AustLit

'In April 2018, I was invited to submit an expression of interest for the position of visiting Cabinet historian to the National Archives of Australia (NAA). I was informed that the Archives had consulted the Australian Historical Association and my name had been ‘highly recommended’. I was quietly thrilled at the invitation. As a biographer and political historian, my own research interests in recent years had meshed into a focus on leadership and executive government. Naturally, I had always taken a keen interest in the annual New Year’s Day release of the Cabinet records, poring over the newspaper reports. Now I was being offered the opportunity to be an integral part of that process, to gain a privileged window into the engine room of national government. I duly submitted an expression of interest and by early May had been formally offered the position. I accepted the offer with enthusiasm.' (Introduction)

'Lyndon Megarrity was surprised to discover how often northern Australia has featured in government files as a Commonwealth issue since 1901. The north, he contends, has played a role of national significance in Australia’s political history, but this has been largely ignored by historians. Looking at the period 1901 to 2018, Megarrity examines the policies of federal politicians, as well as the concerns of state and territory politicians, public servants, journalists, and others interested in northern development. Megarrity explains that his aim was to ‘flesh out the human drama at the heart of the national story of northern development’. In this, he can be said to have had some success, detailing the roles played by such diverse politicians as Alfred Deakin, Ben Chifley, Gough Whitlam, Pauline Hanson and John Howard, as well as a range of lesser-known characters.' (Introduction)

'Caroline’s Dilemma is an excellent example of compelling women’s history. It is a carefully crafted piece of detective work, expanding our knowledge of the history of marriage and family life in the nineteenth-century settler colonial world. The book charts the detailed plight of Caroline Kearney, aged 31 and mother of six children, following her husband Edward’s death in Melbourne in 1865. In his will, Edward insisted that Caroline would be granted 200 pounds a year provided she never married again and moved to the other side of the world to live with her children in Ireland under the watchful eye of his Catholic family. Edward ordered his widow to live in a house chosen by Edward’s brother, where their children would be reared as Catholics. Caroline was left with scant legal rights to her home or children following her husband’s death after he came under the influence of his Irish Catholic brother William, who was determined to wrest his brother’s children away from their Protestant mother’s influence, as his brother sickened and then died. The will suggested that when her children reached adulthood, Caroline would receive a portion of her husband’s sizeable estate – accumulated with her contributions on marriage and their dual labour. The Victorian farm that the family had nurtured, and the children hoped to remain living upon, was ordered to be sold to fund the large family’s passage to Ireland.' (Introduction)

'In the world of transnational scholarship, that sometimes obscures the contributions of important individuals, it is pleasing to see the revitalisation of historical biography, which recovers in other ways the life stories of consequential Australians, including women whose work was mainly amongst the marginalised. The contributions of these women would otherwise remain unnoticed because their transformational influence was mostly unrecognised in their lifetimes; their often vibrant personal stories could not be fully told in a still largely provincial thinking Australia, with all of its white, hetero-normative and masculine-driven stereotyping.' (Introduction)

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'In Women in Boots, Marion Stell and Heather Reid use the inaugural Trans-Tasman Cup competition of 1979-80 as a lens to examine the emergence of women’s football in Australia and New Zealand during the 1970s. This innovative book, which is co-authored by a sports historian and an experienced sports administrator, is based on extensive interviews with players from the Australian and New Zealand teams, complemented by surviving scrapbooks and newspaper coverage from the time. The illustrations, many sourced from players’ photo albums, are a rich primary source in themselves. The book has a loosely chronological structure, charting the development of women’s soccer in New Zealand and Australia, interspersed with thematic chapters on feminism, funding, media and sexuality. In this way, Women in Boots provides a social biography of the players and the game they played that is informed by gender and social history and focuses on the human experiences of the players. It is a rewarding read and a valuable addition to scholarship in the field.' (Introduction)