Rose, James ‘A family at war‘, Age, 14 April 2014 Raises issues about whether the final say in commemorating a dead service person rests with the state (represented in this case by the Australian War Memorial), supported by service organisations…
Rose, James ‘A family at war‘, Age, 14 April 2014 Raises issues about whether the final say in commemorating a dead service person rests with the state (represented in this case by the Australian War Memorial), supported by service organisations…
Update 9 June 2015: Simpson Prize and Audacity The Simpson Prize question for 2016 continues the welcome recent trend to ask proper history questions of Year 9 and 10 students but the nomination of the war-sanitising Audacity for a Children’s…
The Jauncey pen is taken up posthumously this time by Professor H. Wade Hibbard of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Missouri. He wrote the following indignant letter on 21 December 1917. The letter is genuine. It has been…
Gourley, Paddy ‘Two-per centers and defence spending’, Honest History, 30 April 2014 293 Two per cent spending Shibboleths, sacred cows and knee-jerk reactions abound in government and politics. Paddy Gourley nails one that afflicts the nation’s defence as well as…
Honest History is pleased to welcome three new members to its committee: Dr Alison Broinowski, activist, author and former diplomat, of Sydney; Professor Melanie Oppenheimer, academic and author, of Flinders University, Adelaide; Professor Kay Saunders AM, academic and author, of…
Broinowski, Alison ‘A long way from Adelaide’, Honest History, 30 April 2014 295 Broinowski Long way from Adelaide Alison Broinowski explores connections between some Australian expatriates in China, some exotic figures from elsewhere and private schools in Adelaide and Sydney.…
Poole, RJ ‘Anzac Speech, 25 April 2014, Remembering and Healing service, Lismore’, Honest History, 30 April 2014 I think it’s appropriate that we honour those Australians who have died in a theatre of conflict – and I think it’s right…
Stephens, David ‘Alternative Anzac: Remembering and Healing in Lismore models a peaceful world’, Honest History, 30 April 2014 (updated 27 June 2014) If you live in Canberra and have never been further north on the New South Wales coast than…
Ramsay, Juliet ‘Lake Burley Griffin: losing an inspired vision‘, Australian Garden History, 25, 4, 2014 To protect Lake Burley Griffin and its lakeshore parklands, the Australian Garden History Society needs to take on advocacy and conservancy by initiating a group…
[Stanley, Peter] ‘Peter Stanley on history‘, NSW Writers’ Centre (2014) Transcript of brief interview in which Stanley answers questions: what inspired you to become an historian? what are the most challenging aspects of writing history? how do you choose your…
Lake, Marilyn ‘Minimum wage is more than a safety net, it’s a symbol of Australian values‘, Age, 9 April 2014 updated Attacks a call by the Institute of Public Affairs to abolish the minimum wage. Traces the early history of…
Stephens, David ‘Commemorating the survivors’, Honest History, 24 February 2014 This is an Appendix to Michael Piggott’s review of the Australian War Memorial’s exhibition ANZAC Voices. It contains some confronting images. See also Kerry Neale’s paper. The photograph above is…
Bongiorno, Frank ‘Gallipoli: an exhibition of photographs by Charles Snodgrass Ryan: Manning Clark House, launch speech, 4 p.m., 6 April 2014’, Honest History, 30 April 2014 Associate Professor Bongiorno addresses aspects of the commemoration of World War I, including the…
Heriot, Geoff ‘The public interest in public broadcasting‘, Inside Story, 6 March 2014 A former ABC executive discusses the relationship between public broadcasters, governments and the public, in the light of 2014’s iteration of this perennial and noting past episodes.…
Oswald, Bruce & Waddell, Jim, ed. Justice in Arms: Military Lawyers in the Australian Army’s First Hundred Years, Big Sky, Newport, NSW, 2014 Describes the work of Army legal officers in Australia and in expeditionary operations from the Boer War…
McIlvenny, Leonie The Research Safari Website directed at teachers and students, covering all aspects of web-based research for assignments. Main sections are on defining, locating, selecting, organising, presenting, evaluating and the knowledge compass.
Simpson, Catherine ‘From ruthless foe to national friend: Turkey, Gallipoli and Australian nationalism‘, Media International Australia, 137, 1, November 2010, pp. 58-66 As the centenary of the Gallipoli landings draws closer, we will no doubt be inundated with more media…
Whiteford, Peter ‘Income and wealth inequality: how is Australia faring?‘ The Conversation, 5 March 2014 Australians like to think of themselves as egalitarian, and for much of our history we believed our income and wealth was spread around evenly. For…
Dean, Peter, ed. Australia 1943: the Liberation of New Guinea, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2013 Includes chapters on the strategies of both sides and on army, navy and air operations in the Pacific and New Guinea. Authors include Dean,…
Phillips, Janet ‘Asylum seekers and refugees: what are the facts?‘ Australia. Parliamentary Library Social Policy Section: Background Note (updated 11 February 2013) Looks at differences between asylum seekers and refugees, whether asylum seekers are queue jumpers or illegals, how asylum…
Laugesen, Amanda Convict Words: Language in early Colonial Australia, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 2002 This book explores the language of the Australian convict era, taking the form of a dictionary with supporting quotations from contemporary texts, including newspapers, government…
Laugesen, Amanda Diggerspeak: the Language of Australians at War, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 2005 Wars have been highly significant in the development of Australian English, generating new words and meanings. Rather than a collection of military slang or jargon,…
Laugesen, Amanda Boredom is the Enemy: the Intellectual and Imaginative Worlds of Australian Soldiers in the Great War and Beyond, Ashgate, Farnham, UK, 2012 War is often characterised as one percent terror, 99 per cent boredom. Whilst much ink has…
Serle, Geoffrey ‘The digger tradition and Australian nationalism‘, Meanjin Quarterly, 24, 2, June 1965, pp. 149-58 Describes Inglis’s ‘Anzac tradition’ article as ‘the first serious modern discussion of Anzac and the digger legend’ (149) and goes on that ‘most Australians…
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 New at honesthistory.net.au Judy Hemming (UC) and Michael McKinley (ANU) on the recent history of drones: military breakthrough? civilian boon? implications for Australia? Glenda Sluga (USyd) on the European reception for Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers: an historian’s interpretation of…
Hemming, Judy & Michael McKinley ‘Expanding space, compressing time and the psychopathology of drones: paper presented to the 55th Annual Convention Panel TD 49 The International Studies Association, 27 March 2014, Toronto, Canada’ The paper 268 Hemming McKinley Toronto ISAPaper…
Sluga, Glenda ‘Historians’ war’, Honest History, 30 March 2014 256 Sluga Historians War Christopher Clark, expatriate Australian historian based at Cambridge, has aroused great interest in Europe with his new book, The Sleepwalkers, tracing how the nations of Europe moved…
Stephens, David ‘Australian War Memorial offers opportunity for primary school children to connect with 62 000 Great War dead’, Honest History, 31 March 2014 The article describes the Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour Soundscape project in which primary school…
Stanley, Peter Lost Boys of Anzac, NewSouth, Sydney, 2014 Australians remember the dead of 25 April 1915 on Anzac Day every year. But do we know the name of a single soldier who died that day? What do we really…
Leigh, Andrew Battlers and Billionaires: the Story of Inequality in Australia, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2013 From egalitarian beginnings, Australian inequality rose through the nineteenth century. Then we became more equal again, with inequality falling markedly from the 1920s to the…
Cain, Frank The Wobblies at War: a History of the IWW and the Great War in Australia, Spectrum Publications, Melbourne, 1993 A simple account of an important industrial and political struggle on the home front. Frank Cain’s book traces the…
Serle, Geoffrey ‘Godzone: (6) Austerica unlimited?’, Meanjin Quarterly, 26, 3, September 1967, pp. 237-50 Serle Austerica Unlimited (full text) This was a landmark article, skewering a culture in transition from postwar to postmodern but still encumbered by baggage from previous…
David Stephens writes as Jauncey. When Milton wrote the famous words, ‘They also serve who only stand and wait’, he was reflecting on his blindness. But the line has been used since in all sorts of ways, ranging from a…
Beaumont, Joan, Evelyn Goh, Michael Wesley, Hugh White, ‘Asia today – 1914 redux?’ ANU School of International Political and Strategic Studies seminar, Canberra, 18 March 2014 Notes of the seminar were prepared by David Stephens. Read more… 258 Asia Today…
Webb, Carolyn ‘Maverick female war doctors battled exclusion’, The Age, 15 March 2014 The article Maverick female war doctors battled exclusion-1 (text here) describes the work during World War I of Dr Vera Scantlebury (later Scantlebury-Brown), originally of Melbourne, in…
ABC News ‘Time for a new flag?‘ ABC News, 16 March 2014 Debate between John Blaxland, ANU academic, ex-Army officer and vexillologist, and Don Rowe, New South Wales President of the RSL, on whether Australia needs a new flag. One…
Ben Griffin ‘We will NOT fight for Queen and Country‘, Oxford Union Debate, February 2013 updated A former British SAS officer speaks about his experiences of war and the views derived from it. A video uploaded by the Stop the…
Campbell, Craig & Helen Proctor A History of Australian Schooling, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2014 A social history of school education in Australia, from dame schools and one teacher classrooms in the bush, to the growth of private…
Daley, Paul ‘In the Anzac centenary, it’s time to honour Australia’s forgotten soldiers‘, Guardian Australia, 15 March 2014 The author notes the centenary expenditure of $8 million on refurbishing war graves and memorials in Australia and overseas. He refers to…
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 Donate to Honest History: Pay Pal now available Write for Honest History: contact us to ask how Follow us on Twitter @honesthistory1 New on honesthistory.net.au The Honest History committee addresses honesty and dishonesty Doug Hynd on…
Ross, Liz Revolution is For Us: The Left and Gay Liberation in Australia, Interventions, Brunswick, Vic., 2013 It was the Left which championed revolution, which had a theory and practice of revolution – Marxism. But when it comes to Gay…
Young, Linda ‘Subversive jewellery: challenges to conservative power from the Victorian goldfields‘, reCollections, 7, 1, 2012, pp. 1-13 This [beatifully illustrated] paper analyses a small group of pieces of gold jewellery in order to explore the digger challenge to the…
Hannaford, Scott ‘The silent war‘, Canberra Times, 8 February 2014 Article and interactive material on the experiences of Australian veterans of the war in Afghanistan. While the technology of war has ‘advanced’ much of the evidence recounted could be applied…
Ansara, Martha The Shadowcatchers: A History of Cinematography in Australia, Austcine Publishers, Artarmon, NSW, 2012 The Shadowcatchers, a comprehensive history of Australian cinematography, presents over 380 photographs of working cinematographers from 1901 to the present, with a ground-breaking, highly readable…
Daley, Paul ‘Restless indigenous remains‘, Meanjin, 73, 1, March 2014 The author explores the storage facilities of the National Museum of Australia and writes about the implications for the way we treat the dead from our wars, overseas and at…
Honest History is collaborating with Manning Clark House, Canberra, to hold a series of eight lectures on the honest history theme. The lectures are on Monday evenings at 5.30 pm for 6.00 pm (cost and details below). The first lecture…
Bongiorno, Frank ‘Doing the dirty work‘, Inside Story, 19 February 2014 Places industrial relations policy choices in 2014 in historical context by recalling events in this field in the 1980s. Attempts to probe trade union governance have implications for the…
Smith, Peter ‘Stop the boats. Infuriate the ABC‘, Quadrant Online, 13 January 2014 There is some legitimate room for debate about the extent and character of controlled immigration. People and politicians can have different views. But there should be no…
Tuckfield, Hugh ‘Australia’s troubling asylum seeker policy‘, The Diplomat, 18 February 2014 Considers the asylum seeker issue in the context of international refugee flows and international laws and conventions for the treatment of refugees. Australia is a nation fixated on…
Ackland, Richard ‘Welcome back to White Australia‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 February 2014 Places 2014 in a historical context and looks at possible policy alternatives for dealing with asylum seeker arrivals. There were more than 800 comments on the article.…
Morrison, David ‘Welcome Home Parade for 2nd Cavalry Regiment Task Group and Combined Team – Uruzgan Four and Five: Lieutenant General David Morrison, AO, Chief of Army Darwin, 1 March 2014‘ LTGEN Morrison spoke on the 113th anniversary of the founding…
Hynd, Doug ‘Moral judgments, asylum seekers and why historians can be helpful in public policy-making’, Honest History, 12 March 2014 Taking a historical perspective can give depth and clarity to controversial policy issues. The current debate about who is morally…
Leigh, Andrew ‘“A victory won by a lost battle”: What Eureka means to Australians today: Eureka Lecture, Ballarat, Tuesday, 3 December 2013‘, Andrew Leigh Blog, 3 December 2013 Was Eureka a youth movement of an 1850s clash of generations? A revolt…
Williams, Clive ‘Terror threat real, and no time to cut budgets‘, Canberra Times, 4 February 2014 National security issues, viewed from a particular perspective.
Broinowski, Alison ‘Abbott’s dark state: war powers, invigilation and trust‘, Independent Australia, 4 December 2013 National security issues viewed from a particular perspective, with comments from readers.
Butler, Ed ‘Manly men v wimps: what’s behind the macho language in Australian politics?‘ Guardian Australia, 27 February 2014 Discusses ‘the masculinisation of political language in Australia’, including the conflation of manliness and competence. The use of particular language is…
Green, Michael ‘Once were warriors‘, The Age, 5 February 2014 Looks at moves in Melbourne to commemorate two Indigenous warriors, hung in 1842 for killing two white men. The City Council has agreed to a memorial but needs to decide…
Cahill, Damien & Rowan Cahill ‘The 1978 military occupation of Bowral‘, Illawarra Unity: Journal of the Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, 6, 1, 2006, pp.24-37 Describes the response to the Sydney Hilton ‘terrorist’…
Alison Broinowski takes over the Jauncey pen (and the Beatrice Jauncey persona) and recalls an early skirmish in the so-called ‘war on terror’ – the response to the Hilton Hotel bombing, Sydney, 1978. As a Kiwi, and hence imbued with higher…
Murphy, DJ TJ Ryan: a Political Biography, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1990; first published 1975 T.J. Ryan was … elected Labor Premier of Queensland against the turbulent background of World War I. His Labor government set the foundations…
Tatz, Simon ‘The nationalism wedge‘, Independent Australia, 3 February 2014 Argues that the Abbott Government is linking nationalism with a conservative political agenda. Quotes Benedict Anderson about nations as ‘imagined communities‘. ‘The Abbott Government’, the author claims, ‘is busy trying…
Museum Victoria Immigration Museum Portal to the resources held by the Museum containing ‘[m]oving stories of people from all over the world who have migrated to Australia’. Educational material, project suggestions and links to other sites.
Turnbull, Malcolm ‘Reinventing the news model in the digital era‘, Mumbrella, 2 March 2014 Launching a new weekly newspaper, The Saturday Paper, Turnbull describes changes in the nature of mass media consequent on the development of the internet. There is…
Watson, Don ‘Lest we go over the top‘, The Monthly, February 2014 ‘The experience of war very much depends’, the author says, ‘on where one happens to be standing at the time.’ Front line soldiers, generals, writers and politicians all…
Abbott, Tony Remarks at the 1st Brigade Welcome Home Reception, Parliament House, Darwin, 1 March 2014 The Prime Minister noted that the Afghanistan commitment had been inconclusive militarily but praised the social contribution made by Australian forces. Thanks to you,…
Marks, Kathy ‘Thomas Keneally: “I hope no one says Australia was born at Gallipoli”‘, Guardian Australia, 18 February 2014 Australia should “apologise to the ghosts” of young soldiers who survived the first world war but had to fight for compensation…
Rudd, Kevin Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples, House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra, 13 February 2008 I move: That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past…
Rudd, Kevin Address at the apology to the Forgotten Australians and former child migrants, Great Hall, Parliament House, 16 November 2009 The then Prime Minister apologised on behalf of the Australian people. ‘To apologise for the pain that has been…
Keating, PJ Speech by the Hon Prime Minister, PJ Keating MP, Australian Launch of the International Year for the World’s Indigenous People, Redfern, 10 December 1992 The then Prime Minister placed the treatment of Indigenous Australians within a broader narrative,…
History Teachers’ Association of Australia AC History Units Eight units developed by the History Teachers’ Association of Australia to support teachers in the implementation of the Australian Curriculum: History (ACH). The units relate to Years 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9,…
Garbutt, Rob ‘Social inclusion and local practices of belonging‘, Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1, 3, 2009 The paper argues for the importance of considering relational aspects (the connections between people and the wider society) when developing social inclusion…
Wadham, Ben ‘Yumi and Ben: the militarisation of Australia and the democratisation of hate‘, The Conversation, 6 March 2012 Analyses the sexist and racist reaction to the insulting remarks made by a television personality about a Victoria Cross winner. The…
Brown, James Anzac’s Long Shadow: The Cost of Our National Obsession, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2014; also available electronically “A century ago we got it wrong. We sent thousands of young Australians on a military operation that was barely more than…
Powell, Damian X. ‘Remembrance Day: memories and values in Australia since 1918’, Paper (edited text) read to the Royal Historical Society of Victoria on 18 November 2003 (later published as ‘Remembrance Day: memories and values in Australia since 1918’, Victorian…
Blaxland, John ‘Flying the flag for a fresh start‘, Canberra Times, 1 February 2014 Few realise that the overwhelming majority of Australia’s 102,000 war dead fought and died for the British Empire under Britain’s Union Jack as their national flag.…
Hughes Henry, Adam ‘Nationalism, politics, history and war’, Australian Rationalist, 74, Winter, 2006, pp. 23-38 The article ranges widely, addressing the remembrance of war, death in conflict as a righteous sacrifice, war criminality, the distortion of history through the filter…
Chynoweth, Adele ‘Forgotten or ignored Australians? The Australian museum sector’s marginalisation of Inside – Life in Children’s Homes and Institutions‘, International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 6, 2, pp.171-182 In 2009, the Australian Government announced as part of the National Apology to…
O’Lincoln, Tom ‘Can Kokoda challenge Anzac?’ Paper delivered to conference The Pacific War 1941-45, Heritage, Legacies and Culture, Monash University at Caulfield, 6 December 2011 233 Can Kokoda challenge Anzac (pdf provided by author) The author argues that veneration of…
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 Donate to Honest History: a force for good; Pay Pal now available Write for Honest History: contact us to ask how New on the website Michael Piggott reviews the Anzac Voices exhibition at the Australian War…
Stanley, Peter Honest History’s President, Professor Peter Stanley, reviews and reflects on James Brown’s new book, Anzac’s Long Shadow. James Brown, Anzac’s Long Shadow: The Cost of Our National Obsession, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2014, $19.99; also available electronically James Brown,…
Stanley, Peter ‘Anzac’s Long Shadow highlights a national obsession’ Honest History President, Professor Peter Stanley, reviews James Brown’s book (published 11 February 2014) and finds parallels with the attitudes of Honest History to the way in which Australia is approaching…
Stephens, David ‘Prime ministerial exits: an interview with Norman Abjorensen’, Honest History, 24 February 2014 (updated) Norman Abjorensen is a Visiting Fellow in the Policy and Governance Program in the Crawford School at the Australian National University. He is a…
Abjorensen, Norman ‘Prime ministerial exits’, Honest History, 24 February 2014 Norman Abjorensen talks to Honest History about the way Australian prime ministers leave their jobs and how they feel about the process. He discusses PMs Alfred Deakin (something of a…
Michael Piggott (linking to an Appendix on commemorating the survivors which includes confronting images) In The Pyramid: The Kurt Wallander Stories (Vintage Books, 2000) Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell has his famous protagonist struggling to give a report. ‘It’s a…
Piggott, Michael ‘Listening to ANZAC Voices‘, Honest History, 24 February 2014 Michael Piggott reviews the ANZAC Voices exhibition which opened at the Australian War Memorial in November 2013. He recognises the difficulties of compressing complex events into a small exhibition…
In November 2013 I presented a keynote address to the biennial conference convened by the energetic Narratives of War Research Group of the University of South Australia. In it I compared Australia’s memory of war with that of various countries…
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 NEW on the HONEST HISTORY website Hugh White from ANU writes and talks about Australians’ attitude to war and how it has got us into awkward situations in the past and may do so again in…
Falzon, John ‘The history of colonisation: “In the Absence of Treaty” book launch, Australian National University, 6th February 2014‘ Speech by CEO of St Vincent de Paul Society National Council launching a book on the Northern Territory intervention. There are…
Hughes Henry, Adam ‘Australian nationalism and the lost lessons of the Boer War‘, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, 34, June 2001 In the jingoism of the time [of the Boer War] can be seen the paradoxical nature of Australian…
I have been interested in the American Civil War from the age of eleven. Over the years the idea grew that it would be worth attending in July 2013 the 150th anniversary of the war’s greatest battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.…
APO multiple authors Australian Policy Online Policy Online is a research database and alert service providing free access to full text research reports and papers, statistics and other resources essential for public policy development and implementation in Australia and New…
David Stephens ‘Should we softpedal on Gallipoli?’ Honest History, 4 February 2014 Andrew Nikolic is the Liberal member for Bass, Tasmania, and a former Brigadier. He commented on his website on remarks by our President, Professor Peter Stanley, about the…
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 A Happy New Year to all our readers. New on the website is a note on the announcement by Education Minister Chris Pyne of a review of the national curriculum. Honest History and many others had anticipated…
Stephens, David ‘Hugh White on Australians and war’, Honest History, 5 February 2014, updated Hugh White is Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University and a former senior public servant in the Department of Defence. Here he considers…
Schwartzkopf, Louise ‘Theatre as a healing stage for returned soldiers‘, The Age, 25 January 2014 Afghanistan veterans act in a new play that relives some of their experiences and also has therapeutic benefits. The Long Way Home, a play by…
Tom Hyland ‘The worst-reported and least understood foreign conflict in Australian history‘, Inside Story, 22 January 2014 Review of Don’t Mention the War: The Australian Defence Force, the Media and the Afghan Conflict by Kevin Foster. The reviewer notes that…
Maley, Jacqueline ‘Needless debate masks true meaning of Australia Day‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 January 2014 On Australia Day, we should, by all means, celebrate our good fortune, the hiccup of fate that means we get to live in Australia…
Evans, RJW ‘The greatest catastrophe the world has seen‘, New York Review of Books, 6 February 2014 Extended review of six books on the beginnings of World War I. The authors are Margaret Macmillan, Charles Emmerson, Sean McMeekin (two titles),…
Grant, Corinne ‘I’m strayan and I love stayin’ dumb‘, The Hoopla, 23 January 2014 Stand-up comic and writer critical at Australia Day of Australians’ alleged liking for trivia: ‘We want short slogans, simple solutions and lots and lots of drama’.…
Starr, Michelle ‘Best Aussie inventions of all time‘, CNet Australia, 24 January 2014 Illustrated with text. Some of the inventions are the refrigerator, the (military) tank, the medical applications of penicillin, the Ford ute, the surf ski and the splayd.…
Peter Stanley takes over the Jauncey pen from David Stephens. I’m in Kolkata to deliver the keynote address at a conference, ‘Re-newing the military history of colonial India’, held at Jadavpur University, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in…
Colebatch, Hal GP Australia’s Secret War: How Unions Sabotaged our Troops in World War II, Quadrant Books, Balmain, NSW, 2013 Describes strikes and other industrial action on the waterfront during the war, its impact on the war effort and the…
Happy New Year; 2014. Has anyone else noticed the significance of this year? Yes, of course, it is the centenary of the start of World War I and we won’t be allowed to forget that as the commemorative bandwagon rolls…
Daley, Paul ‘Black diggers: challenging Anzac myths‘, Guardian Australia, 14 January 2014 Looks at the stories of black servicemen during World War I, in the context of a new play ‘Black Diggers’. About 400 Indigenous Australians joined up. Notes that…
Bramston, Troy, ed. The Whitlam Legacy, Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, 2013 Wide-ranging collection of essays under general headings the Whitlam ascendancy, the Whitlam years and political style, managing government, policy, the dismissal, reflections and assessments, true believers. Authors include historians,…
Prior, Robin ‘The first world war and Australia – oh, what a loopy debate‘, Guardian Australia, 10 January 2014 Political considerations have swamped evidence-based consideration of the beginnings and course of World War I. Looking at the debate on various aspects…
David Stephens ‘Minister Pyne and the curriculum – again’, Honest History, January 2014 (and updated) The preliminary report of the Donnelly-Wiltshire review was released in June 2014. Donnelly interviewed. Gary Foley and Elizabeth Muldoon question the treatment of Indigenous history…
David Stephens writes in the Canberra Times (23 December 2013) on ‘Learning lessons of History’, noting several views on the risks of a national history curriculum that would promote a simplistic or uncontested national narrative. 23 December 2013
Christina Twomey writes in the December 2013 issue of History Australia arguing that changing ideas about trauma and victimhood, emerging from the 1980s, played an important and insufficiently recognised role in the reinvigoration of Anzac for contemporary times. The recasting…
On the anniversary of the Cronulla riots between flag-draped anglo-australian and Lebanese youths, Paul Daley writes in the The Guardian online questioning the appropriation of the Australian flag and the Southern Cross motif, as well as the politicisation of race divisions…
Historian Humphrey McQueen addressed a Eureka commemorative dinner in Sydney, 29 November 2013, giving a lively and wide-ranging review of how the events at Eureka have been interpreted by radical and conservative voices over the past 159 years, including reference…
When a popular tourist information website took the Honest History name in vain, it deserved a closer look. There, on Trip Advisor, an American ex-pat in Germany was ‘amazed’ at how ‘blunt and honest’ about ‘triumphs and failures’ the Deutsches…
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 New content at Honest History since last e-Newsletter Subscribers will have received our special Newsletter recording the official website launch, and pointing to Paul Daley’s launch speech exploring how authors deal with myths, linking this to…
David Stephens’ commentary on former PM Paul Keating’s apparent ambivalence about the significance of Remembrance Day (11 November) for Australians, posted at the Online Opinion website 29 November 2013. A more extensive consideration appears here under the rubric of Jauncey’s…
In a letter to the editor of the Northern Territory News on 13 November 2013, David Sanderson of Humpty Doo (NT) attacks ‘Professor Joan Beaumont and her loony mates of the group Honest History’ for asserting that Australians do not…
Williams, John F. German Anzacs and the First World War, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2003 Tells the story of German descent Australians who fought for Australia against Germany. A review is here.
Michael Brissenden ‘Afghanistan: the war we hardly knew‘, ABC The Drum, 14 November 2013 Discusses Department of Defence attitudes to media coverage of the war in Afghanistan. Attracted 145 comments. The culture of secrecy that has built up over recent…
Williams, John F Anzacs, the Media and the Great War, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 1999 The author examines the Anzac legend as a media-based phenomenon by looking at how readers of Australian, British and French newspapers were…
Battlefields and war cemeteries are not places I have visited often nor places I much like. I remember seeing on a back road in northern California in 1985 a battered sign which commemorated the last stand nearby of the local…
Paul Keating’s Remembrance Day speech 2013 marked the twentieth anniversary of his Unknown Australian Soldier speech at the Australian War Memorial in 1993. The tomb and the surrounding area at the Memorial has now been refurbished to include explicit recognition…
Scates, Bruce ‘Horrors of Anzac aftermath laid bare‘, The Age, 7 November 2013 Digitising a sample of World War I repatriation files is set to change the way the Great War is remembered. We will see no more important initiative…
Francis, Adrienne ‘”All commemoration is political”: historians lead charge against Gallipoli “myth”‘, ABC News, 11 November 2013 Interviews Professor Joan Beaumont about commemoration fatigue and the way commemoration is used for political purposes. The emphasis on Gallipoli and the Anzac…
Hawkins, Jo ‘Brand Anzac™ – a historic past or mythic present?‘ The Conversation, 11 November 2013 Considers the logoes being developed by different countries to mark the World War I centenary, the Australian one being notable for its maleness and…
Wright, Clare ‘The other Australia Day: November 11 throughout history‘, The Conversation, 11 November 2013 11 November is Remembrance Day but it is many other days as well. Illustrates the many-strandedness of Australian history.
Samuel, Henry ‘Hollande unites Allies and Germany in First World War commemorations‘, The Telegraph (London), 7 November 2013 President Hollande of France invites all 72 countries involved in the Great War (on both sides) to take part in the Bastille…
Cahill, Rowan ‘A conscription story, 1965-69‘, The Hummer, 2, 4, 1995 (Australasian Society for the Study of Labour History) Memoir of a conscription resister. Such accounts are relatively rare, though see here. Includes the reasons the author gave for his…
Cahill, Rowan ‘A khaki future?‘ Overland, 1 October 2013 Brief history of Australia’s ‘martial and warlike’ history from 1788, noting military rule by the New South Wales Corps in the first days of settlement, through preparations for World War I,…
Keating, Paul ‘Paul Keating’s address at the Australian War Memorial 2013: we are too wise to be cannon fodder again‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 2013 Speech (official text here) marking 2oth anniversary of Keating’s speech as Prime Minister at…
Hynd, Doug ‘Reflections on an Anzac Day service’, Honest History, 4 December 2013 The author probes the theology of an Anzac Day Dawn Service and asks how compatible are the claims embodied in the liturgy of the Dawn Service and…
Eureka Street (Vol 23, No 22, 10 November 2013) carries an article by Honest History’s David Stephens asking why Australians have been giving so much emphasis to Remembrance Day, and attributing values to war commemorations that are out of proportion…
If you see or hear media coverage of topics relevant to Honest History, please email the details to admin@honesthistory.net.au, so we can add them to this section.
On Friday, 8 November 2013, the ABC 7:30 ACT local edition covered the launch of the Honest History website, and included interviews with Peter Stanley and Paul Daley, in a broad-ranging and well-produced story from Jeremy Thompson about the different…
Author and journalist Paul Daley caught the spirit of Honest History and brought in a range of personal reflections from his work as a historical writer, during his talk as guest speaker at the formal launch of the Honest History…
Paul Daley ‘The Heart of Honest History’ (Honest History Launch, 7 November 2013, Manning Clark House, Canberra), Honest History, 8 November 2013 Thanks Peter [Stanley]. Thanks Sebastian [Clark]. I, too acknowledge the traditional owners of this land [Canberra]. And thanks…
After months of preparatory work, this website was officially launched on 7 November 2013 with an enthusiastic ceremony at Manning Clark House in Canberra. The full content is now available to visitors and search engines, including over 500 unique references…
Woroni, the student newspaper of the Australian National University, carries a trenchant critique by Tara Shenoy of the politicisation of war in general, and Anzac in particular, dated 31 October 2013. The article ‘The tomfoolery of Anzackery‘ quotes Honest History’s…
Sometimes the history of history is almost as vexing as history itself. One frustration of putting together a history bibliography rapidly is that you have no time to stop and read or re-read the books and articles that go into…
McCalman, Iain The Reef: A Passionate History, Viking, Melbourne, 2013 This is a social, cultural and environmental history. The Great Barrier Reef, argues Iain McCalman, has been created by human minds as well as coral polyps, by imaginations as well…
Scott, Rosie & Tom Keneally, ed. A Country Too Far: Writings on Asylum Seekers, Viking, Melbourne, 2013 Short stories, book extracts, poems and essays on aspects of Australia’s current attitudes to asylum seekers, in some contributions set against the historical…
Larsson, Marina Shattered Anzacs: Living with the Scars of War, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009 Living with the Scars of War tells the untold story of thousands of Australian families who welcomed home disabled soldiers after the…
Crowther, Philip & Lindy Osborne ‘Building a nation: the state of play in Australian architecture‘, The Conversation, 1 November 2013 Brief historical survey, leading to the point where Australia now has seven of the 100 largest architectural practices in the…
Click here for all items related to: War literature The experiences and emotions associated with war have always inspired poetry, prose and literary musings. We begin with the literature of World War I, but welcome discussion on all artistic response…
Thomson, Alistair Anzac Memories: Living with the Legend, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic., new edition, 2013; first published Oxford University Press, 1994 In this new edition, Alistair Thomson explores how the Anzac legend has transformed over the past quarter century,…
Clark, Anna & Paul Ashton, ed. Australian History Now, New South, Sydney, 2013; electronic version available The authors in this anthology include the editors and Alan Atkinson, Tony Birch, Leigh Boucher, Ann Curthoys, Graeme Davison, Tom Griffiths, Paul Kiem, Marilyn…
What happens next? Honest History, 8 November 2013 After a lot of preparatory work, we in Honest History have launched our website. Our ‘starting line-up’ is something over 500 unique references in the Resources section, which translates into about 1000…
Beaumont, Joan Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2013 The Great War is, for many Australians, the event that defined our nation. The larrikin diggers, trench warfare, and the landing at Gallipoli have…
White, Hugh ‘Lest we forget: the purpose of war is not war itself‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 October 2013 Admiration for the work of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan has been accompanied by a lack of discussion at to why they…
Daley, Paul ‘Australia spares no expense as the Anzac legend nears its century‘, The Guardian Australia, 15 October 2013 Notes the mystical place of Gallipoli in Australian history and how this is reflected in ever-increasing expenditure on the Anzac centenary.…
McMullin, Ross ‘Grand days of hope and glory‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 October 2013 The popular myth is that Australia came of age amid the carnage of World War I. But years before Gallipoli, this young nation was internationally admired…
Broinowski, Alison ‘The streaker’s defence: history and the war powers’, Honest History e-Newsletter No 6, October 2013 The leaders who planned and executed the 2003 invasion of Iraq – one of the more notable disasters of recent war history – said they…
Lake, Marilyn ‘Fractured nation’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 6, October 2013 Marilyn Lake writes that World War I led to the desolation of the national spirit, the nation’s joie de vivre and its high reputation in the world as an…
Daley, Paul ‘Why does the Australian War Memorial ignore the frontier war?‘ The Guardian Australia, 12 September 2013 Bordered with militarily precise shrubs including the herb of remembrance, rosemary, the outer walls are adorned with a series of elaborately carved…
Honest History ‘Young people and the Anzac tradition today’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 Young Australians have differing views on Anzac and related matters. Two university students and an entrant in a secondary schools essay competition are quoted.…
Watters, Chris ‘Anzac, Vimy Ridge, Monash and the education of children’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 5, September 2013 Towards the end of the 20th century there was an increase in claims that battles fought in World War I defined national…
Rawsthorne, Sally ‘Why does the world think Australia is racist?‘ The Guardian Australia, 25 October 2013 Canvasses evidence in Australia and internationally about alleged Australian attitudes, with links to sources and comment from over 800 people. Contrasts the acceptance of…
Stanley, Peter ‘Gallipoli – 98 years on’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 4, August 2013 Professor Stanley answers these questions: How important is Gallipoli to Australians? Is the Gallipoli story just a national myth? Is Gallipoli’s importance based on tenuous history?…
Stephens, David ‘Tangled up in red, white and blue’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 5, September 2013 We choose our own history, which bits of the past we wish to burnish and which we prefer to leave alone.We are doing war…
Honest History ‘The national history curriculum and the coalition: Honest History Factsheet’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 5, September 2013 When you change the government, do you change the curriculum as well? Should you? This article brings together some Coalition remarks…
‘History in secondary schools Part I: Honest History Factsheet’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 6, October 2013 Honest History’s researchers match sections of Australian Curriculum History Year 9 against sections of the Honest History website which is to be launched 7…
Piggott, Michael ‘The Battle for Australia: Henry Reynolds’s “Forgotten War”’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 5, September 2013 Michael Piggott reviews the most recent of Henry Reynolds’s series of books on the ‘frontier wars’ between Indigenous Australians and white settlers. The…
Hurst, Daniel ‘Say after the minister: old is new again‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 September 2013 Minister Pyne’s first extensive interview, touching on the history curriculum and other aspects. Comments from Honest History spokesperson.
Piggott, Michael ‘Sums and parts in a new collection’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 6, October 2013 Michael Piggott reviews Australian History Now, an anthology edited by Anna Clark and Paul Ashton. Read more…
Carr, EH What is History? Penguin, Camberwell, Vic., 2008; first published Macmillan, London, 1961; 2nd edition 1987 A slim classic. Some of the key passages relate to fish and they are directly relevant to the recurring battles over the nature…
Ryan, Lyndall Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2013 Tasmanian Aborigines were driven off their land so white settlers could produce fine wool for the English textile mills. By the time Truganini died in…
Davison, Graeme Narrating the Nation in Australia: Menzies Lecture 2009, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, Kings College London, The Australia Centre, London, 2009 Explores four narratives or foundation myths of settler societies such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa…
Davison, Graeme The Use and Abuse of Australian History, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2000 Wide-ranging collection on many aspects of public, local and cultural history. The first chapter, ‘Introduction: Australian history on the eve of the millennium’, is…
Brandstrom, Annika, Fredrik Bynander & Paul t’ Hart ‘Governing by looking back: historical analogies and crisis management‘, [originally published] Public Administration, 82, 1, 2004, pp. 191-210 A common misunderstanding about crises – understood here as epochs of profound uncertainty and…
Neumann, Klaus & Gwenda Tavan, ed. Does History Matter? Making and Debating Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Policy in Australia and New Zealand, ANU E-Press & Australian and New Zealand School of Government, Canberra, 2009; free download format available Multiple authors…
Jones, Barry ‘Asylum is the greatest moral challenge of our time‘, The Conversation, 29 July 2013 The fact that non-European migration has been so significant since the end of White Australia ought to make us sympathetic to refugees, but I…
Click here for all items related to: Using and abusing history Passover, Mathilde Hahn Meyer, Germany, late 19th or early 20th century, painting on canvas (source: Flickr Commons/Center for Jewish History, New York City 2004.226; repository: Yeshiva University Museum, New…
Stanley, Peter Black Saturday at Steels Creek, Scribe, Brunswick, Vic., 2013 In-depth study of the impact, at the time and after, of the 2009 fires on a small community near Melbourne. Interesting for comparisons with the author’s previous work in…
Piggott, Michael ‘Sums and parts in a new collection’, Honest History e-Newsletter, No. 6, October 2013 Australian History Now (edited by Anna Clark and Paul Ashton) NewSouth, Sydney, 2013 What does the sum of a book’s parts add up to?…
ACARA multiple authors ‘The Australian Curriculum“, Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) Curriculum resources and information for Australian Curriculum: History Foundation to Year 12 and for other subject areas.
Click here for all items related to: Teaching history Honest History hopes to be useful to teachers of history, particularly at secondary and tertiary levels. We believe history teachers play an important role in helping students to develop the tools…
Department of Veterans’ Affairs multiple authors ‘Education resources: wars, conflicts and peace operations‘, Department of Veterans’ Affairs Links to 27 online publications, many with associated work books and teacher’s guides, some with CDs and some with primary and secondary versions,…
Australian War Memorial multiple authors ‘Education publications‘, Australian War Memorial Portal to small selection of AWM publications, including posters, teachers’ notes, and the substantial booklets M is for Mates: Animals in Wartime from Ajax to Zep, Forever Yours: Stories of…
Woollacott, Angela, ed. History for the Australian Curriculum; 9, 10, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, Vic., 2012 Multiple authors produce curriculum materials and exercises within the broad parameters of the Australian Curriculum: history for Years 9 and 10. The Curriculum…
AHA multiple authors ‘Resources‘, Australian Historical Association Links to many cultural institutions and archives bodies, federal and state, as well as to the National Library’s Trove resource.
HTAA multiple authors ‘Resources‘, History Teachers’ Association of Australia Website page linking to a number of resources, including a separate site geared to the Australian Curriculum: history, the ACARA site, the education sections of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and…
Triolo, Rosalie Our Schools and the War: Victoria’s Education Department and the Great War, 1914-18, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic., 2012 The Great War profoundly touched the lives of Australian teachers, school children and local communities, and with lasting…
Institute of Public Affairs ‘How history teaching became arts and crafts‘, Foundations of Western Civilisation Program, 27 March 2013 Criticises the national curriculum for its ‘focus on sources, projects and technological gimmicks’ which ‘ultimately confuse children, who end up unable…
Taylor, Tony ‘History in politics: neoconservative progressivism, knowledgeable ignorance and the origins of the next history war‘, History Australia, 10, 2, August 2013, pp. 227-40 This article outlines the relationship between neoconservative politics in Australia and history education. It categorises…
Taylor, Tony ‘Curriculum: a matter of history … and politics‘, Monash University: News and Events, 5 October 2012 Analyses a recent speech by former prime minister Howard, referring also to the response to it from the curriculum authority. (The author…
Markus, Andrew Mapping Social Cohesion: The Scanlon Foundation Surveys National Report 2013, Scanlon Foundation, Australian Multicultural Foundation & Monash University, Caulfield East, Vic., 2013 Most recent of six periodic surveys of attitudes to multiculturalism, immigration and asylum seekers, living standards,…
Tony Abbott Address to Legacy Clubs of Australia 2013 National Conference, Brisbane, 18 October 2013 The new prime minister spoke about the Anzac tradition. Yes, as all of us know, Gallipoli was in a sense, the cauldron that helped to…
Piggott, Michael & David Stephens ‘Constitution Day: an old Queen and a new nation’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 4, August 2013 Of all the notable days in the Australian calendar Constitution Day, 9 July, is the least known but one…
Whitlam Institute multiple authors Whitlam Institute within the University of Western Sydney Website with collection of resources on the Labor Prime Minister and his era, including a permanent exhibition A Changing Australia: The Time of Gough Whitlam, Whitlam Prime Ministerial…
APH multiple authors Australian Politics and History An enterprise based at Deakin University, which partners with the Australian National University, the University of New England, the History Council of New South Wales and the Australian Historical Association. The site includes…
Stone, Caitlin & Jim Berryman ‘The Robert Menzies Collection: A Living Library‘, e-Scholarship Research Centre, University of Melbourne, 2013 Comprehensive collection of resources associated with Menzies, classified A-Z under the headings of books, colleagues, friends and family, interests, events, organisations,…
White, Richard Inventing Australia: Images and Identity, 1688-1980, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 1981 Pioneering work in Australian cultural history, roughly chronological but also thematic. “To be Australian”: what can that mean? Inventing Australia sets out to find the…
White, Richard with Sarah-Jane Ballard, Ingrid Bown, Meredith Lake, Patricia Leehy and Lila Oldmeadow On Holidays: A History of Getting Away in Australia, Pluto Press, North Melbourne, Vic., 2005 Describes chronologically from 1768 ‘the Australian experience of going on holidays…
Masters, Chris The Years That Made Us, ABC Video, 2013 (shown on ABC TV, June-July 2013) In Australian mythology nationhood was forged in the slaughter of Gallipoli in 1915. But in The Years That Made Us Chris Masters introduces a…
Hillier, Ben & Tom O’Lincoln ‘Five hundred lashes and double irons: the origins of Australian capitalism‘, Marxist Left Review, 5, Summer 2013 Thoroughly researched and theoretically grounded view of the first 30 years of the colony of New South Wales.…
Armstrong, Mick ‘Disturbing the peace: riots and the working class‘, Marxist Left Review, 4, Winter 2012 In this article [Mick writes] I want to look at the long and proud history of riots in Australia and take on the arguments…
McKenna, Mark The Captive Republic: A History of Republicanism in Australia 1788-1996, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 1996 This first comprehensive history of republican thought and activity in Australia traces debate around an Australian republic from 1788 to…
McKenna, Mark & Wayne Hudson, ed. Australian Republicanism: A Reader, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, Vic., 2003 Collection of 114 mostly brief documents dating from 1788 with two-thirds of them since self-government for New South Wales in 1856. Some of the…
McKenna, Mark This Country: A Reconciled Republic? UNSW Press, Sydney, 2004 The author considers together what he sees as two key and related issues, reconciliation with Indigenous Australians and the republic. Reconciliation and the republic are not separate issues, they…
Holmes, Brenton ‘Tracking the push for an Australian republic‘, Australia. Parliamentary Library. Background Notes, 24 April 2013 Thorough and balanced description of events since the referendum of 1999 with voting statistics and analysis of key issues and models. Extensive notes.
Warhurst, John ‘The republic idea: thinking big for the summit‘, Online Opinion, 18 April 2008 Surveys arguments pro and con the republic on the eve of a future-gazing summit.
Sawer, Marian, Norman Abjorensen & Phil Larkin Australia: The State of Democracy, Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, 2009 [T]he Democratic Audit of Australia, a major democracy assessment project, has been applying an internationally tested set of indicators to Australian political institutions…
Dyrenfurth, Nick & Frank Bongiorno A Little History of the Australian Labor Party, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2011 Brief chronological study. Notes the rarity of labour parties – that is, parties organically linked with trade unions – world-wide and the resilience of…
Wright, Clare The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2013 Tells the stories of the thousands of women on the Ballarat goldfields, the crucial role they played in the Eureka rebellion and the links between what they did and…
Duncan, Macgregor, Andrew Leigh, David Madden & Peter Tynan Imagining Australia: Ideas for Our Future, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2004 Long chapters on national identity, democracy, nation-building, growth, social policy and global citizenship. Young authors; Leigh later entered…
Beggs-Sunter, Anne ‘Eureka: gathering “the oppressed of all nations”‘, Journal of Australian Cultural History, 10, 1, 2008 Over the last one hundred and fifty years, the meaning of the Eureka Stockade has been characterised in different ways. To some it…
Mayne, Alan, ed. Eureka: Reappraising an Australian Legend, Network Books, Perth, 2006 Collection from a 2004 Eureka sesquicentary symposium with papers from multiple presenters including Clare Wright, Anne Beggs-Sunter, Chris Ryan, Fred Cahir and others.
Macintyre, Stuart The Reds: The Communist Party of Australia from Origins to Illegality, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1998 Takes the story up to the 1950s but written from the post-Communism perspective of the 1990s by a former member…
Faulkner, John & Stuart Macintyre, ed. True Believers: The Story of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2001; electronic version available Frank Bongiorno on the origins of Caucus, Macintyre on the first Caucus, Ross McMullin…
McMullin, Ross The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891-1991, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Vic., 2nd revised edition 1993; first published 1991; later editions Centenary history commissioned by the party and making use of party records. Looks…
McMullin, Ross So Monstrous a Travesty: Chris Watson and the World’s First National Labour Government, Scribe, Carlton North, Vic., 2004 We were leading the world [the author said in a lecture about his book]. It might be hard to imagine…
Irving, Terry The Southern Tree of Liberty: The Democratic Movement in New South Wales before 1856, The Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, 2006 Publication marking the sesquicentary of responsible government in New South Wales. Describes Charles Harpur, poet of liberty, Johann…
Waghorne, James & Stuart Macintyre Liberty: A History of Civil Liberties in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2011; electronic version available Civil liberties are central to the freedoms that Australians value. They affirm the rights of all to protection from arbitrary…
Isaac, Joe & Stuart Macintyre, ed. The New Province for Law and Order: 100 Years of Australian Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge & New York, 2004 Commemorating the centenary of the Australian system of settling industrial disputes –…
Kelly, Paul The March of Patriots: The Struggle for Modern Australia, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2009 ‘[The book’s] focus is how Keating and Howard as Prime Ministers altered the nation’s direction, redefined their parties and struggled over Australia’s new…
Sherratt, Tim Federation and Meteorology, University of Melbourne. Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre & Bureau of Meteorology (2001) Describes the weather around 1 January 1901, many aspects of meteorology around the time of Federation and in the decades since…
Fraser, Malcolm & Margaret Simons Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, Vic; 2009; paperback edition 2010; electronic version available Part memoir, part third person biography of a prime minister who has changed his allies, if not his…
Errington, Wayne & Peter Van Onselen John Winston Howard: The Biography, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, Vic., 2007 Dominant political figure of the 1990s and early 21st century. Crucial in the revival of the Anzac legend as a central motif of…
Hocking, Jenny Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History; Gough Whitlam: His Time, Melbourne University Publishing & Miegunyah Press, Carlton, Vic. & Melbourne, 2009, 2012 Sympathetic portrait of the dominant political figure of the 1960s and 1970s. A review of Volume…
Martin, AW with Patsy Hardy Robert Menzies: A Life: Vol. 1: 1894-1943; Vol. 2: 1944-1978, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1993 and 1999; online edition Politically at sea during his first term (1939-41), colossus during his second (1949-66) where he…
Fitzhardinge, LF William Morris Hughes: A Political Biography: Vol. 1: That Fiery Particle, 1862-1914; Vol. 2: The Little Digger, 1914-1952, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1978, 1979; electronic version available Fifty years of history of Australia as a nation from the…
La Nauze, JA Alfred Deakin: A Biography, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1965; later editions 1979, 2009 Early political history and social policy development from the perspective of three time Prime Minister. Basic facts about Deakin are here and a…
Serle, Geoffrey John Monash: A Biography, Melbourne University Press in association with Monash University, Carlton, Vic., 1982; later editions 2002, 2013 Engineer, business entrepreneur and World War I general, described by some as Australia’s greatest soldier but subject of anti-semitism.…
Megalogenis, George The Australian Moment: How We Were Made for These Times, Viking, Melbourne, Vic., 2013 [The author] examines how we developed from a closed economy racked by the oil shocks, toughed it out during the sometimes devastating growing pains…
Blainey, Geoffrey ‘The centenary of Australia’s Federation: what should we celebrate?‘ Australia. Senate: Papers on Parliament, 37, November 2001 Touches on some early history, including Australia’s pioneering political and social reforms, then answers the question by reference to one hundred…
Nethercote, JR, ed. Liberalism and the Australian Federation, Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, 2001 ‘Recounts the story of Australia’s nationhood as the story of Australian Liberalism. This is the first book put together by the Liberal Party of Australia for many…
Strangio, Paul & Nick Dyrenfurth, ed. Confusion: The Making of the Australian Two-Party System, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2009; electronic version available Collection of articles examining ‘Fusion’, the coming together in 1909 of the anti-Labor parties in Australia, setting…
Irving, Helen To Constitute a Nation: A Cultural History of Australia’s Constitution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge & New York, updated edition, 1999; first published 1997 The men who drafted the Australian Constitution in the 1890s may have thought that they…
Cane, Peter, ed. Centenary Essays for the High Court of Australia, LexisNexis Butterworths, Chatswood, NSW, 2004 ‘Covering the most significant High Court decisions across main legal areas and their subsequent impact on Australian life, this text also thoroughly considers and…
Galligan, Brian A Federal Republic: Australia’s Constitutional System of Government, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge & New York, 1995 The book ‘argues that Australia is already a federal republic rather than a constitutional monarchy. It argues that by adopting a federal…
Cochrane, Peter Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2006 Colonial Ambition tells the story of the politicians and would-be politicians of Sydney, who were driven by a determination to lift themselves and their new colony…
Woodward, Dennis, Andrew Parkin & John Summers, ed. Government, Politics, Power and Policy in Australia, Pearson Education Australia, Melbourne, 9th edition 2009 University level textbook with multiple authors including the editors. Wide range of subjects relevant to politics.
Galligan, Brian & Winsome Roberts, ed. The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Vic., 2007 Four hundred entries of varying lengths, covering all levels of politics, including historical material. Multiple authors including Judith Brett, Galligan, Ian…
Stephens, Tony ‘The view beyond the battlefield‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 August 2005 Arguing that ‘Australia’s national identity must be defined by more than its wartime history’ the author asks: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if Australians looking to recommend the…
Hamilton, Andrew ‘Anzac Day celebrates humanity, not nationalism‘, Eureka Street, 17, 7, 16 April 2007 Extended discussion of the religious aspects of Anzac Day, including whether it qualifies as a secular religion. (The author suggests ‘that in the Christian tradition,…
History in secondary schools Part I: Honest History Factsheet, Honest History, 8 November 2013 In this article we have matched sections of Australian Curriculum History Year 9 against sections of the Honest History website which is to be launched…
White, Hugh, Michael Wesley, Graeme Cheeseman, Rowan Cahill, Bruce Haigh, Paul Monk & John Birminghan ‘A time for war: correspondence‘, Quarterly Essay, 21, March 2006, pp. 70-98 Six authors provide comment on Birmingham and Birmingham responds. Hugh White suggests that…
Cheeseman, Graeme & St John Kettle, ed. The New Australian Militarism: Undermining our Future Security, Pluto Press, Leichhardt, NSW, 1990 Collection of articles driven by a concern that the Hawke Labor Government at the time, driven by then Defence Minister,…
Vidal, Katie, Cathie Arkell & Joan Williamson Wives of War (2009) (videos and transcripts) Wives from Afghanistan-Iraq, Vietnam and World War II talk about the impact of war service on them, their families and their husbands.
Leitenberg, Milton Deaths in Wars and Conflicts in the 20th Century: Cornell University Peace Studies Program, Occasional Paper #29, Centre for International Security Studies at Maryland, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 3rd edition, 2006 Extensively…
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Historical Documents Published official records of foreign relations, commencing in 1937 – Australia lacked an independent foreign affairs capacity before this date – and carrying the story forward to 1959 (as at October 2013) with some…
Meaney, Neville A History of Australian Defence and Foreign Policy, 1901-23: Vol. 1: The Search for Security in the Pacific, 1901-14: Vol. 2: Australia and World Crisis, 1914-23, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 2nd edition, 2009; Vol. 1 first published 1976…
Firth, Stewart Australia in International Politics: An Introduction to Australian Foreign Policy, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 3rd edition, 2011 Looks at the evolution of policy since 1901 (emphasising the period since 1983), security issues, economic relations (including the…
Schreuder, Derek & Stuart Ward, ed. Australia’s Empire: Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 2010; first published 2008 The volume examines the meaning and importance of empire in Australia across a…
Darian-Smith, Kate, Patricia Grimshaw & Stuart Macintyre, ed. Britishness Abroad: Transnational Movements and Imperial Cultures, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2007 Britishness Abroad explores the cultural, economic and political aspects of Britishness in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Canada and…
Walker, David Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise and Fall of Asia 1850-1939, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1999 From the late nineteenth century the Asianisation of Australia has sparked anxious comment. The great catchcries of the day…
Click here for all items related to: Getting on with the world Here there are references which address Australia’s relations with the rest of the world. In some cases, this relationship is associated with other strands of our history, such…
Knox, Malcolm Boom: The Underground History of Australia, From Gold Rush to GFC, Viking, Melbourne, 2013 The author looks at how mining has shaped Australia, arguing, among other things, that the history of Queensland could be written in terms of…
Blainey, Geoffrey The Rush That Never Ended: A History of Australian Mining, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 5th revised edition 2003; first published 1964 ‘This text tells the story of Australia’s mineral discoveries, describes the giants of its mining history…
Australian Council of Trade Unions 75th Anniversary Commemorative Booklet, ACTU, Melbourne, 2002 Basic illustrated history of union activity from the viewpoint of the peak body.
National Archives of Australia Your Story, Our History Gateway to the holdings of the National Archives, covering everything from personal files to photographs, records of government departments to records of individual soldiers.
Australian National University Noel Butlin Archives Centre The Noel Butlin Archives Centre (NBAC) collects business and labour records from Australian companies, trade unions, industry bodies and professional organisations. We are a national organisation interested in material from all states and…
University of Melbourne Archives The business collections include the records of wholesalers and retailers, factories and foundries, solicitors and architects, along with the records of some of Australia’s largest mining companies… [M]ore than one hundred trade unions are now represented…
ATUA multiple authors Australian Trade Union Archives Portal to archival resources, published material and information about Australian industrial organisations, mainly including trade unions and also employer bodies.
Gallop, Geoff & Greg Patmore, ed. ‘Social democratic parties and business: an historical analysis‘, Labour History, 98, May 2010 (special issue) Given their traditional links to trade unions and the ideological Left, social democratic parties frequently face questions concerning their…
Murray, Georgina & Jenny Chesters ‘Economic wealth and political power in Australia, 1788-2010‘, Labour History, 103, November 2012 Although Australia is sometimes regarded as an egalitarian society, evidence shows that inequalities in the distribution of wealth are pronounced. We note…
Hearn, Mark & Greg Patmore, ed. Working the Nation: Working Life and Federation, 1890-1914, Pluto Press, Annandale, NSW, 2001 The book explores the impact of Federation on working life in Australia 1890-1914 and how national policy development affected ‘the working…
Gollan, RA Radical and Working Class Politics: A Study of Eastern Australia, 1850-1910, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1960; later editions Like Ward’s Australian Legend, a pioneering work which set up a particular image of Australian society and politics which…
Ward, Russel The Australian Legend, Oxford University Press, Melbourne & New York, 1958; many later editions Origin of a particular myth of bronzed Australian bushmen, rural labourers of the 19th century, claimed by Ward and others to epitomise Australia, or…
McLean, Ian W Why Australia Prospered: The Shifting Sources of Economic Growth, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2013; electronic versions available Ian McLean argues that Australia’s remarkable prosperity across nearly two centuries was reached and maintained by several shifting factors.…
Evans, MDR & Jonathan Kelley with Peter Dawkins, et al Australian Economy and Society 2001: Education, Work, Welfare, The Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, 2002 The book provides data for the later decades of the 2oth century on six broad areas,…
Cochrane, Peter Industrialization and Dependence: Australia’s Road to Economic Development, 1870-1939, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1980; downloadable Shows how Australian industrial development in these years was built on close economic integration with Britain.
Click here for all items related to: The sweat of our brows In this section there is material on how Australians have earned a living in different ways for themselves and their families, how they have succeeded and failed, how…
Broomhill, Ray ‘Australian economic booms in historical perspective‘, Journal of Australian Political Economy, 61, June 2008, pp. 12-29 Part of a special issue on The Australian Economic Boom 1992-? including a number of articles relevant to economic and social policy…
Leigh, Andrew What Do We Eat after the Low-Hanging Fruit? A Brief Economic History of Australia, with Some Lessons for the Future, Speech to the McKell Institute, 18 May 2012 (audio, text and Q & A) The low-hanging fruit were…
McLean, Ian Australian Economic Growth in Historical Perspective: A Survey for the Economic Record, School of Economics Working Paper 2004-01, University of Adelaide, May 2004 Combines traditional interpretations and insights from recent growth analysis. Extensive bibliography. Australia’s (modern) economy was…
Robertson, Paul L. Resource Based or Resource Cursed? A Brief (and Selective) History of the Australian Economy since 1901, Australian Innovation Research Centre, University of Tasmania, AIRC Working Paper Series WP/0108. November 2008 (Pdf accessible from ecite.utas.edu.au) Discusses Australia’s historical…
Haig, Bryan ‘New estimates of Australian GDP: 1861-1948/49‘, Australian Economic History Review, 41, 1, March 2001, pp. 1-34 Surveys statistics from the earliest days of their collection. Useful bibliography to 2001. Suggests that national accounting data are of little use…
The streaker’s defence: history and the war powers Alison Broinowski It takes a particular kind of courage for people in public life to admit that they got something wrong, even after their error is publicly obvious. All three leaders…
Cahill, Rowan ‘Alec Campbell, 1899-2002‘, The Hummer (Australian Society for the Study of Labour History), 3, 8, Winter 2002 Gives an honest perspective on Campbell, ‘the last Anzac’, whose military career lasted less than a year (including just six weeks…
Austin, AG Australian Education, 1788-1900: Church, State, and Public Education in Colonial Australia, Pitman, Carlton, Vic., 1961; online version available Pioneering study of early education in Australia. Does not mention Aboriginal education. See also this on the Education Acts of…
Austin, AG & RJW Selleck, ed. The Australian Government School, 1830-1914: Select Documents with Commentary, Pitman, Carlton, Vic., 1975 Pioneering study in education history.
Ainley, John & Eveline Gebhardt Measure for Measure: A Review of Outcomes of School Education in Australia, Australian Council for Educational Research, Camberwell, Vic., 2013 Looks at studies of reading, mathematics and numeracy, science and other subjects, with some historical…
Australian Medical Association More Than Just a Union: A History of the AMA, AMA, Canberra, 2012; downloadable A brief history, describing the development of the profession, changes in medicine and the role of the AMA in politics. 10 October 2013
Medicine multiple authors ‘The history of medicine library‘, Royal Australasian College of Physicians Library Links to resources held in the library and elsewhere, including ‘a comprehensive focus on Australian material’. Membership of the library is open to the general public.…
Education, health and welfare multiple authors ‘History of Australian education, health and welfare‘, University of Wollongong Library Portal site leading to bulk resources in this field, including journal and media articles, books, statistics and photographs.
Higgins, Winton Engine of Change: Standards Australia since 1922, Brandl & Schlesinger, Blackheath, NSW, 2005 Traces the history of the national standards body and the contribution of standards to our standard of living and quality of life. Without standards, virtually…
ASHET multiple authors Australian Society for History of Engineering and Technology Links to material about aspects of this sector, including articles on aviation, locomotion, bridges, telephones, frozen meat and sheep shearing.
Australia Australian Inventions Portal site linking to many resources about the history of Australian inventing. Australian inventions have assisted with everyday activities such as hanging out the clothes to dry on a rotary washing line, putting food into the fridge…
John Smyth ‘Speaking back to educational policy: why social inclusion will not work for disadvantaged Australian schools‘, Critical Studies in Education, 51, 2, 2010, pp. 113-28 The Labor government in Australia has recently embarked on an extremely ambitious program of…
te Riele, Kitty ‘Raising educational attainment: how young people’s experiences speak back to the Compact with young Australians‘, Critical Studies in Education, 52, 1, 2011, pp. 93-107 In the context of international consensus that the knowledge economy requires more highly…
Wheelahan, Leesa ‘Do educational pathways contribute to equity in tertiary education in Australia?‘ Critical Studies in Education, 50, 3, 2009, pp. 261-75 A key assumption of equity policies in Australia, as in many countries, is that pathways from lower-status, vocationally…
Gale, Trevor & Deborah Tranter ‘Social justice in Australian higher education policy: an historical and conceptual account of student participation‘, Critical Studies in Education, 52, 1, 2011, pp, 29-46 This article provides a synoptic account of historically changing conceptions and…
Moyal, Ann ‘Two cultures in Australia: where do we go from here?‘ Council of the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (27 October 2011) A veteran science observer considers the history and prospects of science and the humanities in Australia. The paper…
Academy of Science multiple authors ‘History and biographies‘, Australian Academy of Science Links to historical material on science, including interviews with distinguished scientists
Ward, Colin, et al ‘CSIROPedia‘, CSIRO For over 80 years, CSIRO has been helping Australia and the world through science. We work with our partners on a vast array of research into space, energy, health, climate change, manufacturing, materials, minerals,…
Australia Science and Technology Web portal to official sites in this field, including the National Library’s list of science and technology sites, the CSIRO, Questacon, defence science, and links to material on all branches of science, including from a historical…
Kenyon, Andrew T., ed. TV Futures: Digital Television Policy in Australia, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2007 Multiple authors consider legal, cultural and technical issues associated with the move to digital broadcasting after decades of analog technology.
Given, Jock Turning Off the Television: Broadcasting’s Uncertain Future, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2003 Writing at the beginning of the digital age, the author addresses a range of issues arising from the move from analog to digital broadcasting. He takes a…
Click here for all items related to: Learning and improving This section covers education, science, medicine, research, communications and related topics. Here there are references on the early history of Australian education (Austin, Austin & Selleck) and on recent developments…
Throsby, Margaret & Richard Cashman ‘Richard Cashman on the history of sport in Australia‘, ABC Classic FM, 14 February 2013 Audio and accompanying biodata of talk with Australia’s leading sports historian
ASSH multiple authors Australian Society for Sports History (website) Links to publications and other resources.
Henry, Nicola & Karolina Kurzak with Charles Sherlock ‘Religion in Australia‘, The Australian Collaboration: A Collaboration of National Community Organisations (October 2012) Factsheet on religious affiliations (including Australian Bureau of Statistics figures summarised), interfaith developments and the place of religion…
Jupp, James, John Nieuwenhuysen & Emma Dawson, ed. Social Cohesion in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, Vic., 2007 Australia’s reputation as a successful large scale immigrant-receiving nation is well formed. In the latest wave, not only have millions of…
McMullin, Ross Will Dyson: Australia’s Radical Genius, Scribe, Carlton North, Vic., 2006; revised edition 2006 Biography of a war cartoonist, war artist and artist There is a review here, another one here (quoted below) and the author talks about his…
Waterhouse, Richard Private Pleasures, Public Leisure: A History of Australian Popular Culture since 1788, Longman Australia, South Melbourne, Vic., 1995 How do we define culture? And how do we specify popular culture? Private Pleasures, Public Leisure, the first general history…
Irving, Terence H & Sean Scalmer ‘Labour intellectuals in Australia: modes, traditions, generations, transformations‘, International Review of Social History, 50, 1, 2005, pp. 1-26 The labour movement has been replete with educators, readers, advocates, stirrers, brokers, editors, writers, painters, theorists,…
Winter, Brendan Film.org.au: The Best in Australian Film Private website, perhaps slightly out-of-date, but offering list of and information about Australian films since 1900, a history and notes on actors and directors. Described as ‘a website to inspire people about…
National Film and Sound Archive Film Australia Collection ‘The NFSA is the proud custodian of the Film Australia Collection (FAC), preserving and providing access to the nation’s documentary record – our collective memory.’ (blurb) Among other things, enables searching of…
Australia Film in Australia Portal site with brief history and many links to relevant sites and material.
Australian Screen multiple authors Australian Screen: Historical Collection of video and audio clips dating back to c. 1900, including rare footage of troops embarking for overseas, at Gallipoli, in France and returning home in 1918.
Australian Screen multiple authors Australian Screen: History of Australian Film and Television Dozens of clips from Australian productions with teacher’s notes for some.
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2013 Website launch The new Honest History website (www.honesthistory.net.au) will be launched by Paul Daley, journalist and author (Beersheba, Armageddon: Two Men on an Anzac Trail, Collingwood: A Love Story, Canberra) 6.00 pm, Thursday, 7 November 2013…
Wilde, William H, Joy Hooton & Barry Andrews, ed. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2nd edition, 1994 The book (833 pp.) ‘offers a comprehensive record of Australian writing from European settlement to the early 1990s…
Serle, Geoffrey From Deserts the Prophets Come: The Creative Spirit in Australia 1788-1972, Heinemann, Mebourne, 1973; online version available; new edition 2013 From Deserts the Prophets Come is a short history of literature, art, music, theatre, architecture, science and learning…
Australian Screen multiple authors ‘All music‘, Australian Screen Online audio archive.
National Library multiple authors ‘Australian music in Trove: Music Australia‘, National Library of Australia Leads into the Libary’s music holdings.
AllDownUnder multiple authors ‘Australian songs‘, AllDownUnder.com Contains lyrics, audio and video of 100 Australian songs that ‘have captured our history’.
Inglis, KS Whose ABC? The Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1983–2006, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2006; e-book available Takes the story of the national broadcaster into the 21st century, interweaving institutional, cultural and political history. The author talks about the book here and…
Inglis, KS This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932-1983, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2nd edition, 2006; first published Melbourne University Press, 1983 The development of the ABC parallels that of Australia over these years. ‘Inglis shows us the ABC’s…
Australia Australian Dance Portal site with brief history and many links to relevant sites and material.
Ennis, Helen Photography and Australia, Reaktion Books, London, 2007 A leading Australian photography historian, Ennis argues that the colonial experience is a central element of these visual testaments, and embedded within this experience are the tumultuous relations between white settlers…
Davies, Alan An Eye for Photography: The Camera in Australia, Miegunyah Press & State Library of New South Wales, Carlton, Vic., & Sydney, 2004 The book ‘traces the development of photography in Australia from the earliest daguerreotypes to digital imagery…
Australian Music History multiple authors Australian Music History A compendium popular music website with news items and comprehensive listings of bands, musicians and related information.
National Gallery multiple authors National Gallery of Australia: Australian Art Comprehensive website introducing the NGA’s collection of Australian art, including notes on new acquisitions, articles on particular features of the collection, an extensive archive of information about past exhibitions, a…
Click here for all items related to: The land we live in Australia is shaped by geography, climate, geology and our history of using the land. And so are Australians. Here the themes include prehistory, distance, exploration, climate, environment, natural…
Anderson, Jaynie, ed. ‘Australian art historiography‘, Journal of Art Historiography, 4, June 2011 (special issue) Articles on the canon, Aboriginal art, Australian and New Zealand art, curators and curating, Bernard Smith, Daryl Lindsay, Ursula Hoff, Joseph Burke, photography and other…
Click here for all items related to: People like us How do we recognise what makes a person Australian? Some people have believed that Anzac gave us distinctive national qualities; these are looked at in the website section Anzac analysed.…
Bannerman, Colin ‘Making Australian food history‘, Australian Humanities Review, 51, 2011 The importance that food and eating have assumed as components of popular culture in Australia has not yet been matched by thorough historical analysis. This essay briefly surveys existing…
Click here for all items related to: Ruling ourselves Australia has followed its own unique path toward nationhood and an unknown future, drawing on different traditions adapted to our own time and place. The themes here include political, constitutional, law…
Warhurst, John ‘Religion in 21st century Australian national politics’, Australia. Senate: Papers on Parliament, 46, December 2006 The religious factor generally means a number of things in politics. One is the political activity of the organised face of religion, the…
Garner, Bill Born in a Tent: How Camping Makes Us Australian, New South, Sydney, 2013 The sub-title emphasises the multifarious influences on Australia and Australians. The author shows that the history of Australia can be told through a history of…
Graeme Davison with Sheryl Yelland Car Wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered Our Cities, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2004 War snuffs out lives and begets dreams. For servicemen and civilians alike, World War II was…
Costantino, Emma & Sian Supski, ed. ‘Culinary distinction‘, Journal of Australian Studies, 30, 87, 2006 (special issue) Articles on Indigenous cookery (Laurel Dyson, Colin Bannerman), Australian cuisine in the 19th and 20th centuries (Barbara Santich), Anzac biscuits (Supski), Scocth ovens…
Click here for all items related to: Expressing ourselves Here there are references covering a wide field associated with the expression of talents or preferences. In most cases, the authors attempt to draw some connections between the particular strand that…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history Many strands and themes run through and enliven the chronological narrative of Australian history and this is the burden of Daley, a Jauncey column, another Jauncey column and Stephens.…
Lack, John & Jacqueline Templeton, ed. Bold Experiment: A Documentary History of Australian Immigration since 1945, Oxford University Press, Melbourne & New York, 1995 Documents and commentary covering post-war policy development, refugees and displaced persons, the ideology of assimilation, ‘New…
Dyrenfurth, Nick, Mark Hearn & Harry Knowles, ed. ‘The Fisher Labor Government, 1910-13‘, Labour History, 102, May 2012 Collection of articles to mark the centenary of the first majority Labour government anywhere in the world. Hearn and Dyrenfurth set the…
Lake, Marilyn ‘“This great America”: HB Higgins and Transnational Progressivism‘, Historical Studies, 44, 2, June 2013, pp. 172-88 Australian history has not always been about our need to retain great and powerful friends. There have been times when the rest…
Maddison, Sarah & Marian Sawer, ed. The Women’s Movement in Protest, Institutions and the Internet: Australia in Transnational Perspective, Routledge, Abingdon, UK & New York, 2013 Collection of articles on protest, policy, politics, advocacy, Roller Derby, blogging and Slut Walking.…
Martinez, Julia T. ‘Questioning “White Australia”: unionism and “coloured” labour, 1911-1937‘, Labour History, 76, pp. 1-19 The “White Australia” policy is associated with the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901 and the exclusion of “coloured” labour from Australia. After 1901, however,…
Murphy, Gabrielle ‘Reconsidering immigration reform – again‘, The Age, 8 August 2013 Revisits the pioneering lobbying of 1960 which helped end the White Australia policy. The original Control or Colour Bar? pamphlet is here. One of the members of the original…
Jordens, Ann-Mari Hope: Refugees and Their Supporters in Australia since 1947, Halstead Press, Sydney, 2012 In-depth consideration of the resettlement experiences of refugees. The author notes that the outsourcing of resettlement services to specialist providers ‘conveys the impression that the…
Tavan, Gwenda The Long, Slow Death of White Australia, Scribe, Carlton North, Vic., 2005 The history of the racist immigration policy that was Australia’s guiding light for the majority of the 20th century is examined in this work. Beginning with…
Richard Broome Aboriginal Australians: A History since 1788, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 4th edition, 2010; first published 1982; 3rd edition 2002 had sub-title Black Responses to White Dominance Richard Broome tells the history of Australia from the standpoint…
‘During World War 1 Australia lost its way. Its enmeshment in the European war fractured the nation’s soul.’ Marilyn Lake In the year 1913 Canberra was born as our national capital on the very eve – as we now know…
Jupp, James From White Australia to Woomera: The Story of Australian Immigration, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2nd edition, 2007; first published 2002 [S]urveys the changes in policy over the last thirty years since the seismic shift away from the…
Lake, Marilyn & Henry Reynolds Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men’s Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2008; e-book and print on demand available Places Australia’s late 19th and early 20th century…
Lake, Marilyn Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1999 Getting Equal is the first full-length history of the movements – and their feisty, ebullient, determined leaders – who fought for women’s political and economic rights,…
Kociumbas, Jan Australian Childhood: A History, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1997 ‘In Australian Childhood Jan Kociumbas explores the experience of growing up in Australia since white settlement. She acknowledges the resilience and adaptability of the young and re-evaluates…
Flood, Josephine The Original Australians: Story of the Aboriginal People, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2007 The Original Australians tells the story of Australian Aboriginal history and society from its distant beginnings to the present day. From the wisdom…
Whiteford, Peter ‘Poverty in a time of prosperity‘, Inside Story, 15 September 2013 Over the past forty years the economic fortunes of Australian households have fallen into two fairly distinct periods. In the “disappointing decades” of the 1970s and 1980s,…
Davidson, Alistair From Subject to Citizen: Australian Citizenship in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997 ‘The central theme is that making proofs of belonging to the national culture a precondition of citizenship is inappropriate for a multicultural society…
Tsiolkas, Christos ‘Why Australia hates asylum seekers‘, The Monthly, September 2013 The article examines what the author describes as ‘a 15-year campaign that has bred fear, misconceptions and fury about asylum seekers’.
Altman, Dennis The End of the Homosexual, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 2013 The book ‘connects what has happened within the changing queer world over the past forty years to larger social, political and cultural trends. This is…
Ashenden, Dean ‘The Australian wars that Anzac Day neglects‘, Eureka Street, 21 April 2013 Notes that the frontier wars are not recognised at the Australian War Memorial and other memorials and argues that ‘public and popular history should record the…
John Howard A sense of balance: the Australian achievement in 2006: address to the National Press Club, Great Hall, Parliament House, 25 January 2006 See also this; together the two references give a good insight into this Prime Minister’s views…
Howard, John The 1996 Sir Robert Menzies Lecture: the beliefs and values which guide the Federal Government (18 November 1996) Criticises the ‘black armband’ view of history, amid a wide-ranging speech on aspects of Australia’s political history. May be compared…
Click here for all items related to: Aftermath Under this heading there are references about the effects of war on the people who fought and their families and the efforts of their country (which had sent them to war) to…
When the Honest History enterprise was just getting under way one supporter pointed out how great it would be to have in one place – a repository, indeed – a resource of material that put the Anzac myth under the…
Manne, Robert ‘Sorry business: the road to the apology‘, The Monthly, March 2008 Examines the history leading to the Rudd Government’s apology to the Stolen Generation in 2008, elements of the history of White Australia’s dealings with Indigenous Australians and…
Bongiorno, Frank The Sex Lives of Australians, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2012 ‘Cross-dressing colonists, effeminate bushrangers and women-shortage woes – here is the first ever history of sex in Australia, from Botany Bay to the present-day. ‘ The book shows how…
Featherstone, Lisa Let’s Talk about Sex: Histories of Sexuality in Australia from Federation to the Pill, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, 2011 Covering the period to 1961, the book ‘explores the ways sexuality has been constructed, understood and experienced in…
Click here for all items related to: Home front Here there are references which bring out clearly how there is more to war history than the deeds of men in khaki and that this is the case not just in…
Waterhouse, Richard The Vision Splendid: A Social and Cultural History of Rural Australia, Curtin University Books, Fremantle, WA, 2005 Describes how ‘the Bush’, where most Australians do not live, has played an important part in shaping national identity. This is…
Lydon, Jane & Tracy Ireland, ed. Object Lessons: Archaeology and Heritage in Australia, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2005 This book examines how we define ourselves through our concern with the past, and especially the idiosyncratic ways we engage with the…
McKenna, Mark Looking for Blackfellas’ Point: An Australian History of Place, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2002 ‘A history for every Australian who is interested in the story of settler-Australia’s relations with Indigenous people—what happened between us, how…
Ryan, Simon The Cartographic Eye: How Explorers Saw Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996 Tries to get behind the literature of the early contacts between explorers and the original inhabitants of Australia. This book is about the mythologies of land…
Mulvaney, John & Johan Kamminga Prehistory of Australia, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, revised edition, 1999; first published Thames and Hudson 1969 as The Prehistory of Australia; other editions Mulvaney has been Australia’s most distinguished prehistorian. ‘The obvious starting…
Robin, Libby & Tom Griffiths ‘Environmental history in Australasia‘, Environment and History, 10, 2004, pp. 439-74 Critical analysis of much writing in the field in both Australia and New Zealand.
Sherratt, Tim, Tom Griffiths & Libby Robin, ed. A Change in the Weather: Climate and Culture in Australia, NMA Press, Canberra, 2005 Collection of essays showing how climate and weather ‘can change lives, particularly in Australia, a continent of extreme,…
Griffiths, Tom Forests of Ash: An Environmental History, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, Vic., 2001 This beautifully written and presented book tells the story of Australia’s giant eucalypt, the mountain ash. Dependent on fire for its survival, the mountain ash…
Rose, Deborah Bird & Richard Davis, ed. Dislocating the Frontier: Essaying the Mystique of the Outback, ANU E Press, Canberra, 2006 (free formats and print on demand) The frontier is one of the most pervasive concepts underlying the production of…
Flannery, Tim The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People, Reed Books, Chatswood, NSW, 1994; later editions, including Reed New Holland 2006 This is the story of how human beings have consumed the resources they need…
Blainey, Geoffrey This Land is All Horizons: Australia’s Fears and Visions: Boyer Lectures, ABC Books, Sydney, 2001 This is a discussion of equality and equality of opportunity in Australian history, and of the changing way in which Australians see their…
Blainey, Geoffrey The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia’s History, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1966; numerous later editions The book ‘describes how distance and isolation have been central to Australia’s history and in shaping its national identity, and will continue…
Frost, Alan The First Fleet: The Real Story, Schwartz, Melbourne, 2012 Disagrees with Manning Clark, Robert Hughes and others that the First Fleet was a shambles. Based on extensive work in primary sources although Frost’s work here and in other…
Frost, Alan Voyage of the Endeavour: Captain Cook and the Discovery of the Pacific, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 1998 Places Cook in the context of European exploration of the Pacific. Based on extensive work with primary sources.
Hughes, Robert The Fatal Shore, Vintage, New York, 1986; many later editions and electronic versions Tells the story of freemen (and women) and convicts and the Indigenous people to whose country they came. Covers the period 1787 to 1868. Many…
Click here for all items related to: Reality of war Here you will find an emphasis on what war was really like for those who fought it. There is necessarily some overlap with the material under Home front and Aftermath,…
Summers, Anne Damned Whores and God’s Police: The Colonization of Women in Australia, Penguin, Ringwood, Vic., 1975; later editions 1994, 2002 According to the author’s website, the book was in November 2003 voted one of the top ten books of…
Rolls, Eric Visions of Australia: Impressions of the Landscape, 1642-1910, Lothian, South Melbourne, Vic., 2002. braille edition, 2005 This book remakes the conception of Australia. Writers such as Henry Lawson saw Australia through the eyes of settlers trying to build…
Rolls, Eric Australia: A Biography: The Beginnings from the Cosmos to the Genesis of Gondwana, and its Rivers, Forests, Flora, Fauna, and Fecundity, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 2000; later editions The sub-title says it all. The story…
Rolls, Eric Citizens: Flowers and the Wide Sea: Continuing the Epic Story of China’s Centuries-Old Relationship with Australia, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1998 Sequel to Sojourners, dealing with how the Chinese pursued their aim after 1888 ‘to…
Rolls, Eric Sojourners: The Epic Story of China’s Centuries-old Relationship with Australia: Flowers and the Wide Sea, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1992 First volume in a detailed study of the relationship between the Chinese and Australia, taking…
Rolls, Eric A Million Wild Acres: 200 years of man and an Australian forest, Nelson, Melbourne, 1981; 3oth anniversary edition, Hale & Iremonger, 2011 Describes the interactions between humans and their environment in the Pilliga scrub country of north-western New…
Hancock, Keith Discovering Monaro: A Study of Man’s Impact on his Environment, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1972; republished 2009 Discusses the Aboriginal occupation of the Monaro region near Canberra, tribal territories, the population before white settlement, economic life, the use…
Gammage, Bill The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines made Australia, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2011 Bill Gammage’s The Biggest Estate on Earth argues that the Aboriginal people managed the land in a far more systematic and scientific…
Mclean-Carr, Carol, et al ‘The navigators‘, ABC Learn Online Website for school students and general readers covering history, captains, naturalists, ships, navigation and other aspects of early exploration.
Fornasiero, Jean, Peter Monteath & John West-Sooby Encountering Terra Australis: The Australian Voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, SA, 2004 ‘Encountering Terra Australis traces the parallel lives and voyages of the explorers Flinders and Baudin,…
Anderson, Deb ‘Drought, endurance and ‘The way things were’: the lived experience of climate and climate change in the Mallee‘, Australian Humanities Review, 45, November 2008 Oral history piece on how experience of regular drought came together with experience of…
McKernan, Michael Drought: The Red Marauder, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005 ‘”Drought is the Australian story”, McKernan says. Then again, “It would rain for the farmer and hopes would revive, and the drought would be forgotten – until the…
Click here for all items related to: Australia’s war history What are the central elements of Australia’s involvement with war and how do we continually reinforce them? While Australians’ relationship with the Anzac tradition or myth is a key theme…
Anonymous. Bibliography of Australian History Wikipedia. Patchy, but has some useful entries. Links to timeline and general history entries.
Hirst, John ‘An oddity from the start: convicts and national character‘, The Monthly, July 2008 Argues against the idea that our convict heritage made us an anti-authoritarian people. Includes criticism of the Russel Ward thesis in his The Australian Legend…
Davison, Graeme, John Hirst & Stuart Macintyre, ed., with the assistance of Helen Doyle & Kim Torney The Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Vic., 1998; revised edition 2001; e-version available This superb new companion provides…
Macintyre, Stuart & Sean Scalmer, ed. What If? Australian History As It Might Have Been, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2006 Providing a play on actual historical events versus possible ones, this fascinating volume asks leading Australian historians to wonder…
Murray, Tim, Jan Kociumbas, Beverley Kingston, Stuart Macintyre, and Geoffrey Bolton The Oxford History of Australia, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Vic., 1986-96, various editions Includes Volume I Aboriginal Australia (Murray), Volume II Possessions 1770-1860 (Kociumbas), Volume III Glad, Confident…
Macintyre, Stuart A Concise History of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, Vic., 1999, 2nd edition 2004, 3rd edition 2009 Australia is the last continent to be settled by Europeans, but it also sustains a people and a culture tens…
McKenna, Mark ‘Australian history and the Australian “national inheritance”’, Australian Cultural History, 27, 1, 2009, pp. 1-12 Over the last decade, there has been an increasing push from political parties, both conservative and Labor, and sections of the political class—opinion…
Stuart Macintyre with Anna Clark The History Wars, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2003; later editions including e-book Historical survey of a number of controversies affecting Australian historians and their craft. The book itself provoked further controversy, particularly about the political…
Megalogenis, George ‘Trivial pursuit: leadership and the end of the reform era‘, Quarterly Essay, 40, November 2010 Laments the lack of political vision or interest in policy reform as the nation enters the period of the ‘hung Parliament’. A number…
Macintyre, Stuart, ed. The Historian’s Conscience: Australian Historians on the Ethics of History, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2004 The editor posed six questions to the contributors. Summarised: how do historians choose their histories? what balance do they strike between…
Clark, Anna Teaching the Nation: Politics and Pedagogy in Australian History, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2006 Starts from Prime Minister’s Howard’s well-known remark in 2000 at Gallipoli that ‘history was not being taught as it should be in Australia’s…
On 28 September 2013, Fairfax media online and in hardcopy newspapers carried extensive coverage by reporter Daniel Hurst of the stated intention of new Education Minister, Christopher Pyne, to take a stronger role in correcting ‘leftist’ agenda bias in school…
Graeme Davison ‘The habit of commemoration and the revival of Anzac Day’, Australian Cultural History, 22, 2003, pp. 73-82 A recent survey on ‘Australians and the Past’ questioned the assumption that ‘public celebrations are a clue to private sentiments’. (p.…
Robson, LL The First A.I.F: A Study of Its Recruitment 1914-1918, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1970; paperback edition 1982 Tells the story of the early recruiting drives, the failure of the voluntary system, the conscription referendums and the division…
Curthoys, Ann & Marilyn Lake, ed. Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective, ANU e-press, Canberra, 2006; free online version This volume brings together historians of imperialism and race, travel and modernity, Islam and India, the Pacific and the Atlantic to…
Peel, Mark & Christina Twomey A History of Australia, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, 2011 The treatment is mostly chronological and the target the general reader and students. A robotic voice gives a summary here, there are some extracts of reviews…
Lyons, Martin & Penny Russell, ed. Australia’s History: Themes and Debates, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2005 A review (no longer accessible Dec 2014) suggested the editors ‘evidently asked their contributors to adopt a democratic, or rather egalitarian,…
Bashford, Alison & Stuart Macintyre, ed. The Cambridge History of Australia, Cambridge University Press, New York & Port Melbourne, Vic., two volumes, 2013 Histories like this underline the many-strandedness of our history and the range of historians active in the…
Garton, Stephen The Cost of War: Australians Return, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1996 The achievements of Australian servicemen and women have played a central role in shaping Australia’s national identity. But while we rightly commemorate the sacrifices of Australians in…
McMullin, Ross Farewell, Dear People: Biographies of Australia’s Lost Generation, Scribe, Melbourne, 2012 Collective biography of 10 Australians killed in World War I, emphasising the perennial outcome of major wars, the loss of many of the best people of a…
Lockhart, Greg ‘Race fear, dangerous denial‘, Griffith Review: Wicked Problems, Exquisite Dilemmas, 32, May 2011 Detailed historiographical discussion of the lead-up to the commitment of Australian forces to World War I, drawing upon evidence that there was secret imperial planning from…
Robert Manne ‘Bad news: Murdoch’s Australian and the shaping of the nation’, Quarterly Essay, 43, September 2011 ‘The Australian sees itself’, the author believes, ‘not as a mere newspaper, but as a player in the game of national politics, calling…
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library “Doing the Best for the Country”: Behind the Scenes of Australia’s Wartime Decision-making 1939-45 Text and dozens of photographs under the headings ‘Australia’s wartime Prime Ministers’, ‘War Cabinet and Advisory War Council’, ‘Wartime discussions and…
Hearder, Rosalind ‘Memory, methodology and myth: some of the challenges of writing Australian prisoner of war history‘, Journal of the Australian War Memorial (2007) Discusses the relative lack of attention to POWs, the reticence of former POWs (partly due to…
McKernan, Michael This War Never Ends: Australian Pows and Families, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 2001 An absorbing examination of what it was like to wait and to worry on the homefront during the years of the loved…
McKernan, Michael The Australian People and the Great War, Thomas Nelson, West Melbourne, Vic., 1980; later editions Fascinating account of Australian society during WWI, with focus on churches, women, young people below conscription age and ethnic groups, such as German…
McKernan, Michael Australian Churches at War: Attitudes and Activities of the Major Churches, 1914-1918, Catholic Theological Faculty & Australian War Memorial, Sydney & Canberra, 1980 Based on the author’s thesis. The author discusses here (2004) the role of the churches,…
McKernan, Michael The Strength of a Nation: Six Years of Australians Fighting for the Nation and Defending the Homefront in WWII, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2006; kindle edition Nearly one million Australians out of a total population of…
Clark, Anna ‘Teaching national narratives and values in Australian schools‘, originally published, Agora (History Teachers Association of Victoria), 43, 1, 2008, pp. 4-9 Discusses the Howard Government’s education agenda, attitudes to it and the varying attitudes of students to the…
Jones, Gemma & Paul Tatnell ‘Furore over image branding of Anzac centenary‘, Herald-Sun, 6 January 2012 Some public concern reported over plans by the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board to market research an appropriate logo for the Anzac centenary. The successful…
Hannaford, John & Janice Newton ‘Sacrifice, grief and the sacred at the contemporary “secular” pilgrimage to Gallipoli‘, Borderlands, 7, 1, 2008 Looks at Gallipoli travel from a religious perspective. The authors were from the Australian College of Ministries and the…
McKay, Jim ‘A critique of the militarisation of Australian history and culture thesis: the case of Anzac battlefield tourism‘, Portal, 10, 1, January 2013 Criticises the authors of What’s Wrong with Anzac? for their ‘top-down’ approach and assumptions that the…
Gerster, Robin Big-noting: the Heroic Theme in Australian War Writing, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1987; reprint with different pagination 1992 The author is critical of CEW Bean and many others, writers of both fiction and non-fiction from World War…
Mitchell, Natasha, Bruce Scates & Damien Williams ‘Anzac memories‘, ABC Life Matters, 25 April 2013 (audio; no transcript) Natasha Mitchell talks with Monash academics, Bruce Scates and Damien Williams, who describe their work on ‘100 stories‘ and ‘Anzac remembered‘. There…
Damousi, Joy & Marilyn Lake, ed. Gender and War: Australians at War in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2nd edition, 2011; first published 1995 Essays which explore ‘the inter-relationship of gender and war in Australia for the first…
Damousi, Joy Living with the Aftermath: Trauma, Nostalgia and Grief in Post-war Australia, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2001; e-book available The book ‘based on oral testimonies, focuses on the shifting patterns of mourning and grief in the experiences of Australian…
Damousi, Joy The Labour of Loss: Mourning, Memory and Wartime Bereavement in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1999; e-book available The Labour of Loss explores how mothers, fathers, widows, relatives and friends dealt with their experiences of grief and loss…
Daley, Paul with Michael Bowers Armageddon: Two Men on an Anzac Trail, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2011 Retraces the steps of the Australian Light Horse through Palestine with the author and photographer finding occasion for both happiness and sadness. The speech…
Paul Daley Beersheba: A Journey through Australia’s Forgotten War, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2009; later editions Combines a history of the cavalry charge at Beersheba and the massacre at Surafend (by Australians and New Zealanders of around 137 local Arabs)…
Peter Monteath P.O.W.: Australian Prisoners of War in Hitler’s Reich, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 2011 Comprehensive study of a field that has been relatively neglected compared with Australian prisoners of the Japanese in World War II. A review is here and…
Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) War and Militarism Seven papers published since February 2012 on militarising Australian history (Marilyn Lake), war is a health hazard (Jenny Grounds), sending Australians to war (Paul Barratt), promoting security (John Langmore), emotions…
Australian War Memorial Australians at War Massive store of materials, under concise summaries, relating to the colonial period and 14 theatres of war. Includes links to the complete text of the official histories of the two World Wars, the Korean…
White, Hugh ‘Primal fears, primal ambitions’, Arena Magazine, 76, April-May 2005, pp. 32-36 The article is based on a lecture at RMIT University in November 2004. ‘In Australia today’, the author says, ‘security has acquired a prominence in public policy…
Bernard Whimpress* ‘Creeping Anzacism: a paper delivered to the 15th State History Conference, Adelaide, 28 May 2006‘ Bernard Whimpress is an Adelaide-based historian best known as a sports writer. However, he has also written books and articles on city heritage,…
Nietzsche, Friedrich On the Use and Abuse of History for Life, translated Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC, Canada, revised edition, 2010; first published 1874 Contains many insights into this subject, among them his warning that ‘there are times…
Baker, Mark ‘Taken for a ride?‘ Sydney Morning Herald, 7 March 2013 Report on the federal government inquiry into whether John Simpson Kirkpatrick, the Man with the Donkey, should posthumously receive a Victoria Cross. The article describes how journalists, false…
Daley, Paul ‘A contest about peace not war‘, Canberra Times, 21 April 2013 Contrasts the Anzac Day AFL match with an Anzac Day parade in a small town. My view has always been that Anzac commemoration, while largely a communal…
McKernan, Michael Here is Their Spirit: A History of the Australian War Memorial 1917-1990, University of Queensland Press in association with the Australian War Memorial, St Lucia, Qld, 1991 Describes the transformation of the vision of CEW Bean and John…
Brett, Judith ‘Relaxed and comfortable: the Liberal Party’s Australia‘, Quarterly Essay, 19, August 2005 Describes how John Howard as Prime Minister (ultimately for 11 years to 2007) kept his government attuned to ‘the moderate middle of national experience’. (p. 74)…
Thomson, Alistair ‘Anzac stories: using personal testimony in war history‘, War & Society, 25, 2, October 2006, pp. 1-21 Discusses the value of personal testimony, suggesting that some authors select testimony that supports their theme, whether this is pathos, ‘cock-up’ …
Rundle, Guy ‘The one day of pure form‘, Overland, 211, Winter 2013, pp. 61-64 The author argues that Anzac Day has previously been noted for ‘trumpeting of a white imperialism, for its militarism, for its idolisation of masculinity. Some of…
Pearson, Noel ‘An address to the Launch: Don Watson “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM”, Random House Australia 2002 [Sydney, 1 May 2002]‘ Uses the launch of the Keating biography to criticise some aspects of…
Watson, Don Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM, Knopf, Milson’s Point, NSW, 2002; later editions A view of 13 years of Australian history from the perspective of a prime ministerial speech writer. It contains a…
Zines, Leslie The High Court and the Constitution, The Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, 5th edition, 2008; first published Butterworths 1980 Tracks the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution during an important period.
Stilwell, Frank & Kirrily Jordan Who Gets What? Analysing Economic Inequality in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, Vic., 2007 Ranges widely over Australian history with an emphasis on the years since 1960. Why have the incomes of corporate executives…
Rowse, Tim Australian Liberalism and National Character, Kibble Books, Melbourne, 1978 Exploration of the development of liberalism as Australia’s dominant ideology, from the early 2oth century to the 1970s. Among other things, quotes (p. 177) CEW Bean in 1943 on…
Kerr, Darren ‘Review essay: Bardia: Myth, Reality and the Heirs of Anzac‘, Australian Army Journal, VII, 2, Winter, 2010, pp. 139-44 The reviewer is a colonel in the Australian Army. For the Australian Army, the Anzac legend has not been…
Stockings, Craig Bardia: Myth, Reality and the Heirs of Anzac, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009 The author suggests this battle, in North Africa against the Italians in January 1941, has been relatively neglected by Australians when it…
Stockings, Craig & John Connor, ed. Before the Anzac Dawn: A Military History of Australia before 1915, NewSouth, Sydney, 2013 This book provides a comprehensive and compelling account of Australian military history before any soldier set foot on Gallipoli. It…
Stockings, Craig, ed. Zombie Myths of Australian Military History: The Ten Myths that Will Not Die, NewSouth, Sydney, 2010 Over the years many books on Australian military history have given rise to a host of …‘zombie’ myths – myths that…
Stockings, Craig, ed. Anzac’s Dirty Dozen: 12 Myths of Australian Military History, NewSouth, Sydney, 2012 Myth busting by military historians and other authors on a wide range of topics, including denials that our military history begins at Gallipoli, that our…
Caulfield, Michael The Vietnam Years: From the Jungle to the Australian Suburbs, Hachette Australia, Sydney, 2007 Contains many extracts from interviews with both Vietnam veterans and Australians who opposed our involvement in the war. There are recollections of both the…
Truesdale, Roxanne ‘Aw! What rot!‘ Australian War Memorial Blog, 10 May 2013 Working on material rejected for The Anzac Book, the author found a piece by a New Zealand soldier reflecting on the issue of cowardice under fire. She comments:…
Stuart Campbell ‘Realities of war never hit our TVs or our hearts‘, ABC The Drum, 21 June 2013 The author argues that after Vietnam, Western governments determined that there would never again be an uncensored TV conflict. As an Australian…
Bowers, Mike ‘So much to remember‘, The Global Mail, 24 April 2012 Photojournalism ‘from a lifetime of wondering and wandering amid the Anzacs’. Depicts ‘the long shadow of Australia’s great war’ with images from France, Palestine and Gallipoli.
Veitch, Michael & Carol Raabus ‘Peter Cundall remembers the Forgotten War‘ 936 ABC Hobart, 22 April 2013 (audio and story) Memories of service in Australian Army in the Korean War: horror, boredom, terror, comradeship.
Elias, Ann ‘Hidden history: Max Dupain, modernism and war time camouflage‘, The Conversation, 26 July 2013 Intersection between the arts (photography) and war (camouflage techniques). Describes how artists ‘used the techniques of abstraction, cubism and surrealism to help the military…
Australian War Memorial Afghanistan: The Australian Story Online version of exhibition at the Memorial opened August 2013. Stresses the impact on soldiers and families. Contains many short videos of soldiers’ and families’ stories. Honest History noted the exhibition here (under…
Scarlett, Philippa Indigenous Histories Website ‘[s]upporting Australian Indigenous history, art and culture’. Includes posts on Indigenous service men in both major wars from the Leane, Fell, Rigney, Punch, Stubbings and many other families. The site contains contact details for obtaining…
Lester, Tim ‘The fallen‘, Sydney Morning Herald [various dates] (video series) Interviews by Tim Lester with families and friends of five soldiers killed in Afghanistan. While the war is recent the sentiments are timeless – impact on loved ones, sadness but…
Inglis, KS ‘The Australian military tradition’, John Lack, ed., Anzac Remembered: Selected Writings by K.S. Inglis, History Department, University of Melbourne, 1998, pp. 120-47; first published, Current Affairs Bulletin, 64, 11, April 1988 Describes how the Australian military tradition or…
Inglis, KS ‘Return to Gallipoli’, John Lack, ed., Anzac Remembered: Selected Writings by K.S. Inglis, History Department, University of Melbourne, 1998, pp. 43-62; first published, ANU Historical Journal, 3, October 1966 Describes a pilgrimage to Gallipoli on the 5oth anniversary…
Inglis, KS ‘The Anzac tradition’, John Lack, ed., Anzac Remembered: Selected Writings by K.S. Inglis, History Department, University of Melbourne, 1998, pp. 18-42; first published, Meanjin, 100, March 1965 Considers at length writings inspired by Anzac, stressing CEW Bean’s descriptions…
Inglis, KS ‘Anzac Day: the One Day will endure’, John Lack. ed., Anzac Remembered: Selected Writings by K.S. Inglis, History Department, University of Melbourne, 1998, pp. 13-17; first published, The Age, 25 April 1964 Discusses early arguments about Anzac Day,…
Inglis, KS ‘The Little Boy from Manly grows up’, John Lack. ed., Anzac Remembered: Selected Writings by K.S. Inglis, History Department, University of Melbourne, 1998, pp. 9-12; first published, The Age, 24 April 1964 Discusses early Australian attempts to find…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed Why has Anzac become so important to Australians and what are the implications of this for our country in the 21st century? Contributions and references come from contemporary historians, journalists and…
Fox, Sharon ‘The Gallipoli experience – a traveller’s reflection’, Online Opinion, 21 April 2011 Balanced view by a mature age student of a pilgrimage to Gallipoli, noting both the manipulation of the Anzac myth and the losses suffered on both sides.…
Rundle, Guy ‘Anzac Day and why we need to question “myths” of war‘, Crikey, 24 April 2012 Anzac-based nationalism from the Labor Government is related to the commitment to the Afghanistan war and specifically to Labor’s need to show its…
McKernan, Michael ‘True meaning of Anzac Day‘, Canberra Times, 7 May 2013 The author writes of a relative, disabled in the Vietnam War. His article warns about overglamourising Anzac Day, risking the loss of its real meaning, and confusing the…
MacInnes, Scott ‘Observing Remembrance Day: a personal reflection‘, The Drum (ABC ), 11 November 2011 The author discusses the significance of 11 November. There were 28 reader comments. Remembrance Day has always tended to concentrate more on the suffering and…
MacInnes, Scott ‘Aussie, Christian or universal values?‘ The Drum (ABC), 25 April 2011 Those values Australians celebrate on Anzac Day – courage, bravery, solidarity and compassion for the fallen – are exactly the same values the Turkish, Japanese, Vietnamese, Iraqi…
Carlton, Mike ‘Staring at the abyss, thank God for Alan‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 April 2013 The second part of the article is a meditation on Anzac Day, which the author feels has virtually become ‘Anzac Week’. ‘The remembrance of…
Ziino, Bart ‘Mourning and commemoration in Australia: the case of Sir W. T. Bridges and the Unknown Australian Soldier’, History Australia, 4, 2, December 2007, pp. 40.1-40.17 The article discusses the significance of the return to Australia of the only…
Ziino, Bart ‘Who owns Gallipoli? Australia’s Gallipoli anxieties 1915-2005’, Journal of Australian Studies, 88, 2006, pp. 1-12 Since the Australian departure from Gallipoli in December 1915, there has been an ambivalent relationship with the Turkish authorities regarding care of ground…
Ziino, Bart ‘A kind of round trip: Australian soldiers and the tourist analogy 1914-1918’, War & Society, 25, 2, October 2006, pp. 39-52 Examines the argument that going to war was like being a tourist. Has extensive notes and references…
Ziino, Bart A Distant Grief: Australians, War Graves and the Great War, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, WA, 2008 The book ‘examines the role of war graves and cemeteries in private grief and mourning’. Given that the graves of…
Lake, Marilyn ‘Unequal to the task‘, The Age, 22 March 2012 Notes that Australian egalitarian principles were strongly in evidence before World War I, as seen, for example, in the work of HB Higgins (see also here). It is timely…
Green, Jonathan & Marilyn Lake ‘Newsmaker: Marilyn Lake on Anzac and Aussie identity‘, ABC Sunday Extra, 1 April 2012 (audio and transcript) Marilyn Lake talks to Jonathan Green. Marilyn Lake makes clear that she has no objection to commemoration of…
Grey, Jeffrey ‘The big idea: we are making a mess of commemorating WWI‘, Australian, 24 April 2013 The author says Australia historically is not very good at centenaries. ‘If Australia’s centenary observance is little more than a four year long…
Pryor, Sally ‘Nelson defends modernising memorial‘, Canberra Times, 6 April 2013 Australian War Memorial Director, Brendan Nelson, defended recent changes at the Memorial, noting that ‘keeping the younger generation engaged with history was key’. He described the Memorial’s overall mission…
Stephens, David ‘Memories and messages at the Australian War Memorial‘, The Drum (ABC), 29 April 2011 Thoughts provoked by a visit to the Australian War Memorial on Anzac Day, stressing particularly the effects of the normalisation of militarism. Notes also…
Jack Waterford ‘AWM and Gallipoli Souvenirs Inc‘, Canberra Times, 7 July 2013 Criticism of commercialised war commemoration.
Twomey, Christina ‘The national service scheme: citizenship and the tradition of compulsory military service in 1960s Australia‘, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 58, 1, March 2012, pp. 67–81 Between 1964 and 1972, the National Service Act 1964 required Australian…
Peter Stanley Bad Characters: Sex, Crime, Mutiny and Murder and the Australian Imperial Force, Murdoch/Pier 9, Sydney 2010 Australia’s long-standing love affair with the Diggers has blinded us to the dark side of the Anzac legend. Bad Characters is a…
Stanley, Peter Men of Mont St Quentin: Between Victory and Death, Scribe, Melbourne, 2009 Micro-study of some participants in one of the final battles of the Great War and of what happened to them after the war. The author describes…
Stanley, Peter Invading Australia: Japan and the Battle for Australia, 1942, Viking Penguin, Melbourne, 2008 The author makes the important distinction between the emotional fears of Australians in 1942 that they were under threat of Japanese invasion and the historical,…
Stanley, Peter Quinn’s Post, Anzac, Gallipoli, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005; also available as e-book ‘Delving into the history of Quinn’s as a key part of the Anzac line, this book illuminates what it was like to live,…
Stanley, Peter Digger Smith and Australia’s Great War, Murdoch/Pier 9, Sydney, 2011 Explores the history of forty Smiths (and Schmidts), taking Smith as ‘Everyman’ and thus exploring Australia’s experience of World War I, at the front and at home. Not…
Henderson, Gerard ‘The lingering myth of Anzac Day‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April 2005 Speculates about Anzac’s resurgence and denies the ‘left-wing’ view that Australians in 1915 were fighting someone else’s war.
Masters, Chris Uncommon Soldier: The Story of the Making of Today’s Diggers, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2012 ‘Moving away from our ongoing fascination with Anzac story, he looks at the rich and illuminating present to write a character…
Carlyon, Les The Great War, Macmillan, Sydney, 2006 Winner of the inaugural Prime Minister’s Prize for History, 2007. The author was a member of the Australian War Memorial Council for some years. He discusses his work here.
Carlyon, Les Gallipoli, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 2002; first published 2001 The epitome of large war remembrance books, written for a general audience. The author was a member of the Australian War Memorial Council for some years.
O’Neill, Sharon & Alan Seymour ‘The one day of the year‘, ABC Stateline NSW, 25 April 2003 (transcript) The revival of the 1960 play occasions a look at changing attitudes towards Anzac. Reporter Sharon O’Neill interviews author Alan Seymour.
Monash University National Centre for Australian Studies ‘100 stories project‘, Anzac Remembered The One Hundred Stories are stories that have not been told before. They highlight the experiences of women as well as men, recover the too often forgotten contribution…
Scates, Bruce Return to Gallipoli: Walking the Battlefields of the Great War, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and Melbourne, 2006; later editions, including e-book One of a number of publications by this author seeking to reconstruct the reality of war by…
Waterford, Jack ‘Nelson flying wrong flags‘, Canberra Times, 26 April 2013 Columnist critical of new Australian War Memorial Director for allegedly ill-judged changes at the Memorial also makes some general points about commemoration and the role of Anzac. The last…
Beaumont, Joan ‘Comment: declining sense of grief over Anzac‘, SBS News, 25 April 2013 ANU historian Joan Beaumont says that, with the passage of time Anzac Day grief may have been replaced by a ‘much more sentimental nostalgia about the…
Lake, Marilyn, Graham Wilson, Jeff Sparrow, Brendan Nelson, John Martinkus, Nicholas Jans ‘Intelligence Squared Debate: Anzac Day is More Puff Than Substance, 30 April 2013‘, The Wheeler Centre (video, audio, no transcript) The plucky bravery of the Anzacs is one…
Manne, Robert ‘The war myth that made us‘, The Age, 25 April 2007 Asks why Anzac Day has become our most important national day. Manne suggests, with John Hirst, that the Gallipoli landing helped Australians overcome a sense of colonial…
Keating, PJ ‘Remembrance Day, 1993‘ He is all of them. And he is one of us … The Unknown Australian Soldier we inter today was one of those who by his deeds proved that real nobility and grandeur belongs not…
Keating, PJ Statement by the Prime Minister, the Hon. PJ Keating MP, Anzac Day 1995 This is the eightieth anniversary of the event from which Anzac Day derives, the landing at Gallipoli and the tragic and disastrous military campaign which…
Gillard, Julia Lone Pine ceremony, Gallipoli, 25 April 2012 Our federal bond was young when the Anzacs came to this place. The laws and institutions of our nation were laid down in 1901. But here, in 1915, its spirit and…
Gillard, Julia Dawn Service, Gallipoli, 25 April 2012 We come back. As we will always come back. To give the best and only gift that can matter anymore – our remembrance. We remember what the Anzacs did in war. And…
Rudd, Kevin Anzac Day National Ceremony Address to the National War Memorial Canberra, 25 April 2008 So what would this brave company of men and women – these hundred thousand voices – have to say to us today? What would…
Rudd, Kevin Prime Minister speech at the ANZAC Day national ceremony, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, on the commemoration of the centenary of ANZAC, 25 April 2010 The Prime Minister announced the formation of the commission to consider how to commemorate…
Hawke, Robert Speech by the Prime Minister, Dawn Service, Gallipoli, 25 April 1990 While the military objectives of the Australians at Gallipoli were not achieved ‘because of the courage with which they fought, because of their devotion to duty and…
Robert Hawke Speech for the Prime Minister, Lone Pine ceremony, Gallipoli, 25 April 1990 It is not in the waste of war that Australians find the meaning of Gallipoli then or now. I say “then or now” for a profound…
John Howard Address at Anzac Day Dawn Service, Gallipoli, 25 April 2005 Those who fought here in places like Quinn’s Post, Pope’s Hill and the Nek changed forever the way we saw our world and ourselves. They bequeathed Australia a…
John Howard Transcript of the Prime Minister, the Hon. John Howard MP, address at the Anzac Day parade, Canberra, 25 April 2001 The transcript is headed, ‘The Anzac tradition’ and the then Prime Minister noted that Australians are drawn together…