AustLit

'Academic historians, being human, are inclined to be jealous of popular authors and journalists who turn their hand to history and achieve sales and celebrity. The animosity – sometimes deserved, sometimes not – is most often expressed not by direct attack but, rather, by the cold shoulder: by exclusion of the gilded authors and their books from mainstream academic discussion. Undergraduate students quickly learn of the gaucherie of footnoting the works of such writers in history essays (Patsy Adam-Smith’s groundbreaking The Anzacs (1978) is a notable example). Yet, the amateur historian, the journalist and the populist have more often than not been leaders of public discussion in matters historical. Ernest Scott, appointed professor of history at the University of Melbourne in 1913 and pioneer of the academic study of Australian history, held no university degree and was previously a journalist and parliamentary Hansard reporter. It just happened that he was an original researcher, a fine mind and a good storyteller.' (24)