conversation
The online journal The Conversation continues to traverse a wide range of subject matter. Recently, we noted: Ryan Goss on how our Constitution came to be written and what we should do with it next; Benjamin T. Jones on the…
Two-thirds of Great Barrier Reef hit by back-to-back mass coral bleaching
Media release today from James Cook University, Townsville, widely reported in other media. For the second time in just 12 months, scientists have recorded severe coral bleaching across huge tracts of the Great Barrier Reef after completing aerial surveys along…
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Gergis, Joelle: Northern NSW is no stranger to floods, but this one was different
Joelle Gergis ‘Northern NSW is no stranger to floods, but this one was different‘, The Conversation, 7 April 2017 Looks at the factors behind the most recent flood and compares them with some historical examples, notably 1954 and 1974. We…
One hundred years since the United States entered the Great War, some comments on foreign and defence options
Updated 18 April 2017: Gareth Evans at the National Press Club (podcast and summary). Updated 17 April 2017: More from James O’Neill in Pearls and Irritations. Updated 14 April 2017: Mike Head on the World Socialist Web Site. Updated 13…
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The Honest History Book: Canberra launch with Tom Griffiths; ABC’s James Valentine interviews co-editor David Stephens
Last night around 60 people went to Muse Canberra to hear Professor Tom Griffiths AO of the ANU launch The Honest History Book in the national capital. Attendees agreed that the book is a significant contribution to Australian history and…
Babkenian, Vicken & Judith Crispin: Australia’s Armenian Story
Vicken Babkenian & Judith Crispin ‘Australia’s Armenian Story‘, Inside Story, 6 April 2017 This is a long extract from chapter 3 of The Honest History Book, published by NewSouth. It deals with the Armenian Genocide, which commenced 24 April 1915…
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Anzac Day travel advice for Turkey: terror threat but probably only small numbers travelling to Gallipoli
Ministers Bishop and Tehan and the Australian Federal Police have advised of ‘information which suggests terrorists may seek to target Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Turkish authorities are aware of this information and traditionally provide a high level…
Holbrook, Carolyn: Q & A with Peter Stanley
Carolyn Holbrook ‘Q & A with Peter Stanley and other historians, including early career historians‘, Australian Historical Association Early Career Researchers, 1 April 2017 updated Research professor at UNSW Canberra (and Past President of Honest History), Peter Stanley, discusses aspects…
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Professor Tom Griffiths AO wins Ernest Scott Prize; to launch The Honest History Book in Canberra
Honest History congratulates Professor Tom Griffiths AO from the Australian National University, who was last night awarded the Ernest Scott Prize from the University of Melbourne for his book The Art of Time Travel: Historians and Their Craft. Tom Griffiths…
Daley, Paul: Narcha’s remains have been repatriated. But colonialism’s malevolence lingers
Paul Daley ‘Narcha’s remains have been repatriated. But colonialism’s malevolence lingers‘, Guardian Australia, 3 April 2017 Douglas Grant is perhaps Australia’s best known Indigenous Anzac. The remains of one of Grant’s close relatives – Ngadjon elder Narcha, also known as…
Wilkie, Douglas: Duchene/Hargraves
Douglas Wilkie Duchene/Hargraves, Historia Incognita, Melbourne, 2016 This self-published book has the long sub-title or explanatory tag of ‘Alexandre Julien Duchene, Edward Hammond Hargraves and the discovery of gold in Australia, three or four days from Sydney’. This book looks…
Discovering the discovery of gold (review of Wilkie)
‘Discovering the discovery of gold’ (review of Wilkie), Honest History, 3 April 2017 Derek Abbott* reviews Duchene/Hargraves by Douglas Wilkie Generations of Australian school children are familiar from their history text books with the story of the discovery of gold…
Does this Advance Australia Fair? The Australian War Memorial’s new marketing slogan
Update 25 April 2017: Sue Wareham in Pearls and Irritations on the War Memorial’s reliance on funding from arms manufacturers. Update 15 April 2017: Canberra Airport is renowned already for its hosting of advertisements for arms manufacturers. The No Airport…
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Honest History E-newsletter No. 42, 21 March 2017
ISSN: 2202-5561 © The Honest History Book Launches: Canberra, 6 April; Sydney, 12 April; Melbourne, 20 April About the book, including Advance praise ‘This is collective history at its finest.’ (Melanie Oppenheimer, Flinders University) ______________ New on the Honest History website…
Butler, Richard: The myths of Australian foreign policy
Richard Butler ‘The myths of Australian foreign policy‘, Pearls and Irritations, 31 March 2017 The former senior Australian diplomat surveys the scene as Australia develops a foreign policy white paper. It will be of crucial importance in the review of…
Wearing three hats, an interesting collection of pressers from Minister Tehan
The member for Wannon, Dan Tehan, is minister for a number of things, although we mostly track his activities as Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac. A clutch of media releases from the Minister this week…
Six snippets of The Conversation (six years old this week) have echoes in The Honest History Book (now available)
Honest History was pleased to send happy sixth birthday wishes to The Conversation; it has been a valuable resource for our website. There are other connections also: some articles in The Conversation this week explore themes which are also evident…
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Saving young Indigenous lives: crowd-funding a suicide prevention app called ‘Kurdiji’
Update 24 April 2017: Judith Crispin writes in Pearls and Irritations. Judith Crispin, author, poet, musician and activist, has told us about ‘Kurdiji’, a community-led project initiated by Wanta Jampijinpa in Lajamanu and based on traditional Indigenous ideas around resilience…
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Essential Report evidence suggests Australians think relations with the United States are deteriorating
Nothing more than a straw in the wind, but an Essential poll put out today reports 41 per cent who think that Australia’s relationship with the United States is becoming worse, 6 per cent who think it is becoming better…
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Late Night Live kicks off media discussion of The Honest History Book
Update 29 March 2017: a recording of the broadcast. Late Night Live on Radio National tomorrow night (Tuesday, 28 March) will feature contributors to The Honest History Book, Alison Broinowski and Joy Damousi, talking to Phillip Adams about aspects of…
Brotherhood of St Laurence: Generation stalled: young, underemployed and living in poverty in Australia
Brotherhood of St Laurence Generation stalled: young, underemployed and living in poverty in Australia, Melbourne, 2017 In total [says the report] more than 650,000 young people were unemployed or underemployed – defined as having some work but wanting more hours…
Menadue, John: Our White Man’s Media again on display in London terrorist attack
John Menadue ‘Our White Man’s Media again on display in London terrorist attack‘, Pearls and Irritations, 27 March 2017 I have often commented that a person from Mars reading or listening to our media would conclude that Australia is an…
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Five easy pieces for weekend reading as the leaves start to fall
We at Honest History have been flat out promoting The Honest History Book but we found time to notice these: two articles (part 2) by HH distinguished supporter Richard Butler on the risks of Trump for Australia (Pearls and Irritations);…
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The Honest History Book is well and truly out there, presenting the evidence that Australia is more than Anzac – and always has been
Our publisher NewSouth advises us that The Honest History Book is now widely available in book shops ($A34.99, $NZ42.99). We have seen a list of shops so far and are impressed by the initial take-up. (If your shop doesn’t have…
Long white clouds of Atatürk myth over Aotearoa New Zealand
Long white clouds of Atatürk myth over Aotearoa New Zealand The other day at the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington, New Zealand Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Maggie Barry, and Turkish Ambassador, Ahmet Ergin, unveiled a sculpture…
Multiculturalism statement stresses diversity, ‘fair go’ and equality but reality is different
Update 21 March 2017: Andrew Jakubowicz in The Conversation comments on the statement. Neroli Colvin and John Tons in New Matilda. The Prime Minister and two of his ministers have released the government’s multiculturalism statement Multicultural Australia: United, Strong, Successful.…
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Allen, Christopher: Artists of the Great War: the pity and the propaganda
Christopher Allen ‘Artists of the Great War: the pity and the propaganda‘, The Australian, 18 March 2017 A review of a current exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (closes in June). We have not ceased to be fascinated…
Stephens, David: Allusions in Beanland: two exhibitions at the Australian War Memorial
David Stephens ‘Allusions in Beanland: two exhibitions at the Australian War Memorial‘, Honest History, 21 March 2017 updated This is a combined review of For Country, for Nation, about Indigenous service in defence of Australia, and A Home on a…
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Taylor, Rebe: Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity
Rebe Taylor Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2017 In 1908 English gentleman, Ernest Westlake, packed a tent, a bicycle and forty tins of food and sailed to Tasmania. On mountains, beaches…
Phillips, Walter: My late pilgrimage to Gallipoli
Walter Phillips ‘My late pilgrimage to Gallipoli‘, Honest History, 21 March 2017 Honest History is pleased to publish this piece from Walter Phillips, Emeritus Scholar at La Trobe University, Melbourne. It is comparable with the elegaic Anzac commemoration pieces from…
Allusions in Beanland: two exhibitions at the Australian War Memorial
David Stephens ‘Allusions in Beanland: two exhibitions at the Australian War Memorial’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 In September 2016, the War Memorial opened For Country, for Nation, an exhibition about Indigenous service in Australian defence forces from the Boer…
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Turning the yellow South Australian hills green? Marian Quartly on a state of hope
‘Turning the yellow South Australian hills green? Marian Quartly on a state of hope’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 Marian Quartly* reviews Griffith Review 55: State of Hope Any collection of essays focussing on a single state of Australia will…
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Munro, Doug: ‘How illuminating it has been’: Matthews and McKenna, and their biographies of Manning Clark
Doug Munro “‘How illuminating it has been”: Matthews and McKenna, and their biographies of Manning Clark’, Philip Payton, ed., Emigrants & Historians: Essays in Honour of Eric Richards, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2016, pp. 98-131 (pdf made available courtesy of the…
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My late pilgrimage to Gallipoli
Walter Phillips* ‘My late pilgrimage to Gallipoli’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 Since my childhood I have been aware of a connection with Gallipoli. This was largely because my father fought there and bore the marks of war in his…
Centenary Watch March-April 2017
Update 27 April 2017: Angry Anzac Day 2017: three pieces from Guardian Australia: get those responses rolling in Articles in Guardian Australia by Honest History’s David Stephens, Mariam Tokhi of Muslims for Progressive Values Australia, and Guardian Australia‘s Brigid Delaney,…
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Schultz, Julianne & Patrick Allington, ed.: State of Hope: Griffith Review 55
Julianne Schultz & Patrick Allington, ed. State of Hope: Griffith Review 55, January 2017 As the industrial model that shaped twentieth-century South Australia is replaced by an uncertain future, now more than ever the state needs to draw on the…
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Goreng Goreng, Tjanara: Into the heart of Tasmania with Mr Westlake (review of Taylor)
Tjanara Goreng Goreng* ‘Into the heart of Tasmania with Mr Westlake’ (review of Taylor), Honest History, 21 March 2017 Tjanara Goreng Goreng reviews Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity by Rebe Taylor We First Nations people…
Flora, Steve & David Stephens: Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (21): Australia reacts to the February 1917 Revolution in Russia: a look at newspapers of the day
Steve Flora & David Stephens The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (21): Australia reacts to the February 1917 Revolution in Russia: a look at newspapers of the day’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 Australia during the…
Latham, Mark: Insiders and outsiders (2002 Menzies Lecture, London): Highlights reel
Mark Latham ‘Insiders and outsiders (The 2002 Menzies Lecture, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King’s College London, 17 September 2002): Highlights reel’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 updated This is a 4000 word article, originally presented as a speech and…
Recently on the Honest History site (21 March 2017)
Even as we work up towards the launch (actually launches) of The Honest History Book – very time-consuming – we continue to feed our voracious website with items we have gleaned from other sources and with commissioned (and sometimes unsolicited)…
FitzGerald, Stephen : Managing Australian foreign policy in a Chinese world
Stephen FitzGerald ‘Managing Australian foreign policy in a Chinese world‘, The Conversation, 17 March 2017 An edited extract of the 2017 Whitlam Oration, delivered by Stephen FitzGerald, Australia’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China (1973-76), at the Whitlam…
Shorter hours and vigorous industrial action were all the rage 100 years ago, too
This week we heard the Greens leader, Senator Richard Di Natale, go hard for the need to debate shorter working hours. On Lateline, for example, he said this: We’ve got, in Australia, people here doing more hours than any other…
Cain, Frank: The Petrov Affair and fake documents: another look
Frank Cain* ‘The Petrov Affair and fake documents: another look’, Honest History, 15 March 2017 In a previous edition of Honest History, David Stephens referred to fake news and the seeking by Dr HV Evatt, then Leader of the Opposition,…
The National Film and Sound Archive has a Sydney Harbour Bridge online exhibition as the Coathanger turns 85
The NFSA has a small but slick exhibition to mark the 85th anniversary of the opening of the bridge on 19 March. The segments are People’s Bridge, Connecting Sydney, Building the Bridge, Star of the Screen, and Trivia. Like Sydney…
Yip, Andrew: Friday essay: video games, military culture and new narratives of war
Andrew Yip ‘Friday essay: video games, military culture and new narratives of war‘, The Conversation, 10 March 2017 Argues that ‘the relationship of video games to history, politics and modern military cultures is no mere child’s play … [I]n video…
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Leigh, Andrew: Why corporate Australia should care about inequality – Speech, Minerals Council of Australia Tax Conference, Friday 10 March 2017
Andrew Leigh ‘Why corporate Australia should care about inequality – Speech, Minerals Council of Australia Tax Conference, Friday 10 March 2017‘, Andrew Leigh MP Blog, 10 March 2017 updated Over the past generation [says Leigh], Australia has seen an increase…
New TV documentary chronicles refugee crisis during Armenian Genocide
From the United States comes news of a television documentary, They Shall not Perish: The Story of Near East Relief. The documentary describes the humanitarian efforts of Americans who saved a generation of orphans and refugees after the collapse of…
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Cooper, Alan, Ray Tobler & Wolfgang Haak: DNA reveals Aboriginal people had a long and settled connection to country
Alan Cooper, Ray Tobler & Wolfgang Haak ‘DNA reveals Aboriginal people had a long and settled connection to country‘, Guardian Australia, 9 March 2017 Summarises research reported in Nature (behind expensive paywall) that used historic hair samples collected from Aboriginal people…
Moses, John: Know your enemy: German war aims and Australian involvement in the Great War
John Moses* ‘Know your enemy: German war aims and Australian involvement in the Great War’, Honest History, 10 March 2017 The author argues that any discussion about the origins and significance of Anzac commemoration will be baseless if it fails…
Hundred years on from the February Revolution of 1917: five lectures, many perspectives
This week is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia. (We know it is March now but that is due to a calendar glitch which need not detain us further.) Honest History will…
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True Blue but by no means politically correct – or just a different form of correctness?
Update 10 August 2017: John Roskam of the Institute of Public Affairs talks to Genevieve Jacobs of the ABC. Update 3 May 2017: Tony Abbott talks in Perth: search for ‘Western civilisation’. Update 14 April 2017: We didn’t want to…
Godden, Judith: Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A History, 1893-1983
Judith Godden Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A History, 1893-1983, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2017 Crown Street Women’s Hospital was the largest women’s hospital in NSW. Located in the heart of Surry Hills, it was a referral hospital for women throughout…
Myrtle, John: Ninety years of midwives, mothers and babies in Sydney (review of Godden)
John Myrtle* ‘Ninety years of midwives, mothers and babies in Sydney’ (review of Godden), Honest History, 8 March 2017 John Myrtle reviews Judith Godden’s Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A History, 1893-1983 Crown Street Women’s Hospital was deeply immersed in the…
Townsend, Ian: Line of Fire
Ian Townsend Line of Fire, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2017 The little known and intriguing WWII story of an eleven-year-old Australian schoolboy who was shot by the Japanese in Rabaul in 1942 as a suspected spy – a compelling story of…
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Brooding malevolence in Rabaul 1942 (review of Townsend)
‘Brooding malevolence in Rabaul 1942’, Honest History, 7 March 2017 Margaret Pender* reviews Ian Townsend’s book, Line of Fire This is a book about an atrocity, a war crime that occurred in Rabaul, New Guinea, in the early days of…
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Magarey, Susan: Catherine Helen Spence: ‘The most distinguished woman they had had in Australia’
Susan Magarey ‘Catherine Helen Spence: ‘”The most distinguished woman they had had in Australia”‘, Vida! Australian Women’s History Network, 1 March 2017 Spence (1825-1910) was ‘[a] charismatic public speaker at a time when women were supposed to speak only at…
Australian War Memorial frames its own view of Indigenous Australians’ fighting past
Why did the Australian War Memorial spend $366 000 on a painting depicting a massacre of Indigenous Australians by white settlers (when it refuses to commemorate the Frontier Wars)? The Australian War Memorial has acquired and unveiled the 1985 painting…
King, Andrew, David Karoly et al: Climate change’s signature was writ large on Australia’s crazy summer of 2017
Andrew King, David Karoly, Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, Matthew Hale, Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick ‘Climate change’s signature was writ large on Australia’s crazy summer of 2017‘, The Conversation, 2 March 2017 updated Summarises analysis that links record summer heat to the effects…
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Robertson, Joshua: $5bn used to safeguard Murray-Darling from drought largely in vain, says study
Joshua Robertson ‘$5bn used to safeguard Murray-Darling from drought largely in vain, says study‘, Guardian Australia, 2 March 2017 Reports on the political aspects of water planning in Australia. The [ANU] report, Water Reform and Planning in the Murray-Darling Basin,…
De Luce, Dan & John Hudson: U.S. allies are learning that Trump’s America is not the ‘indispensable nation’
Dan De Luce & John Hudson ‘U.S. allies are learning that Trump’s America is not the “indispensable nation”‘, Foreign Policy, 27 February 2017 U.S. allies are resigning themselves to the likelihood that Trump’s administration will remain unpredictable and often incoherent,…
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Manne, Robert: It’s time to rethink asylum-seeker policy
Robert Manne ‘It’s time to rethink asylum-seeker policy‘, The Monthly, 28 February 2017 Described as ‘an open letter to the supporters and opponents of the Nauru and Manus Island asylum seekers’, this long article canvasses the history of asylum-seeker policy…
Clanchy, Michael: In search of ‘civilised’ capitalism: a non-neoliberal approach
Michael Clanchy ‘In search of “civilised” capitalism: a non-neoliberal approach‘, Independent Australia, 28 February 2017 Socialism is not the answer, as it tends towards totalitarianism, but the ills of neoliberal capitalism still need tackling. These include boom-bust, inequality, underemployment, climate…
How defence spending gets its claws in: From the Honest History archives
Update 7 March 2017: Andrew Farran on Pearls and Irritations tries to match the F-35 to strategic imperatives. Update 3 March 2017: Steven L. Jones on The Conversation gives some background. News.com report on claimed job spin-offs. ‘A pilot’s dream‘.…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (20): The soldiers’ vote denied: making sense of the first conscription plebiscite
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (20): The soldiers’ vote denied: making sense of the first conscription plebiscite’, Honest History, 28 February 2017 During 2016 our ‘Divided sunburnt country’ posts (linked above) tracked events in the…
Hassan, Riaz: Australians aren’t as Islamophobic as we’re led to believe
Riaz Hassan ‘Australians aren’t as Islamophobic as we’re led to believe‘, The Conversation, 27 February 2017 There were two hundred or so comments on this piece which analyses a recent survey on the extent of Islamophobia in Australia. There were…
Wroe, David: The secret Iraq dossier: inside Australia’s flawed war
David Wroe ‘The secret Iraq dossier: inside Australia’s flawed war’, The Age, 25 February 2017 updated Long article, with illustrations and video, on Australia’s Iraq involvement, the key point being that the motivation – why we fought – was to…
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Hamilton, Rebecca: Australia’s refugee policy is a crime against humanity
Rebecca Hamilton ‘Australia’s refugee policy is a crime against humanity‘, Foreign Policy, 23 February 2017 The author, an Australian lawyer working in Washington, writes that a brief has been lodged with the International Criminal Court, which gives ‘every indication that…
Atlas charts a very useful online resource for all sorts of historical information
A contact referred us to this site for a chart showing international comparisons of mobile internet speeds – Australia (fifth) is not too shabby, much to our surprise – but we can imagine it being very useful in many fields…
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Marlow, Karina & Luke Pearson: 8 war heroes you didn’t learn about in school
Karina Marlow & Luke Pearson ‘8 war heroes you didn’t learn about in school‘, SBS, 21 February 2017 This NITV repost from 22 April 2016 presents, without editorial comment, brief biographies of Pemulwuy, Musquito, Windradyne, Yagan, Jandamarra, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner,…
Stephens, David: Review note: Leaders using and abusing power through the ages
David Stephens ‘Review note: Leaders using and abusing power through the ages’, Honest History, 23 February 2017 At a time when on-the-run psychological assessments of world leaders – and one leader in particular – are becoming routine news items, considered…
West, Michael: Australia’s march towards corporatocracy
Michael West ‘Australia’s march towards corporatocracy‘, The Conversation, 20 February 2017 Looks at government reliance on external consultants, compared with the Australian public service. Such is the pervasive influence of corporations and consultants over government and the de-skilling of the…
The Fitzkrieg reaches Darwin: Honest History and Peter FitzSimons
The Northern Territory government was pleased to welcome leading ‘storian (his term), Peter FitzSimons to Darwin for the weekend’s commemoration of the bombing of that city in 1942. This was of interest to Honest History, since we had put up…
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Advance praise for The Honest History Book (to be published by NewSouth in April 2017)
‘This is collective history at its finest.’ (Melanie Oppenheimer, Flinders University) What people are saying about The Honest History Book ‘[A] series of compelling, highly readable essays by some of Australia’s most distinguished historians.’ (Michelle Arrow, Macquarie University) ‘[A] primer…
Tiffen, Rodney: How changing times made Australia’s political leaders more disposable
Rodney Tiffen ‘How changing times made Australia’s political leaders more disposable‘, The Conversation, 16 February 2017 Looks at factors behind the relatively rapid denefenestration of Australian political leaders, state and federal, since – well, since Menzies, the only one who…
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The bombing of Darwin, 75 years on: some alternative views
Honest History has been interested in the bombing of Darwin almost since we began the website, though our interest has extended to aspects that are not likely to be front and centre this week during the 75th anniversary events. Obviously,…
Menadue, John: The terrorism threat here is because our troops are over there
John Menadue ‘The terrorism threat here is because our troops are over there‘, Pearls and Irritations, 14 February 2017 Compared to other risks, we have little to fear from terrorism. In the last two decades only three people in Australia…
Patience, Allan: How conservative or populist is the contemporary Right in Australian politics?
Allan Patience ‘How conservative or populist is the contemporary Right in Australian politics?’ Pearls and Irritations, 14 February 2017 Examines the relationship between current apparently conservative outbreaks in Australian politics and superficially similar incidences overseas as well as historical parallels.…
The Fall of Singapore, 75 years on: some alternative views
Update 20 February 2017: The Strategist has three articles on the Fall of Singapore, from James Goldrick, Joan Beaumont and Hugh White. On Wednesday in Ballarat, Minister Tehan will attend a national service in Ballarat to commemorate the 75th anniversary…
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Michaels, Wendy: NSW Parliamentary Trailblazers: A Fit Place for Women?
Wendy Michaels ‘NSW parliamentary trailblazers: a fit place for women?‘ Vida! Australian Women’s History Network, 9 February 2017 Mentions women in the NSW Parliament over the last century and links to an exhibition in the NSW Parliament. The review is…
Honest History E-newsletter No. 41, 7 February 2017
ISSN: 2202-5561 © The Honest History Book is being published in April: read about it; pre-order Professor Frank Bongiorno is the new president of the Honest History association New at honesthistory.net.au Alternative facts? The Australian War Memorial still has trouble counting…
Ashcroft, Linden, David Karoly & Joelle Gergis: Delving through settlers’ diaries can reveal Australia’s colonial-era climate
Linden Ashcroft, David Karoly & Joelle Gergis ‘Delving through settlers’ diaries can reveal Australia’s colonial-era climate‘, The Conversation, 10 February 2017 ‘To really understand climate change’, the authors say, ‘we need to look at the way the climate behaves over…
Beeson, Mark: Trump triggers overdue policy debate
Mark Beeson ‘Trump triggers overdue policy debate‘, The Conversation, 8 February 2017 Whatever else Donald Trump’s election may have done, it’s had at least one welcome effect: it has finally sparked a long-overdue debate about the possible costs and benefits…
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Sydney University graduate (and writer for Honest History) appointed Executive Director of Toynbee Prize Foundation
Aden Knaap, a graduate in History and Law from the University of Sydney and now a PhD student and Knox Fellow at Harvard University, has been elected Executive Director of the Toynbee Prize Foundation. The Toynbee Prize was established to…
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Abjorensen, Norman: The long Liberal split
Norman Abjorensen ‘The long Liberal split‘, Inside Story, 8 February 2017 Triggered by the departure of Senator Bernardi to become an independent conservative, this piece by a long-time Liberal watcher looks at a century of splits and dissension on the…
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McKenna, Mark: The character business: On the deluge of political biography and memoir
Mark McKenna ‘The character business: on the deluge of political biography and memoir‘, The Monthly, February 2017, pp. 36-41 Discusses political biographies, autobiographies and diaries from Crossman on Crossman to David Marr on Kevin Rudd. Addresses interesting question of who…
Cashen, Phil: Enlistments in the second half of 1916: background characteristics Part 2 – religion, units and service history
Phil Cashen ‘103. Enlistments in the second half of 1916: background characteristics Part 2 – religion, units and service history‘, Shire at War, 5 February 2017 We have often linked to the sterling work of Phil Cashen of the Shire…
Smith, Evan: Some highlights from the CIA’s recent document dump online
Evan Smith ‘Some highlights from the CIA’s recent document dump online‘, Hatful of History, 21 January 2017 Adelaide-based academic and blogger, Evan Smith, has trawled through this trove and made an initial listing of what is there, including 1949 reports…
Tedeschi, Mark: Murder at Myall Creek: The Trial that Defined a Nation
Mark Tedeschi Murder at Myall Creek: The Trial that Defined a Nation, Simon & Schuster, Sydney 2016 In 1838, eleven convicts and former convicts were put on trial for the brutal murder of 28 Aboriginal men, women and children at…
Keeping up with The Conversation: wide selection as Parliament returns
Whether your problem is the return to school last week or the return of Federal Parliament this week, President Trump being erratic or AFLW making a splash, if one needs distractions there seems to be more to read at the…
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Stephens, David: Cooking the (visitors) books: the Australian War Memorial struggles with statistics – again
David Stephens ‘Cooking the (visitors) books: the Australian War Memorial struggles with statistics – again’, Honest History, 7 February 2017 The article looks at the statistics in the Memorial’s Annual Report 2015-16 for real (flesh-and-blood) visitors to the Memorial and…
Crotty, Martin: In their footsteps? Anzac fun runs and the consumption of the past
Martin Crotty ‘In their footsteps? Anzac fun runs and the consumption of the past’, Honest History, 7 February 2017 The author, a fun runner, describes some Anzac-themed running events and what they say about the current desire of some of…
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In their footsteps? Anzac fun runs and the consumption of the past
Martin Crotty* ‘In their footsteps? Anzac fun runs and the consumption of the past’, Honest History, 7 February 2017 Running for fun and Anzac I am an historian of Australia at war, a frequent commentator on the way Australia commemorates…
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O’Callaghan, Judith, Paul Hogben & Robert Freestone, eds: Sydney’s Martin Place: A Cultural and Design History
Judith O’Callaghan, Paul Hogben & Robert Freestone, eds Sydney’s Martin Place: A Cultural and Design History, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2016 The history of one of Australia’s most iconic urban precincts, from bustling colonial thoroughfare to imposing address for global…
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Crocket, Grahame: Centre of Sydney Town (review of O’Callaghan, Hogben & Freestone, eds)
Grahame Crocket* ‘Centre of Sydney Town’, Honest History, 7 February 2017 Grahame Crocket reviews Sydney’s Martin Place: A Cultural and Design History, edited by Judith O’Callaghan, Paul Hogben and Robert Freestone Why Sydney’s Martin Place has not been the subject…
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Bown, Sharon: One Woman’s War and Peace
Sharon Bown One Woman’s War and Peace: A Nurse’s Journey in the Royal Australian Air Force, Exisle Publishing, Wollombi, NSW, 2016 In 1999, idealistic 23-year-old Registered Nurse Sharon Bown left her comfortable family life in Tasmania and joined the Royal…
A personal view of war and peace (review of Sharon Bown)
‘A personal view of war and peace’ (review of Sharon Bown), Honest History, 7 February 2017 Pamela Burton* reviews One Woman’s War and Peace: A Nurse’s Journey in the Royal Australian Air Force by Sharon Bown This is an introspective…
Stephens, David: Opposition Leader HV Evatt receives certain assurances from Comrade Molotov: another case of “They would say that, wouldn’t they”?
David Stephens ‘Opposition Leader HV Evatt receives certain assurances from Comrade Molotov: another case of “They would say that, wouldn’t they”?’, Honest History, 7 February 2017 ‘Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans – FAKE…
Centenary Watch February-March 2017
Update 16 February 2017: The bombing of Darwin, 75 years on: some alternative views A brief reading guide, showing how commemoration of this event could just as easily be filed under ‘tourism bonanza’ as under ‘Lest We Forget’. The post…
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Recently on the Honest History site (7 February 2017)
Since our last newsletter in December, the Honest History team has been heavily invested in The Honest History Book but we have still found time to update the website regularly with links to useful resources, as well as the occasional…
Professor Frank Bongiorno is the new President of the Honest History association
Professor Frank Bongiorno of the Australian National University is the new president of the Honest History association. Frank is Professor of History at the ANU and has previously held appointments at Kings College London and the University of New England.…
Cooking the (visitors) books: the Australian War Memorial struggles with statistics – again
David Stephens ‘Cooking the (visitors) books: the Australian War Memorial struggles with statistics – again’, Honest History, 7 February 2017 ‘There has always been an element of myth-making and myth-peddling in the Memorial’s work; it should not extend to its…
Hess, Rob: Growth of women’s football has been a 100-year revolution – it didn’t happen overnight
Rob Hess ‘Growth of women’s football has been a 100-year revolution – it didn’t happen overnight‘, The Conversation, 3 February 2017 Marks the commencement of the Australian Football League Women’s competition. Hess is co-author with Brunette Lenkić of Play On!…
Bongiorno, Frank: This storied land
Frank Bongiorno ‘This storied land‘, The Monthly, February 2017 An essay riffing off Mark McKenna’s book, From the Edge: Australia’s Lost Histories, which tells four stories of encounters between Indigenous and settler Australians. Bongiorno divides histories of Australia into pre-…
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Rushbrook, Peter: Lest We Forget: the Kapooka tragedy 1945
Peter Rushbrook ‘Lest We Forget: the Kapooka tragedy 1945‘, History of Education Review, vol. 37, no. 1, 2008, pp. 48-55 (pdf made available by author) This article explores an incident that raises questions relating to the making and unmaking of…