Takes a look at the career of Geoffrey Blainey. As a historian, he is a maverick - respected for his originality and prodigious productivity, but sometimes dismissed as a blinkered populist. He has steered Australian history into the nation's conversation.

With its early buildings erected at the same time as those of the Victorian parliament, the University of Melbourne was raised when its namesake was a frontier town and the first classes offered were attended by just 16 students. Lively, shrewd, and erudite, this history explores the evolution of the campus site, the tensions and achievements of the academicians it employed, and the variety of students who studied there. The subtlety of storytelling and the reverence for the university imbue this tribute with a respect for how the university has offered a critical perspective on the...

Exploring pivotal questions of their profession, this collection of essays by 13 well-known Australian scholars presents the ethical challenges of researching and writing history. Including contributions from Alan Atkinson, Graeme Davison, Greg Dening, John Hirst, Beverley Kingston, Marilyn Lake, and Iain McCalman, this personally revealing and intellectually provocative introspection discusses such dilemmas as how to handle emotional investments in the subject, control sympathies and biases, and address the responsibilities historians have to both their subject and their audience.

Providing a play on actual historical eventsversus possible ones, this fascinating volume asks leading Australian historians to wonder what might be if key episodes in Australia s past had turned out differently. Re-imagining Australia s environment, race relations, art, political life, and national identity, this title poses such questions as What if France had colonized part of Australia in the 18th century? What if the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps had played only a minor role in the Gallipoli landing in World War I? and What if Aborigines had been granted...

This reissue of a highly controversial book examines how a nation's history is always open to interpretation and chronicles various battling viewpoints observed in infamy by many Australians. A detailed summary of the relationships between historians, cultural critics, and major social figures, this work records fascinating stories such as historian Manning Clark's public exposure as a Soviet agent, the ferocious parliamentary debate on immigration sparked by historian Geoffrey Blainey, and the story of editor Robert Manne's defense of indigenous Australians. This new edition includes a new...

Drawing on the activities of the Social Science Research Council and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, this book explores the fortunes of the social sciences over the past six decades. It investigates the work of social scientists: who they were, what they did and how they did it.

Volume 1 of The Cambridge History of Australia explores Australia's history from ancient times through to Federation in 1901. It begins with an archaeological examination of the continent's Indigenous history, which dates back 50,000 years. This volume examines the first European encounters with Australia and its Indigenous people, and the subsequent colonisation of the land by the British in the late eighteenth century, providing insight into the realities of a convict society and how this shaped the nation's development. Part I traces the dynamic growth in Australia's economy, demography...