Making Australian History

Australian history has been revised and reinterpreted by successive generations of historians, writers, governments and public commentators, yet there has been no account of the ways it has changed, who makes history, and how. Making Australian History responds to this critical gap in Australian historical research.A few years ago Anna Clark saw a series of paintings on a sandstone cliff face in the Northern Territory. There were characteristic crosshatched images of fat barramundi and turtles, as well as sprayed handprints and several human figures with spears. Next to them was a long gun, painted with white ochre, an unmistakable image of the colonisers. Was this an Indigenous rendering of contact? A work of history?Each piece of history has a message and context that depends on who wrote it and when. Australian history has swirled and contorted over the years: the history wars have embroiled historians, politicians and public commentators alike, while debates over historical fiction have been as divisive. History isn't just about understanding what happened and why. It also reflects the persuasions, politics and prejudices of its authors. Each iteration of Australia's national story reveals not only the past in question, but also the guiding concerns and perceptions of each generation of history makers.Making Australian History is bold and inclusive: it catalogues and contextualises changing readings of the past, it examines the increasingly problematic role of historians as national storytellers, and it incorporates the stories of people.

The adoption of White Australia as government policy in 1901 demonstrates that whiteness was crucial to the ways in which the new nation of Australia was constituted. And yet, historians have largely overlooked whiteness in their studies of Australia's racial past. Creating White Australia takes a fresh approach to the question of 'race' in Australian history. It demonstrates that Australia's racial foundations can only be understood by recognising whiteness too as 'race'. Including contributions from some of the leading as well as emerging scholars in Australian history, it breaks new ground by arguing that 'whiteness' was central to the racial ideologies that created the Australian nation. This book pursues the foundations of white Australia across diverse locales. It also situates the development of Australian whiteness within broader imperial and global influences. As the recent apology to the Stolen Generations, the Northern Territory Intervention and controversies over asylum seekers reveal, the legacies of these histories are still very much with us today.

Created especially for the Australian customer! Exciting and informative history of the land down under Australian History For Dummies is your tour guide through the important events of Australia's past, introducing you to the people and events that have shaped modern Australia. Be there as British colonists explore Australia's harsh terrain with varying degrees of success. In this informative guide you'll Find out about Australia's infamous bushrangers Learn how the discovery of gold caused a tidal wave of immigration from all over the world Understand how Australia took two steps forward to become a nation in its own right in 1901, and two steps back when the government was dismissed by the Crown in 1975 Discover the fascinating details that made Australia the country it is today!

This exciting and stimulating book looks back at turning points and crucial moments in Australian history. Rather than arguing that there have been forks on a pre-determined road, the book challenges us to think about other paths or better paths that might have led to different outcomes.

Making Australian History: Perspectives on the past since 1788 is an exciting new text that meets an unusual gap in the literature of Australian history. It presents students with an in-depth, multi-authored collection of articles, documents and short essays that are structured around the major themes discussed in most Australian history courses.

'Searching for the Secret River is the extraordinary story of how Kate Grenville came to write her award-winning novel, The Secret River. It all began with her ancestor Solomon Wiseman transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life who later became a wealthy man and built his colonial mansion on the Hawkesbury. Increasingly obse...

First published 1996. This edition-with new introduction-published July 2009. The Australian National University has always been a university with a difference. Conceived in the mid-1940s to serve Australia's post-war needs for advanced research and postgraduate training, it quickly embraced the ideals and traditions of Oxford and Cambridge. Undergraduate teaching was introduced in 1960, following amalgamation with Canberra University College. The University continued to adapt to changes in Australian society, while retaining much of its unique structure and objectives. Stephen Foster and Margaret Varghese trace the ANU's history from its wartime origins to its fiftieth anniversary in 1996, featuring many of the prominent Australians who contributed to its making: 'Nugget' Coombs, Howard Florey, Mark Oliphant, W.K. Hancock, Douglas Copland, John Crawford, Peter Karmel; and others who stood out in particular fields, such as J.C.Eccles, Arthur Birch, Manning Clark, Russell Mathews, Ernest Titterton, Beryl Rawson, John Mulvaney, John Passmore and Frank Fenner. The Making of The Australian National University explores many themes in higher education during the last half century, including academic freedom, relations between universities and politicians, recruitment practices, the 'two cultures' of science and the humanities, collegial versus managerial structures, equality of opportunity, student politics, academics and architecture and universities in the marketplace. This is an affectionate and critical account of a remarkable Australian institution; and, more broadly, a fascinating study of how institutions work.

Making Chinese Australia demonstrates how the interpretations and narratives of journalists and editors of Chinese - Australian newspapers played a powerful role in shaping the social identities and historical awareness of Chinese Australians. Mei - fen Kuo is an Australian author.

Australian history has changed drastically over the last fifty years and has found itself at the centre of heated and consuming public debates. So how do historians themselves read this history? Where do they see themselves in these momentous shifts in historical reading and writing? With contributions from prominent historians including Marilyn Lake, Tom Griffiths, Peter Stanley and Ann Curthoys, Australian History Now offers revealing and refreshing accounts of the ways Australian historians think about the nation’s past. Australian History Now is an engaging and often surprising introduction to the ways we understand and write our history in academic, popular and school books, argue about it in the media, present it in museums and watch it on television. At its heart it shows that the way we remember our past reflects how we see ourselves in the present.