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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In early 2022, we know that most readers yearn for a reprieve from living in ‘interesting times’. Under the cloud of a continuing pandemic, we have watched in horror as floods threaten so many fellow residents in Australia and as war wreaks havoc and worse in Ukraine. The editorial team as a whole extends its heartfelt sympathies to the current victims of climate change and of Vladimir Putin’s megalomania. On social media we have been at least gratified to share with followers the store of excellent articles we have published over 19 years on environmental disasters and the Ukrainian-Australian relationship.' (From the Editors : Introduction)
Contents
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‘Creative Histories’ and the Australian Context,
single work
criticism
'This article brings together a group of history practitioners who, prompted by their experiences of creative approaches to the theory and practice of history, are exploring how the term ‘Creative Histories’ might apply within the Australian context. While the term and practice of Creative Histories has gained international currency in recent years, little has been done to consider its development and relevance in Australia. Here we develop a working definition for the term which has been shaped in conversation with Creative Historians at the University of Bristol and a suite of interviews conducted with 10 Australian ‘creative historians’ who have worked or still work within the academy, as well as four Indigenous artists, academics and activists who each employ creativity in the ways they ‘practice the past’. Together, these influences indicate that questions of purpose, poetics and politics go to the heart of Creative Histories in Australia and that a fuller understanding of both Creative Histories and the creative histories of Aboriginal practitioners will make a useful contribution to conversations concerned with decolonising the discipline in Australia.' (Publication abstract)
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‘Entitled to a Better Standard Than This’ : Strong Female Lead, Julia Gillard and Sexism in Australian Politics,
single work
review
'This documentary is hard to watch. While I was expecting the content, there was real power in the relentless accumulation of disrespect and abuse uttered in gendered, often violent and sexualised terms against Labor politician Julia Gillard. When she first became leader of the ALP and Australia’s 27th prime minister, Gillard acknowledged the milestone but wanted to downplay her status as the first woman in the role. Others, however, did not. Strong Female Lead explores how Gillard’s political legitimacy and integrity as a national leader were increasingly challenged in overtly gendered terms.'(Introduction)
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[Review] New Gold Mountain,
single work
review
— Review of New Gold Mountain 2021 series - publisher film/TV ;'New Gold Mountain is a ‘revisionist Western’ drama series, aired on SBS TV in October 2021 and currently available via SBS On Demand. Set in 1857, in the Victorian goldfields town of Ballarat, it tells a story of Chinese mining endeavour and paints this community as a central part of the gold rushes. The body of a murdered European woman is discovered, suspicion falls on the Chinese community, and simmering racial tensions come to the fore. The lead character, Leung Wei Shing, the headman of the Chinese camp, navigates through the murder investigation, keeping the white authorities at bay, yet delving within the Chinese community to uncover the circumstances of the death.'(Introduction)
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Catherine Fisher Sounds Out Australian Women’s Voices in the Public Sphere,
single work
review
— Review of Sound Citizens : Australian Women Broadcasters Claim their Voice, 1923-1956 2021 single work biography ;'This well-researched and highly readable book is a wonderful contribution to a growing body of Australian feminist-inspired studies that have delved into the archives of broadcasting. Based on the author’s PhD thesis, the core of the book is the story of women’s widening access to the public sphere through the affordances of mass media.' (Introduction)
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Barbara Minchinton Challenges Popular Accounts of Melbourne’s Colonial Sex Workers,
single work
review
— Review of The Women of Little Lon : Sex Workers in Nineteenth Century Melbourne 2021 single work biography ;'This is a book with an axe to grind. Specifically, the author is very aggrieved at the way in which Melbourne’s colonial sex work and sex workers are represented in what she calls ‘tabloid histories’, especially historical tours and websites relating to Little Lonsdale Street’s brothels. She characterises this tabloid history as history that ‘prefers titillation to truth, and values sales above respect for its subjects, breathing sensationalism and the colourful language of denigration’ (2). Curiously, though, she provides few specific examples of the target of her annoyance – in the case of offending websites she states that she ‘refuses to dignify any of these efforts with references’ (279). As a result, the argument has a very ‘straw man’ feel. This reader was irritated by the approach, and the frequent chastising meted out to ‘historians’ (without the earlier qualification of ‘tabloid’) throughout the book, again with few specific examples. Although Minchinton’s published work in refereed journals indicates that she is aware of the broader academic historiography of sex work in Australia as a subject that has attracted solid research and subtle analysis, very little of this historical scholarship is referred to, leaving the reader with the impression that she is the only writer with valid historical skills. And her claims to focus on the ‘facts’ rather than the sensational are belied by the very cover of the book, which features a raunchy photo of a sex worker in Vienna, not Melbourne or even Australia.'(Introduction)
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Alex Millmow’s Biography of the Economist Colin Clark,
single work
review
— Review of The Gypsy Economist 2021 single work biography ;'Colin Clark, the subject of this biography, was regarded as one of Australia’s most profound thinkers. The Economic Society of Australia chose him as the joint winner (with Trevor Swan) of its inaugural Distinguished Fellow award in 1987. The University of Queensland, where Clark held an honorary appointment in his final years, had such a high opinion of him that it named both the building housing its Economics Faculty and an annual public lecture in his honour. John Maynard Keynes referred to Clark as ‘a bit of a genius: almost the only economic statistician I have ever met who seems to me quite first class’ (Moggridge (ed.), The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, vol. XXIX, 1979, 57). Several universities, including Monash, Queensland, Milan and Tilburg, awarded him honorary degrees. Among his major contributions to economics was the concept of Gross National Product or GNP. He was also a founder of development economics: the World Bank included Clark among its top 10 pioneers of development economics.'(Introduction)
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Robert Cox, Henry Reynolds and Nicholas Clements Grapple with the Lives of Two Warriors from the Black War in Tasmania,
single work
review
— Review of Broken Spear : The Untold Story of Black Tom Birch, the Man Who Sparked Australia's Bloodiest War 2021 single work biography ; Tongerlongeter : First Nations Leader and Tasmanian War Hero 2021 single work biography ;'Among the vast number of books on the history of the Black War, there are virtually no biographies of the guerrilla leaders on the other side of the frontier. Instead, historians have relied on convict artist Thomas Bock’s compelling portraits of these men and women, to gain insights into their bravery and humanity. The biographies that do exist of Truganini, Woorraddy and Pevay tend to foreground their experiences as part of G.A. Robinson’s friendly mission on the settler side of the frontier. Apart from a short study of Walyer, the woman guerrilla leader in northern Tasmania, there have been no major studies of the guerrilla leaders who led the resistance at the height of the Black War.' (Introduction)
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Catherine Bishop Weighs up the Life of a Briefly Infamous Woman Missionary,
single work
review
— Review of Too Much Cabbage and Jesus Christ : Australia's 'Mission Girl' Annie Lock 2021 single work biography ;'I read Too Much Cabbage and Jesus Christ in the week that a jury in Darwin found a police constable not guilty of murdering a Warlpiri teenager named Kumanjayi Walker. The constable, an ex-soldier, shot Walker three times, claiming that the boy resisted arrest. In 1928, as this book recounts, less than 100 kilometres from where Walker was killed, more than 60 Warlpiri and Anmatyerr men, women and children were killed by gangs led by police constable William Murray. Murray, an ex-soldier, claimed the victims had resisted arrest. A public enquiry into the deaths exonerated Murray and his fellow murderers.' (Introduction)
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Desley Deacon Provides the First Comprehensive Biography of a Pre-eminent Twentieth-century Australian Performer and Popular Cultural Icon,
single work
review
— Review of Judith Anderson : Australian Star, First Lady of the American Stage 2019 single work biography ;'Today she haunts popular iconography on multiple digital and visual platforms. In Rebecca, the definitely monochrome film of 1940 directed by Alfred Hitchcock, she is gaunt, implacable, insidious: her black frock as dark as her intentions, luring her terrified victim towards self-annihilation among flickering firelight, transparent drapes, vertiginous cliffs and turbulent waves. In the cultural memory of the twenty-first century, Judith Anderson’s complex multi-media career has almost become subsumed into her portrayal of Mrs Danvers. Despite her eight decades of professional international performance as a tragedienne in stage, film, television, radio and recorded word, this major Australian cultural figure has hitherto received no comprehensive career biography.' (Introduction)