It is six weeks since our last newsletter and we have been busy. You can track much of what has appeared on the website during that time by scrolling down Top recent posts, Reviews and Features. Or look at the other thumbnails on our home page (Centenary Watch, Inequality, Our First Peoples, and Talking Turkey).
Look out for these in particular:
- reviews of a disappointing book about Ben Chifley, an excellent one about male gay servicemen in the Pacific during World War II, a detailed study of war memorials in Western Australia, and Griffith Review 51 on ‘Fixing the system‘, now augmented by an e-book on building a consensus about how to foster Australia’s comparative advantages;
- a number of collections on Indigenous issues following the Closing the gap report (find them by scrolling down Features), a piece by Joanna Mendelssohn on our violent past, a lament for International Women’s Day from Eva Cox, an obituary for the Australian historian, John Hirst, plus an exchange with the Australian War Memorial where it says it is happy to let two of our analytical articles stand – the articles were on the Memorial’s visitor numbers and the soundtrack of one of its promotional videos; and
- articles sourced from our most frequently tapped journals and blogs (Australian Independent Media Network, Guardian Australia, Independent Australia, Inside Story, New Matilda, Pearls and Irritations, and The Conversation) on queer history, John Howard 20 years on, Malcolm Turnbull six months on, and George Venturini and Paul Daley (interviewing Peter FitzSimons) on republicanism.
From history journals, we had Romain Fathi on Australian commemorative colonisation of Picardy, France, and Douglas Wilkie on how even historians love to simplify to tell a good story, even if the evidence is more complex. The Defence White Paper caused us to reprise an earlier paper on whether arms spending leads to war. (What’s the use of having all that shiny new kit if you don’t give it a workout, Minister?)
Paul Daley again noted the impacts of financial cuts on cultural institutions and we pointed to some of the amazing resources of the National Library. In the same vein, we remind readers that Honest History is always on the lookout for donations. Our HH elves are not starving but their work would be greatly facilitated if there was a bit more money in the kitty.
15 March 2016
