AustLit

Matthews, Jill Julius. 'Hidden Treasures of the Mitchell Library: Sydney Periodicals 1895-1930'. St Lucia, Qld: AustLit, 2010.

From the article:

'As a consequence of researchers reading only [a limited] set of standard titles, I would suggest that generalist interpretations of the country’s past and the possibilities of its people’s thought and action have been somewhat distorted. For example, historians have often treated the Bulletin’s passionate championing of “Australia for the White Man”, as if it spoke for the racism of most Australians at the beginning of the twentieth century. But meanwhile, Australian Variety heaped praise on Hebrew and coloured vaudeville performers, Snowy Baker’s Magazine recognised the true manliness and chivalry of black and Philippino [sic] boxers, United Australia published vehement articles opposed to White Australia, and Yabba declared its policy to be "Australia for the Australians, and not for the Englishman nor the Irishman nor the Scotchman alone but for all races of men without distinction of colour or religion". Across the range of magazines at any one time,

there was an extraordinary diversity of opinion and commentary on the many activities of domestic, social, cultural, and political life that makes reliance on two or three 'iconic' titles unsafe. Only from the range of magazines can one draw the necessary qualifications to any generalisation about the period.

So what then was the range of magazines in the early decades of the twentieth century?'

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