PJ Keating After Words: The Post-Prime Ministerial Speeches, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2011 Notable for the former Prime Minister’s distinction, following George Orwell, between nationalism and patriotism. He prefers the latter, which is ‘belief in a particular place and its…
Keating, PJ: After Words: The Post-Prime Ministerial Speeches
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Getting on with the world, Using and abusing history
Gartrell, Adam: Rudd, Keating ‘at war’ over Gallipoli
Adam Gartrell ‘Rudd, Keating “at war” over Gallipoli‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 October 2008 The former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, had said it was ‘utter and complete nonsense’ that Australia was redeemed or born again at Gallipoli in 1915, that…
Ramsey, Alan: What you get for having a shot at Keating
Alan Ramsey ‘What you get for having a shot at Keating‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 November 2008 Text of the then former Prime Minister’s response to the remark of the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, that Keating was wrong to…
Londey, Peter: Managed memories
Peter Londey ‘Managed memories‘, H-net Book Review (27 May 2005); originally published H-war, January 2005 The book reviewed is Liz Reed, Bigger than Gallipoli: War, History and Memory in Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Perth, 2004. The reviewer worked…
Masters, Chris, et al: The great history war
Chris Masters ‘The great history war‘, ABC Four Corners, 10 November 2008 (transcript) Presenter Chris Masters talks to academics, war historians, military tourists and descendants of soldiers. The scenes are Gallipoli and the Western Front. Among the remarks: PROF. JOAN…
Prior, Robin: Gallipoli: The End of the Myth
Robin Prior Gallipoli: The End of the Myth, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009; first published Yale University Press, 2009 Argues that the Dardanelles campaign was unwinnable, on land or at sea.
McKenna, Mark: Patriot act
Mark McKenna ‘Patriot act’, Australian, 6 June 2007 (also in the Australian Literary Review) Long (5000 words) article anticipating the author’s chapter in What’s Wrong with Anzac? Contains seminal critique of the Anzac myth as a political tool, wielded by…
Lake, Marilyn: We must fight free of Anzac
Marilyn Lake ‘We must fight free of Anzac, lest we forget our other stories‘, Age, 24 April 2009 Rehearses many of the arguments put in What’s Wrong with Anzac? Looks at the troubles of soldier settlers after World War I,…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, Using and abusing history
Ross, Lloyd: Curtin
Lloyd Ross Curtin: A Biography, Macmillan, South Melbourne, Vic., 1977 Biography by a former Curtin associate. Took many years to write, drew upon dozens of interviews, but lacks spark. Still, a useful reference for labour history over forty years, as…
Daley, Paul: War and pieces
Paul Daley ‘War and pieces‘, The Global Mail, 9 November 2012 updated Story of the pilfering (or, depending on your point of view, rescuing or taking as a legitimate trophy of war) of the Shellal Mosaic by members of the…
Hearn, Mark: Writing the nation in Australia
Mark Hearn ‘Writing the nation in Australia : Australian historians and narrative myths of nation’, Stefan Berger, ed., Writing the Nation: A Global Perspective, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2007, pp 103-25 [The article] surveys a range of culturally influential twentieth-century Australian…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Rose, James: Here’s looking at us #1: the Australian War Memorial
James Rose ‘Here’s looking at us #1 – the Australian War Memorial‘, Crikey, 13 August 2013 Blogger reviews the Memorial and asks whether we should see the dead commemorated there ‘as the War Memorial encourages us, as young men and women…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, Teaching history, Using and abusing history
Piggott, Michael: The Battle for Australia: Henry Reynolds’s ‘Forgotten War’
Michael Piggott* ‘The Battle for Australia: Henry Reynolds’s “Forgotten War”‘, Honest History Newsletter No. 5, September 2013 There is so much about Henry Reynolds’s latest book (Forgotten War, NewSouth Publishing, 2013) to admire, to think about and to endorse. What…
Click here for all items related to: Australia's war history, People like us, Using and abusing history
Reynolds, Henry: Forgotten War
Henry Reynolds Forgotten War, New South, Sydney, 2013 The book (winner of the Victorian Premier’s award for non-fiction) chronicles in relentless detail the frontier war between settlers and Indigenous Australians, which saw upwards of 30 000 Aborigines and at least…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, People like us, Using and abusing history
Peake, Ross: Move soon on Anzac centenary
Ross Peake ‘Move “soon” on Anzac centenary‘, Canberra Times, 17 April 2013 Reports Coalition criticism of delays in Gillard government response to Anzac Centenary Advisory Board report and notes the suggestion that a second Colmar Brunton report was commissioned after…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed
Price, Jenna: The holiest thing our nation has (Dawn service)
Jenna Price ‘The holiest thing our nation has‘, Canberra Times, 23 April 2013 Columnist’s meditation about the Anzac Day Dawn Service. She insists that politicians (who commit soldiers to war) should attend the Service and goes on what the majority…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed
Kelly, Paul: The next Anzac century
Paul Kelly ‘The next Anzac century‘, The Australian, 23 April 2011 Kelly is interested first in the differing attitudes of intellectuals and others towards Anzac. The re-energising of Anzac has become the central organising principle of Australia’s past and how…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed
Australian Government: Response to the Report of the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board
Australian Government Government Response to the Report of the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board on a Program of Initiatives to Commemorate the Anzac Centenary The response accepted 22 recommendations in full and three in principle. (The ‘in principle’ responses were to…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed
Anzac Centenary Advisory Board: Report to government March 2013
Anzac Centenary Advisory Board Report to Government: 1 March 2013, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2013 The Board’s Chair is Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston (Ret’d), former Chief of the Australian Defence Force. The report is of great interest for…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed
Honest History: The national history curriculum and the Coalition
The national history curriculum and the coalition: Honest History Factsheet Prime Minister Paul Keating said that when you change the government, you change the country. Do you change the curriculum as well? This article brings together some sources that may…
Stephens, Alan: Acts of remembrance or expressions of nationalism?
Alan Stephens ‘Acts of remembrance or expressions of nationalism?‘ The Drum (ABC), 25 April 2013 Article (attracting 185 comments by readers) by an historian of the RAAF, arguing that [a]t the start, Australia needed Anzac Day. We were a small,…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Strands of Australian history, Using and abusing history
Brissenden, Michael: Should Anzac Day inspire more than just fervour?
Michael Brissenden ‘Should Anzac Day inspire more than just fervour?’ ABC The Drum, 25 April 2013 Includes 100 comments showing a wide spectrum of views. Quotes Clare Wright, historian, that ‘Anzac Day has grown in appeal in inverse proportion to…
Gower, Steve: Remembrance and commemmoration: Coates Oration 2008
Steve Gower Remembrance and commemoration: speech (Sir Albert Coates Oration) delivered by Steve Gower AO AO (Mil) ME, Director, Australian War Memorial on 25 November 2008 at Ballarat University The speaker touches on individual stories (Coates, Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop,…
Stanley, Peter: Why does Gallipoli mean so much? (25 April 2008)
Peter Stanley ‘Why does Gallipoli mean so much?‘ ABC News, 25 April 2008 (written 2006) Historian Peter Stanley tries to answer this question. ‘Nations’, he says, ‘create the history they need’. After Anzac was neglected for many years, an assertive…
Bendle, Mervyn F.: Gallipoli: second front in the History Wars
Mervyn F. Bendle ‘Gallipoli: second front in the History Wars‘, Quadrant Online, LIII, 6, June 2009 Lengthy article with many citations taking to task historians like Joan Beaumont, Marilyn Lake, Mark McKenna, Robin Prior and Peter Stanley and commentators such…
Click here for all items related to: Aftermath, Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, Using and abusing history
Brissenden, Michael, et al: Importance of Anzac Day: 25 April 2013
Michael Brissenden, et al ‘Importance of Anzac Day‘, ABC Lateline, 25 April 2013 (video, transcript) Participants are Michael Brissenden (ABC), Bob Hawke (former Prime Minister), Brendan Nelson (Director, Australian War Memorial), Clare Wright (author). Hawke and Nelson support the role…
McKenna, Mark: Lest we inflate
Mark McKenna ‘Lest we inflate: Why do Australians lust for heroic war stories?‘ The Monthly, December 2012 The author notes the proliferation of military books in the last decade, including some 150 with ‘Anzac’ or ‘Gallipoli’ in the title, and…
Lester, Tim & Marilyn Lake: What’s wrong with Anzac?
Tim Lester & Marilyn Lake ‘What’s wrong with Anzac?‘ The Age: Breaking Politics, 25 April 2013 (video) Tim Lester interviews Professor Marilyn Lake about aspects of commemoration. Professor Lake suggests the treatment of Anzac has been characterised by commemoration without…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, Teaching history, Using and abusing history
Green, Jonathan, Paul Daley & Clare Wright: Imagine Australia without Anzacs
Jonathan Green, Paul Daley & Clare Wright ‘Imagine Australia without Anzacs‘, ABC Sunday Extra, 21 April 2013 (audio, no transcript) Paul Daley and Clare Wright talk with Jonathan Green and try to imagine Australia without the Anzac legend. Who would…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Strands of Australian history, Using and abusing history
Hillman, Roger: A transnational Gallipoli?
Roger Hillman ‘A transnational Gallipoli?‘ Australian Humanities Review, 51, November 2011, pp. 25-42 (free download) ‘Changing perceptions of Gallipoli’, the author argues, ‘are an instructive case study in a world of increasingly transnational perspectives’. (p. 25) Considers the views of…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Expressing ourselves, Using and abusing history, War literature
Hawkins, Jo: Lest we forget what?
Jo Hawkins ‘Lest we forget what?‘ historypunk, 26 August 2013 (blog) Discussion of aspects of Anzac commemoration, including two videos, one addressing the appropriateness of the AFL Anzac Day Match as a form of commemoration.
Hawkins, Jo: Why is military history so popular?
Jo Hawkins ‘Why is military history so popular?‘ historypunk, 5 March 2013 (blog) ‘Military history is the best-selling genre of historical writing in Australia, yet remains unpopular with historians, many of whom feel uncomfortable with the kinds of narratives disseminated…
Hede, Anne-Marie & Ruth Rentschler, ed.: Reflections on Anzac Day
Anne-Marie Hede & Ruth Rentschler, ed. Reflections on ANZAC Day: From One Millennium to the Next, Heidelberg Press, Heidelberg, Vic., 2010 Articles from a conference in 2006 under the headings, ‘Myth’, ‘Custodians’, ‘Heritage and pilgrimage’ and ‘New forms of engagement’.…
McKenna, Mark & Stuart Ward: ‘It was really moving, mate’
Mark McKenna & Stuart Ward ‘“It was really moving, mate”: The Gallipoli pilgrimage and sentimental nationalism in Australia‘, Australian Historical Studies, 38, 129, 2007, pp. 141-51 Commences with a picture of Australian tourists in Turkey and their reaction to visiting…
Wellings, Ben: The politics of Great War commemoration (video)
Ben Wellings ‘The politics of Great War commemoration‘ (18 May 2012), Australian National University video (no transcript) Wellings (formerly ANU, now Monash University) chairs a discussion with three European academics on issues of comparative commemoration, including the politics attending commemoration…
National Commission on the Commemoration of the Anzac centenary: report
National Commission on the Commemoration of the Anzac Centenary How Australia may Commemorate the Anzac Centenary, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2011 The Commission was chaired by former Prime Ministers Fraser and Hawke and received 600 submissions. This is the…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed
Colmar Brunton: Phase II report
Colmar Brunton Department of Veterans’ Affairs: ‘A Century of Service’: Community Research Phase II: Report (August 2011) Report of focus group research on how Australia should commemorate the Anzac centenary. An issue raised in the report of the Anzac centenary…
Shanahan, Dennis: Migrants revived nation’s story
Dennis Shanahan ‘Migrants “revived nation’s story“‘, The Australian, 26 April 2012 Then Prime Minister Gillard, interviewed at Gallipoli, repeats the thoughts in her speech there that Gallipoli ‘marks the time when a fledgling nation got a real sense of itself’.…
Noone, Richard: Leaping to false idea on Anzacs
Richard Noone ‘Leaping to false idea on Anzacs‘, Daily Telegraph, 27 March 2012 Vox pop, including diverse comments from non-Anglo-Celtic Australians about the importance of Anzac Day. (The Colmar Brunton report suggested, among other things, that the Anzac Day centenary…
JM Talkback: Anzac Day under PC attack March-April 2012
JM Talkback ‘Anzac Day under PC attack‘, 979 FM Community Radio, Melton, Vic., 29 March, 4 April 2012 Comments on the reaction to the Colmar Brunton report on public opinion about how the Anzac centenary should be commemorated. (Prime Minister…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed
Daley, Paul: ‘As long as we always remember them’ (Remembrance Day 2010)
Paul Daley ‘As long as we always remember them…‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 November 2010 Compares Australian attitudes to Remembrance and Anzac Days, suggesting this grew from the early attitudes of the Diggers, who felt the former day was more…
Jones, Tony, et al: Anzac Day special: Anzac Day 2010
Tony Jones, et al ‘Anzac Day special‘, ABC Q & A, 26 April 2010 (video, transcript, questions, summary, biodata of panellists) Panellists were Germaine Greer, General Peter Cosgrove, Peter FitzSimons, Brigadier Alison Creagh and Professor Henry Reynolds, with Tony Jones.…
McKernan, Michael & Virginia Trioli: Diggers in France (Anzac Day 2008)
Michael McKernan & Virginia Trioli ‘Historian Michael McKernan tells the story of the Diggers in France‘, ABC Lateline, 26 April 2008 (transcript) Dr McKernan compares the reverence for Australian exploits at Gallipoli with the relative lack of awareness of what…
E-newsletter No.5, September 2013
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 Manning…
Gammage, Bill & Peter Spearritt, ed.: Australians 1938
Bill Gammage & Peter Spearritt, ed. Australians 1938, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 One of the volumes in Australians: A Historical Library. Dozens of contributors, historians and others, present sections under the headings ‘Pioneers on Parade’, ‘Aborigines’,…
Click here for all items related to: Aftermath, Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, Strands of Australian history
Anzac Centenary Local Grants
It is not too late to try to influence the mechanisms by which $100 000 is being allocated to each Federal electorate to commemorate the centenary of Anzac. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs advises that, while some MPs have already…
Click here for all items related to: Centenary Watch
Honest History: Freedom’s call resonates still
Honest History ‘Freedom’s call resonates still’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 One phenomenon Honest History hopes to explore is how geopolitical (or just political) reasons for going to war are transformed, apotheosised into more abstract, sublime justifications, especially…
Honest History: Using and abusing history
Honest History ‘Using and abusing history’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 The use and misuse or abuse of history will be a strong theme of Honest History. We condemn the abuse of history but we vigorously support its…
Click here for all items related to: Using and abusing history
Waterford, Jack: Gallipoli souvenirs , exploits or exploitation
‘But wait there’s more’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 Jack Waterford has written trenchantly in the Canberra Times about the growth in the Gallipoli souvenir industry, everything from shavings of the Lone Pine to ‘the Legend of Gallipoli…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Centenary Watch, In the media, Using and abusing history
Dean, Peter J, ed.: Australia 1942
Peter J. Dean, ed. Australia 1942: In the Shadow of War, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, Vic., 2013 A collection of essays on a momentous year in Australia’s history. The authors include David Horner, Kate Darian-Smith, Ross McMullin, Alan Powell…
Honest History: Darwin bombing keeps on giving
Honest History ‘Darwin bombing keeps on giving’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 The newish Director of the Australian War Memorial, Brendan Nelson, reckons that 1942 is one of the two most significant dates in Australian history. He may…
Honest History: When America looked to Australia
Honest History ‘When America looked to Australia’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 Australian history has not always been about our need to retain great and powerful friends. There have been times when the rest of the world looked…
Click here for all items related to: Getting on with the world, Ruling ourselves, The sweat of our brows
Honest History: What was the federation dream?
Honest History ‘What was the dream, federationally speaking?’ Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 Chris Masters, in his recent ABC program, The Years That Made Us, said that World War I destroyed ‘the Federation dream’, which he described as…
Honest History: Eureka: have we found it?
Honest History ‘Eureka: have we found it?’ Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 The forces of law and order killed more white civilians at Eureka than in any other incident in our history. Perhaps that explains why the attention…
Honest History: Honest portrayal of the POW experience
Honest History ‘Honest portrayal of the POW experience’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 3, August 2013 Peter Stanley says there is a lot more to war history than stories of blokes in khaki fighting battles in faraway places. Being a prisoner…
Stanley, Peter: In the Shadow of Gallipoli reviewed
Peter Stanley In the Shadow of Gallipoli reviewed, Canberra Times, 20 April 2013 Robert Bollard, In the Shadow of Gallipoli: The Hidden History of Australia in World War I, New South, 224 pp. $32.95 My erstwhile institution, the National Museum…
Honest History: Military history is not war history
Honest History ‘Military history is not war history: we owe it to future generations not to airbrush out the non-heroic parts’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 1, May 2013 A temporary emphasis on our military past may be inevitable during the…
Honest History: Many themes of Australian history
Honest History ‘Not only Anzac but also plenty of other stories, as well’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 1, May 2013 An honest view of our history will reveal many themes. It will provide a ‘not only… but also’ view –…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Simms, Marian: A Liberal Nation
Marian Simms A Liberal Nation: The Liberal Party & Australian Politics, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1982 Traces the party’s development from its formation during World War II out of the wreckage of earlier parties of capital, its development as a…
Morrison, David: UN speech on ADF sexism
David Morrison ‘United Nations International Women’s Day Conference: Address by the Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison, AO at the United Nations International Women’s Day Conference, 8-9 March 2013‘ The speech contains some musing about the impact of the…
Summers, Anne: The Misogyny Factor
Anne Summers The Misogyny Factor, New South, Sydney, 2013 Provoked by attitudes towards Australia’s first female Prime Minister, the book raises questions about Australian attitudes to women’s participation in economic and political life. ‘Having our first woman Prime Minister’, the…
Palmer, Vance: The Legend of the Nineties
Vance Palmer The Legend of the Nineties, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1963; first published 1954; later editions Classic study of the contribution of the culture of the 1890s to the formation of an Australian national identity.
Pember Reeves, William: State experiments in Australia and New Zealand
William Pember Reeves State Experiments in Australia & New Zealand, Two volumes, Macmillan, South Melbourne, Vic., 1969; first published 1902 Detailed study of initiatives before 1900 in the colonies regarding votes for women, federation, preferential voting, land reform, old age…
Watters, Chris: Anzac, Vimy Ridge, Monash and the education of children
Chris Watters* ‘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…
Robertson, John: J.H. Scullin
John Robertson J.H. Scullin: A Political Biography, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, WA, 1974 Life and times of Australia’s 1929-31 Prime Minister. Focuses mainly on manoeuvrings within government and party and on macro-economic issues. Social unrest is given much…
Pusey, Michael: Economic Rationalism in Canberra
Michael Pusey Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation Building State Changes its Mind, Cambridge University Press, New York & Melbourne, 1991 Traces in the attitudes and policy preferences of Commonwealth bureaucrats ‘the end of the Australian Settlement’ detected by Paul…
Rawson, DW: Labor in vain
DW Rawson Labor in Vain? A Survey of the Australian Labor Party, Longmans, Melbourne, 1966 A snapshot of the ALP pre-Whitlam, arguing, among other things, for reduced links with trade unions.
Rosenwater, Irving: Sir Donald Bradman
Irving Rosenwater Sir Donald Bradman: A Biography, Batsford, London, 1978 One of many biographies and ephemera on Bradman, once described by an Australian Prime Minister as ‘the greatest living Australian’. From a historian’s point of view, the most interesting aspect…
Click here for all items related to: Expressing ourselves
Brockman, John, ed.: Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?
John Brockman, ed. Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? The Net’s Impact on Our Minds and Future, Harper Perennial, New York & London, 2011 From the Edge Foundation. Not explicitly Australian but global and included here as a…
Inglis, KS: The Australian Colonists
KS Inglis The Australian Colonists: An Exploration of Social History 1788-1870, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1974 While the subject matter is ostensibly people, war and peace, holidays and ‘the stuff of history’ in the years nominated, the book begins…
Neustadt, Richard E & Ernest R May: Thinking in Time
Richard E. Neustadt & Ernest R May Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers, The Free Press, New York & London, 1988; first published 1986 Classic book which should have seen more editions. Described by one writer…
Click here for all items related to: Using and abusing history
Camm, JCR & John McQuilton, ed.: Australians atlas
JCR Camm & John McQuilton, ed. Australians: A Historical Atlas, Fairfax, Syme and Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 A volume in the set Australians: A Historical Library. Maps, graphs and notes under the headings, ‘Place’, ‘People’ and ‘Landscapes’. Excellent illustrations.…
Mulvaney, DJ & J. Peter White, ed.: Australians to 1788
DJ Mulvaney & J. Peter White, ed. Australians to 1788, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 A volume in the set Australians: A Historical Library. Twenty-three authors contribute under the main headings ‘The creation of Aboriginal Australia’, ‘Continuity…
Stell, Marion K. & Ruth Thompson: Australians 1988: Chronology
Marion K. Stell & Ruth Thompson (Kim Anderson, ed.) Australians 1988: Chronology, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Willoughby, NSW, 1989 A chronology of the bicentennial year. The final volume in Australians: A Historical Library. Almost every day is covered with…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Vamplew, Wray, ed.: Australians: Historical Statistics
Wray Vamplew, ed. Australians: Historical Statistics, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 One of the volumes of Australians: A Historical Library. Multiple authors do the numbers on ‘People and land’, ‘Wealth and progress’, and ‘Society, politics and religion’.…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Stephens, David: Tangled up in red, white and blue
David Stephens* ‘Tangled up in red, white and blue’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 5, September 2013 War remembrance and days of commemoration bring out extremes of rhetoric, little gems of hyperbole that even the speaker might reconsider had they given…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Strands of Australian history, Using and abusing history
Hetherington, Michelle, ed.: Glorious Days: Australia 1913
Michelle Hetherington, ed. Glorious Days: Australia 1913, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, 2013 The book of the exhibition marking the centenary of Canberra. Chapters on ‘Australia in the world’ (Nicholas Brown), Mawson in Antarctica (Tom Griffiths), ‘Dreams of Empire’…
Megalogenis, George: The Longest Decade
George Megalogenis The Longest Decade, Scribe, Melbourne, 2006; revised and updated edition 2008 Economics and politics under Keating and Howard from 1991 to the mid noughties. Megalogenis describes them as ‘the twin architects of the revolution that has taken Australia…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Getting on with the world, Ruling ourselves, The sweat of our brows
Henderson, Gerard: Mr Santamaria and the Bishops
Gerard Henderson Mr Santamaria and the Bishops, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, second revised edition, 1983; first published Studies in the Christian Movement 1982 The Labor Split of the 1950s and the proper role of religion in politics. The author had…
McKinlay, Brian, ed.: Australian Labor History in Documents
Brian McKinlay, ed. Australian Labor History in Documents: Volume 1 The Trade Union Movement; Volume 2 The Labor Party; Volume 3 The Radical Left, Collins Dove, Melbourne, 1990; first published Drummond 1979 Includes a poem from The Australian Worker, 12…
McLaren, John, ed.: Towards a New Australia
John McLaren, ed. Towards a New Australia: Under a Labor Government, Cheshire for the Victorian Fabian Society, Melbourne, 1972 Beyond its policies and plans for an imminent Labor Government (set out in chapters by Gough Whitlam and future Ministers) the…
Latham, Mark: From the Suburbs
Mark Latham From the Suburbs: Building a Nation from our Neighbourhoods, Pluto Press, Annandale, NSW, 2003 Written before the author became the Leader, then the former Leader of the Labor Party. Beyond its political prescriptions, it is an expression of…
Watson, Don: Caledonia Australis
Don Watson Caledonia Australis: Scottish Highlanders on the Frontier of Australia, Vintage, Milsons Point, NSW, 1997; first published 1984; later edition 2009 About the clash in Gippsland between immigrant Celts and Indigenous Australians. Shows how Scots dispossessed by the Highland…
Keneally,Thomas: Australia Vol. II
Thomas Keneally Australians Vol. II: Eureka to the Diggers, Crows Nest, NSW, 2012; first published 2011 Keneally’s second volume of three and continues in the style of the first, except that the cast of characters march more chronologically in chapters…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, People like us, Strands of Australian history
Broadbent, Harvey: A simple epic: Gallipoli and the Australian media
Harvey Broadbent ‘A simple epic’: Gallipoli and the Australian media (The 2009 Lone Pine Anniversary Lecture) Media includes newspapers, radio and television, internet, cinema, theatre and books. The article covers the whole period 1915-2009. ‘Media … was involved from the…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Expressing ourselves, Using and abusing history, War literature
Brett, Judith: Forgotten people
Judith Brett Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, new edition 2007; first published 1992 Explores the links between Menzies’ values and language and the people he represented and who voted for him in the years after the World…
Brett, Judith: The country, the city and the State in the Australian settlement
Judith Brett ‘The country, the city and the State in the Australian settlement’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 42, 1, 2007, pp. 1-22 (full reprint) Argues that ‘the [post-Federation] settlement between the country and the city, mediated by the state,…
Cathcart, Michael: The Water Dreamers
Michael Cathcart The Water Dreamers: The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2010 The book ‘offers an archaeology of our national psyche… and exposes the cultural forces that still powerfully shape our plans for this land’. (Tom…
Bongiorno, Frank & Grant Mansfield: Whose war was it anyway?
Frank Bongiorno & Grant Mansfield ‘Whose war was it anyway? Some Australian historians and the Great War’, History Compass, 6, 1, January 2008, pp. 62-90 Examining the debate over the Australian response to the outbreak of war in Europe in…
Keneally, Thomas: Australia Vol I
Thomas Keneally Australia: Origins to Eureka: Volume 1, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2010; first published 2009 Novelist and historian Keneally ‘tells the stories of a number of Australians from the Pleistocene Age to 1860. The people whose tales…
Click here for all items related to: People like us, Ruling ourselves, Strands of Australian history
Lloyd, Clem & Richard Hall, ed.: Backroom Briefings: John Curtin’s war
Clem Lloyd & Richard Hall, ed. Backroom Briefings: John Curtin’s War, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 1997 Based on contemporaneous notes by journalist, Fred Smith, the book gives an insight into Curtin’s regular briefings to journalists and thus into the…
Weller, Patrick: Malcolm Fraser PM
Patrick Weller Malcolm Fraser PM: A Study in Prime Ministerial Power in Australia, Penguin, Ringwood, Vic., 1989 A political scientist’s perspective on Fraser’s period as PM (1975-83), trying to explain ‘the multiple roles that prime ministers must play’ and the…
Click here for all items related to: Ruling ourselves
Murray, Robert: The Split
Robert Murray The Split: Australian Labor in the Fifties, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1970; later editions A relatively early account of these events. Very detailed but has been criticised for alleged bias towards the Democratic Labor Party. The author’s much later remarks…
McGirr, Michael: Bypass
Michael McGirr Bypass: The Story of a Road, Picador, Sydney, 2004 Ostensibly, the story of a cycle trip down the Hume Highway by a former Jesuit. ‘In some ways’, McGirr says, ‘the Hume Highway is one long war memorial’ (p.…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, Using and abusing history
Mares, Peter: Borderline
Peter Mares Borderline: Australia’s Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2001 Puts turn-of-the-century attitudes and policies towards asylum seekers in the context of Australians’ ‘deep-seated fears of invasion and the historical anxiety about the empty and defenceless…
Loveday, P. et al, ed.: The Emergence of the Australian Party System
P. Loveday, AW Martin & RS Parker, ed. The Emergence of the Australian Party System, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1977 Traces the emergence of political parties, in all States and federally, from before 1890 to 1910. Early party development followed…
Click here for all items related to: Ruling ourselves
Lawrence, Carmen: Fear and politics
Carmen Lawrence Fear and Politics, Scribe, Carlton North, Vic., 2006 The author was Premier of Western Australia and a federal Minister. She is now a professor of psychology. She explores the human experience of fear, looks at how xenophobia shapes…
Kelly, Paul: The End of Certainty
Paul Kelly The End of Certainty: The Story of the 1980s, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1992; second edition, subtitled Power, Politics and Business in Australia, 2008 Influential book describing a decade of politics and economics. Kelly’s broader theme…
Jordens, Ann-Mari: Alien to Citizen
Ann-Mari Jordens Alien to Citizen: Settling Migrants in Australia, 1945-75, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1997 Administrative history describing the profound changes in Australia’s demography after World War II. Strong on the role of the Immigration Department and its…
Jauncey, LC: The Story of Conscription in Australia
LC Jauncey The Story of Conscription in Australia, Macmillan of Australia, South Melbourne, Vic., 1968; first published 1935 There has not been as detailed an account of the World War I conscription battles since this book was written. This edition…
Inglis, KS, assisted by Jan Brazier: Sacred Places
KS Inglis, assisted by Jan Brazier Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., third updated edition, 2008; first published 1998; other editions Takes the Australian history of war memorials from the colonial period, through…
Horne, Donald: The Lucky Country
Donald Horne The Lucky Country, Penguin, Ringwood, Vic., third revised edition, 1974; first published 1964; later editions Classic analysis of the emerging ‘modern’ Australia of the 1960s, touching on Anzac along the way, as it seemed to the author 50…
Horne, Donald: Looking for leadership
Donald Horne Looking for Leadership: Australia in the Howard Years, Viking, Ringwood, Vic., 2001 Almost his last book. Among wide ranging comment on the Australia of 2001, he asks ‘What use is the Anzac myth?’. In response, he writes of…
Hirst, John: The Australians
John Hirst The Australians: Insiders and Outsiders on the National Character since 1770, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2007; later edition Penguin 2010 Hirst compiles and comments upon multiple assessments of the Australian character, from Charles Bean to Charles Dickens, Dorothea McKellar…
Henderson, Heather, ed.: Letters to My Daughter: Menzies letters
Heather Henderson, ed. Letters to My Daughter: Robert Menzies, Letters, 1955-1975, Pier 9, Millers Point, NSW, 2011; e-book available Fairly intimate views of Sir Robert Menzies, the dominant politician of the early post World War II decades. Useful to read…
Gammage, Bill: The Broken Years
Bill Gammage The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Vic., 1975; first published ANU Press 1974; illustrated edition Penguin 1990; illustrated paperback edition Melbourne University Publishing 2010; other editions The groundbreaking use of 1000 soldiers’…
Freudenberg, Graham: A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam in Politics
Graham Freudenberg A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam in Politics, Macmillan, South Melbourne, Vic., 1977; updated Penguin paperback edition 2009 as A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam’s Life in Politics Biography of Whitlam by his long-time speechwriter and adviser. Glosses over some…
Click here for all items related to: Ruling ourselves
Fewster, Kevin, ed.: Bean’s Gallipoli
Kevin Fewster, ed. Bean’s Gallipoli: The Diaries of Australia’s Official War Correspondent, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 3rd edition, 2007; first published 1983; paperback edition 2009 Covers the period October 1914 to December 1915. Bean landed at Anzac Cove…
Farrell, Frank: International Socialism and Australian Labour
Frank Farrell International Socialism and Australian Labour: The Left in Australia, 1919-1939, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1981 Discusses the impact of Leninism, international trade unionism, socialism and communism. Considers the attitudes of the Labour movement to World War I and…
Day, David: John Curtin
David Day John Curtin: A Life, Harper Collins, Pymble, NSW, 1998; paperback edition 2006 Curtin played a part on the home front in World War I as an anti-conscription agitator, then led the nation as a war prime minister in…
Day, David: Ben Chifley
David Day Ben Chifley, Harper Collins, Pymble, NSW, 2001; paperback edition 2007 as Chifley: A Life Draws upon 40 years of research and writing since Crisp’s Ben Chifley but still produces a largely favourable portrait. Essential reading regarding the political…
Click here for all items related to: Aftermath, Australia's war history, Home front, Ruling ourselves
Day, David: Andrew Fisher
David Day Andrew Fisher: Prime Minister of Australia, Fourth Estate/Harper Collins, Pymble, NSW, 2008 Fisher seems to personify the fracture that the Great War wrought in the Labor Party and in Australia: from presiding over significant nation-building and social reforms…
Davison, Graeme, et al, ed.: Australians 1888
Graeme Davison, JW McCarty & Ailsa McLeary, ed. Australians 1888, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 One of the volumes in Australians: A Historical Library. The authors write about land and people, the regional mosaic, private lives and…
Click here for all items related to: People like us, Ruling ourselves, Strands of Australian history
Daley, Paul: Collingwood
Paul Daley Collingwood: A Love Story, MUP, Carlton, Vic., 2011 Intertwines strands of family history, war and sport in the story of Collingwood footballers, Malcolm ‘Doc’ Seddon, Percy Rowe, also known as Paddy Rowan (killed in France, 1916) and Louisa…
Curthoys, Ann, AW Martin & Tim Rowse, ed.: Australians from 1939
Ann Curthoys, AW Martin & Tim Rowse, ed. Australians from 1939, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 One of the volumes in Australians: A Historical Library. Thirty historians, political scientists and citizens contribute to sections on Australians and…
Crowley, Frank, ed.: A New History of Australia
Frank Crowley, ed. A New History of Australia, William Heinemann, Melbourne, 1974; later edition 1986 A multi-author history intended to take the place of the Gordon Greenwood edited Australia from twenty years earlier. Twelve authors dealt with the years 1788…
Crisp, LF: Ben Chifley
LF Crisp Ben Chifley: A Biography, Longmans, Croydon, Vic, 1963; first published 1961 Classic Australian political biography, though criticised by some as hagiography. Particularly useful on the period after World War II, when Chifley as Prime Minister and Treasurer dealt…
Crisp, LF: Federal Labor Party
LF Crisp The Australian Federal Labour Party 1901-1951, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1978; first published 1955 Classic account of Labor’s first half century, written by a man who headed a Commonwealth public service department at the age of 32, was…
Coper, Michael: Encounters with the Australian Constitution
Michael Coper Encounters with the Australian Constitution, CCH Australia, North Ryde, NSW, 1988 Essays by a constitutional law academic on the role of the High Court, aspects of constitutional interpretation, whether there should be a Bill of Rights in the…
Click here for all items related to: Ruling ourselves
Clark, CMH (Manning): A History of Australia
CMH (Manning) Clark A History of Australia, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., six volumes, 1962-87; later editions The sub-titles of some of the volumes attest to the deep themes running within the work: The Earth Abideth for Ever, 1851-1888 (Vol.…
Cathcart, Michael: Defending the National Tuckshop
Michael Cathcart Defending the National Tuckshop: Australia’s Secret Army Intrigue of 1931, McPhee Gribble/Penguin, Melbourne, 1988 Describes the anti-socialist vigilantism during the Great Depression, activities which were backed by secret armies with thousands of members. Ex-servicemen were deeply involved as…
Carthew, Noel, ed.: Voices from the Trenches
Noel Carthew, ed. Voices from the Trenches: Letters to Home, New Holland, Sydney, 2002 Letters of the Carthew brothers from Gallipoli, North Africa, Palestine and the Western Front. The dedication encapsulates a familiar attitude to incomprehensible death and stout service…
Click here for all items related to: Reality of war
Calwell, AA: Be just and fear not
AA Calwell Be Just and Fear Not, Lloyd O’Neil, Hawthorn, Vic, 1972 Autobiography of Australia’s first Minister for Immigration (1945-49), later Leader of the (Labor) Opposition (1960-67). Includes a personal view of the commencement of the post-World War II immigration…
Butlin, NG, et al: Government and Capitalism
NG Butlin, A Barnard & JJ Pincus Government and Capitalism: Public and Private Choice in Twentieth Century Australia, Allen & Unwin, North Sydney, 1982 Traces Australian economic and social history up to the 1970s in chapters addressing the ‘decline of…
Borchardt, DH, ed.: Australians: A Guide to Sources
DH Borchardt, ed. Australians: A Guide to Sources, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 One of the volumes in Australians: A Historical Library (other volumes have separate posts on the Honest History site). Dozens of contributors provide brief…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Birmingham, John: A time for war
John Birmingham ‘A time for war: Australia as a military power‘, Quarterly Essay 20, December 2005 Traces a revival of Australian militarism in the 1990s and early 2000s, partly associated with the increase in ‘breathless idolatry’ and ‘nostalgic urgency’ accorded…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, Getting on with the world
Bean, CEW: Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18: Vol. 1 Anzac
CEW Bean Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18: Vol. 1 The Story of Anzac, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, ninth edition, 1939; first published 1921 Takes the story from the outbreak of war to the end of the…
Atkinson, Alan & Marian Aveling, ed.: Australians 1838
Alan Atkinson & Marian Aveling, ed. Australians 1838, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 Twenty-five contributing authors describe Australia around 1838, looking at Aborigines, families, work, markets, government, justice and other topics. The diversity of Australian history –…
Click here for all items related to: People like us, Ruling ourselves, Strands of Australian history
Argy, Fred: Where to From Here?
Fred Argy Where to From Here? Australian Egalitarianism under Threat, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2003 Looked at the effects of economic policy on Australia’s traditional ‘fair go’, the impact of globalisation, the attitudes of the community, politicians and…
Argy, Fred: Australia at the Crossroads
Fred Argy Australia at the Crossroads: Radical Free Market or a Progressive Liberalism? Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1998 An adviser to governments of both sides expressed concern about the effects of economic liberalism, freeing up trade and investment…
Aplin, Graeme, et al, ed.: Australians: A Historical Dictionary
Graeme Aplin, Graeme, SG Foster & Michael McKernan, ed. Australians: A Historical Dictionary, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 A collection of short (and a few long) articles on people, institutions and events, with well-chosen illustrations from a…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Aplin, Graeme, et al, ed.: Australians: Events and Places
Graeme Aplin, SG Foster & Michael McKernan, ed. Australians: Events and Places, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 One of the volumes in Australians: A Historical Library, containing a chronology of events from 1788 and timelines of Aboriginal…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Russell, Elaine, ed.: Australians: The Guide and Index
Elaine Russell, ed. Australians: The Guide and Index, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 A guide to Australians: A Historical Library, twelve volumes produced by Australia’s historians to mark the bicentenary of white settlement. The other volumes were…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Adam-Smith, Patsy: The Anzacs
Patsy Adam-Smith The Anzacs, Sphere Books, Melbourne, 1981; first published 1978; later editions Based on thousands of letters and diaries of World War I soldiers. It is time to strip the film from honour-dimmed eyes and face the uncomfortable, terrible…
Underwood, Peter: Anzac Day speeches
[Peter Underwood] Anzac Day speech by the Honourable Peter Underwood AC, Governor of Tasmania, The Cenotaph, Hobart, Thursday, 25th April 2013 ‘Australia needs to drop the sentimental myths that ANZAC Day has attracted.’ We should tell our children what war…
Rudd, Kevin: Keneally launch
Kevin Rudd ‘Launch of first volume of Tom Keneally’s Australians: Origins to Eureka, National Library, Canberra, 27 August 2009′ ‘[It was time] [t]o recognise there are competing strands in any nation’s history – of inclusion and exclusion; of hope and…
Pollard, Ruth: Islamic rewrite of Gallipoli legend
Ruth Pollard ‘Islamic rewrite of Gallipoli legend’, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 April 2013 Shows how the current Turkish Government is reinterpreting for political purposes the Gallipoli campaign as an Islamist defence against infidels.
Peters-Little, Frances, Ann Curthoys & John Docker, ed.: Passionate Histories
Frances Peters-Little, Ann Curthoys & John Docker, ed. Passionate Histories: Myth, Memory and Indigenous Australia, Aboriginal History Inc. & ANU E-press, Canberra, 2010; downloadable ‘This book examines the emotional engagements of both indigenous and non-indigenous people with indigenous history. The…
Mark, David: Rudd history wars
David Mark ‘Rudd calls for end to “history wars”’, ABC News, 28 August 2009 Quotes from Prime Ministers Rudd and Howard and Robert Manne. Rudd: [It was time] ‘to go beyond the so-called “black arm [band]” view that refused to…
Manne, Robert: The history wars
Robert Manne ‘The history wars’, The Monthly, November 2009 ‘Only when the overwhelming majority of Australians no longer flinch from the uncomfortable truths about their nation’s history … will we be able to declare the History Wars over.’
Lake, Marilyn, Henry Reynolds et al: What’s wrong with Anzac?
Marilyn Lake & Henry Reynolds with Mark McKenna and Joy Damousi What’s Wrong with Anzac? The Militarisation of Australian History, New South, Sydney, 2010 The book caused considerable controversy on its release and since, although many of the themes in…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, Ruling ourselves, Using and abusing history
Jayasuriya, Laksiri, et al, ed.: Legacies of White Australia
Laksiri Jayasuriya, David Walker & Janice Gothard, ed. Legacies of White Australia: Race, Culture, and Nation, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, WA, 2003 The authors assess whether controversies about asylum seekers have refuelled White Australia.
Gare, Deborah & David Ritter, ed.: Making Australian history
Deborah Gare & David Ritter, ed. Making Australian History: Perspectives on the Past since 1788, Thomson Learning, South Melbourne, 2008 Includes an introduction on ‘making history and the politics of the past’ and articles by Mark McKenna on ‘values and…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Ruling ourselves, Strands of Australian history, Using and abusing history
Dickenson, Dyrenfurth & Scalmer, ed.: Rebirth of political history
Jacqueline Dickenson, Nick Dyrenfurth & Sean Scalmer, ed. ‘The rebirth of political history’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 56, 1, March, 2010 (special edition) The essays consider how political history has been written and how it ought to be…
Click here for all items related to: Ruling ourselves, Strands of Australian history, Using and abusing history
Curthoys, Ann & John Docker, ed.: Genocide? Australian Aboriginal history in international perspective
Ann Curthoys & John Docker, ed. “Genocide”? Australian Aboriginal history in international perspective’, Aboriginal History, 25, 2001, special section (downloadable) Multiple contributors on aspects of genocide and aboriginality. There is a brief survey here of instances of genocide in world…
Curthoys, Ann & John Docker: Is history fiction?
Ann Curthoys & John Docker Is History Fiction? University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2010; first published 2005 ‘John Docker and Ann Curthoys find that history has a double character. It is both a rigorous scrutiny of sources, and,…
Curthoys, Ann & Ann McGrath, ed.: Writing histories
Ann Curthoys & Ann McGrath, ed. Writing Histories: Imagination and Narration, Monash Publications in History, Monash University, Melbourne, 2000; republished Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2009 (full text online free) ‘Nine historians reflect on their work as writers, exploring some of…
Curthoys, Ann & Ann McGrath: How to Write History that People Want to Read
Ann Curthoys & Ann McGrath How to Write History that People Want to Read, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009 ‘Aimed at all kinds of people who write history – academic historians, public historians, professional historians, family historians and students of all…
Crotty, Martin & Marina Larsson, ed.: Anzac Legacies: Australians and the Aftermath of War
Martin Crotty & Marina Larsson, ed. Anzac Legacies: Australians and the Aftermath of War, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2010 The book explores the difficulties that returning soldiers have faced, from World War I to Iraq and Afghanistan, traces the physical…
Crotty, Martin & David Roberts, ed.: Turning Points in Australian History
Martin Crotty, Martin & David Roberts, ed. Turning Points in Australian History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2008 Contributors consider the separation of Tasmania from the mainland, the Gallipoli landing, the Great Depression, the arrival of television, the…
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Collins, Paul: Burn: The Epic Story of Bushfire in Australia
Paul Collins Burn: The Epic Story of Bushfire in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2006; Scribe, Melbourne, 2009 The ‘central argument’ of the book ‘is that fire is “part of the very fabric of our continent”, a positive and renewing…
Cochrane, Peter: Simpson and the Donkey
Peter Cochrane Simpson and the Donkey: The Making of a Legend, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1992; revised edition, 2014 The book explores ‘the legend’s popular appeal and its political significance, its permanent place in Australian folklore and its periodic…
Clark, Anna: History’s Children: History Wars in the Classroom
Anna Clark History’s Children: History Wars in the Classroom, NewSouth, Sydney, 2008 ‘The classroom has become the battleground of the “history wars”, yet no-one ever asks the children what they think about Australian history and what they like – or…
Chynoweth, Adele: Politics in our museums
Adele Chynoweth ‘The history wars are over, now it’s time to get politics back in our museums’, The Conversation, 6 March 2013 Australia’s museums should ‘take heart and more importantly show courage to tell the truth, the whole truth, and…
Cathcart, Michael: Manning Clark’s History of Australia
Michael Cathcart Manning Clark’s History of Australia, Penguin Books, Melbourne, 1995 One volume abridgement.
Click here for all items related to: Strands of Australian history
Carey, Jane & Claire McLisky, ed.: Creating White Australia
Jane Carey & Claire McLisky, ed. Creating White Australia: New Perspectives on Race, Whiteness and History, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 2009 Articles by Leigh Boucher, Jane Carey, Ann Curthoys and others ‘dealing with the question of whiteness in Australian history…
Cahill, Rowan: The military solution
Rowan Cahill ‘The military solution’, Green Left Weekly, 459, 7 March 2001 Military, police and private army responses to industrial unrest in the interwar years.
Cahill, Rowan: Martial matters
Cahill, Rowan ‘Martial matters’, Radical Sydney/Radical History, 29 August 2012 A collection of blogs 2006-09 ‘relating to the Anzac tradition, and to the Australian martial tradition generally’ which ‘represent views of the Australian martial experience at radical odds with mainstream…
Cahill, Rowan: Martial love
Rowan Cahill ‘Martial love’, The Guardian (London), 7 May 2003 (reprint) ‘Part of the Anzac Myth is the proposition that Australia is a Peace-loving nation, that Peace is the preferred option of the Australian people, that as a nation, Australia…
Cahill, Rowan: The dirty digger
Rowan Cahill ‘The dirty digger’, Green Left Weekly, 451, 6 June 2001 A selective and mythologised account of the past draws young people to Anzac Day celebrations. The chief of the armed forces is the Australian of the Year. Parliament…
Cahill, Rowan: The Battle of Sydney
Rowan Cahill ‘The Battle of Sydney’, Overland, 169, Summer, 2002, pp. 50-54 ‘Account of the wartime strike by Australian troops in Sydney, 1916, in defence of their working conditions. This action involved thousands of soldiers, mutiny, and a march through…
Altman, Dennis: Defying Gravity
Altman, Dennis Defying Gravity: A Political Life, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1997; Australian Public Intellectuals Network, Perth, 2004 Altman has been a gay activist and writer for more than four decades.
Altman, Dennis: 51st State?
Altman, Dennis 51st State? Scribe, Carlton North, 2006 Considers Australian identity in the context of the relationship with the United States, particularly how Australia imagines its future.
Click here for all items related to: Getting on with the world
Altman, Dennis: From a drowning to a celebration
Dennis Altman ‘From a drowning to a celebration’, Inside Story, 11 December 2012 Edited version of a Dunstan Lecture, describing forty years of gender politics in Australia.
Michelle Arrow, Frank Bongiorno & Clare Wright, historians
Michelle Arrow, Frank Bongiorno & Clare Wright, with Michael McKernan ‘Historians at work’, National Library of Australia podcast, 10 September 2012 (scroll down) Four historians talk about their craft (1h 45m).
Arrow, Michelle: Friday on Our Minds
Michelle Arrow Friday on Our Minds: Popular Culture in Australia since 1945, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009 Looks at popular culture since World War II through the lenses of consumerism, the impact of technological change and the…
Arrow, Michelle: Making History
Michelle Arrow ‘The Making History initiative and Australian popular history’, Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice, 15, 11, 2011, pp. 153-74; reprinted in Jerome de Groot, ed., Public and Popular History, Routledge, London & New York, 2012 [The…
Beaumont, Joan: Anzac Day to VP Day
Joan Beaumont ‘ANZAC Day to VP Day: Arguments and interpretations’, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, 40, February 2007, pp. 1-7 Historiography of war in Australia, including many references in notes. Beaumont asks what are the roles of historians and…
Beaumont, Joan: Australian citizenship and the two world wars
Joan Beaumont ‘Australian citizenship and the two world wars’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 53, 2, June 2007, pp. 171–82 This article surveys Australian citizenship: its distinctive characteristics in the first half of the twentieth century, and how these…
Beaumont, Joan: Gallipoli and Australian national identity
Joan Beaumont ‘Gallipoli and Australian national identity’, Neil Garnham & Keith Jeffery, ed., Culture, Place and Identity, University College Dublin Press, Dublin, 2005, pp. 138-51 The article notes ‘the degree to which a conservative state continues to see Anzac as…
Beaumont, Joan: Prisoners of war in Australian national memory
Joan Beaumont ‘Prisoners of war in Australian national memory’, Bob Moore & Barbara Hately-Broad, ed., Prisoners of War, Prisoners of Peace: Captivity, Homecoming and Memory in World War II, Berg Publishers, Oxford & New York, 2005, pp. 185-94 In a…
Beaumont, Joan, et al, ed.: Citizenship and internment
Joan Beaumont, Ilma Martinuzzi O’Brien & Mathew Trinca, ed. Under Suspicion: Citizenship and Internment in Australia during the Second World War, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, 2008 Stories of internees, revealing ‘the sometimes disturbing nature of how the nation…
Beaumont, Joan: The second war in every respect
Joan Beaumont ‘The second war in every respect: Australian memory and the Second World War’, Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, 14, 1, Fall 2011, pp. 1-15 Shows how ‘the Second World War is relegated to a secondary place in…
Bollard, Robert: In the Shadow of Gallipoli
Robert Bollard In the Shadow of Gallipoli: The Hidden History of Australia in World War I, New South, Sydney, 2013 Bollard urges us to revise the accepted “distorted, or at least unbalanced” view of the Great War. He looks at…
Bongiorno, Frank: Australian labour history
Frank Bongiorno ‘Australian labour history: contexts, trends and influences’, Labour History, 100, May 2011, pp. 1-18 Labour history’s relationship to the labour movement and to the practice of history generally.
Bongiorno, Frank et al, ed.: Mars and Minerva
Frank Bongiorno, Iain Spence & John Moses, ed. ‘Mars and Minerva: Australian intellectuals and the Great War’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 53, 3, September 2007 (special edition) Covers the fields of science and technology, literature and literary criticism,…
Boucher, Leigh et al, ed.: Historicising Whiteness
Leigh Boucher, Jane Carey & Katherine Ellinghaus, ed. Historicising Whiteness: Transnational Perspectives on the Construction of an Identity, RMIT Press, Melbourne, 2007 Around sixty articles originally conference papers on Australian and international cases. Subjects include whiteness before White Australia, race…
Brett, Judith: Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class
Judith Brett Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2003 From middle-class liberal independence under Deakin to conservative populism under Howard, with lots of nuances in between.
Brett, Judith & Anthony Moran: Ordinary People’s Politics
Judith Brett & Anthony Moran Ordinary People’s Politics: Australians Talk about Life, Politics and the Future of their Country, Pluto Press Australia, Melbourne, 2006 Ordinary Australians interviewed about politics and its place in their lives during the Depression, the post…
Broadbent, Harvey: Gallipoli: One great deception?
Harvey Broadbent ‘Gallipoli: One great deception?’ ABC The Drum, 24 April 2009 Considers geopolitical motivations for the Gallipoli invasion. ‘The proposition is that it was the intention of the British and French Governments of 1915 to ensure that the Dardanelles…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed
Our news pages
Here you will find general news items, Honest History making news, advice of forthcoming events relevant to Honest History or of general interest to Honest History supporters, Centenary Watch (monitoring events associated with the centenary of World War I) and…
Gang-gang on Gallipoli
Ian Warden, Gang-gang columnist in the Canberra Times, writes about our e-newsletter No. 4 and particularly Peter Stanley’s article/speech to the Gallipoli Memorial Club. Ian also takes the point that there was a vibrant Australian nation before 1915. 23 August 2013
Stanley, Peter: Gallipoli – 98 years on: Gallipoli Club address
Peter Stanley Gallipoli – 98 years on: Professor Peter Stanley’s speech to Gallipoli Memorial Club symposium, 7 August 2013 (posted to site, 28 October 2013) On 7 August (the anniversary of the August offensive on Gallipoli) the Gallipoli Memorial Club…
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed, Australia's war history, Using and abusing history
Jauncey’s view
Jauncey’s view explores the careers of Leslie Jauncey, his older brother, Eric, and Leslie’s wife, Beatrice. Leslie, in particular, finding himself in interesting parts of the world in the years before and after World War II, wrote perceptively about them.…
E-newsletter No. 4, August 2013
H O N E S T H I S T O R Y E-newsletter No. 4, August 2013 ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2013 Gallipoli – 98 years on: Professor Peter Stanley’s speech to Gallipoli Memorial Club symposium, 7 August 2013…
Piggott, Michael & David Stephens: Constitution Day: an old Queen and a new nation
Michael Piggott and David Stephens* ‘Constitution Day: an old Queen and a new nation’, Honest History Newsletter No. 4, August 2013 Of all the notable days in the Australian calendar Constitution Day, 9 July, is the least known but one…
Click here for all items related to: Ruling ourselves
E-newsletter No. 3, August 2013
H O N E S T H I S T O R Y E-newsletter No. 3, August 2013 ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2013 Neither rosy glow nor black armband – just honest Honest History: what’s it all about? ‘There is…
E-newsletter No. 2, June 2013
H O N E S T H I S T O R Y Newsletter No. 2, 21 June 2013 ISSN: 2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2013 We hadn’t planned another newsletter until late July but this deserves a special…
E-newsletter No. 1, May 2013
The original PDF version may be downloaded here H O N E S T H I S T O R Y E-newsletter No. 1, May 2013 ISSN: 2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2013 Contents An e-newsletter introducing a website…