Australian History

From the Edge: Australia’s lost histories by Mark McKenna

January–February 2017, no. 388

There is a well-meaning musician who performs intermittently in Central Australia. When he plays his hit song, he tries to augment the lyrics by chanting the ...

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Brian Matthews reviews 'The Story of Australia’s People: The rise and rise of a New Australia' by Geoffrey Blainey

by Brian Matthews •

December 2016, no. 387

Brian Matthews reviews 'The Story of Australia’s People: The rise and rise of a New Australia' by Geoffrey Blainey

The seminar, as far as I can remember, took place in what was then the Melbourne Teachers’ College on Grattan Street. The late-afternoon sunlight slanting through ornate ...

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The Vagabond Papers by John Stanley James

by John Arnold •

September 2016, no. 384

John Arnold reviews 'The Vagabond Papers' by John Stanley James

In March 2016 the Royal Historical Society of Victoria hosted a function to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Michael Cannon's The Land Boomers, first issued ...

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'How do we live with ourselves? The Australian national conscience' by Alan Atkinson

by Alan Atkinson •

September 2016, no. 384

When Australian federation was being planned and its implications first worked through, various men and women with agendas of their own set themselves ...

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Armenia, Australia and the Great War by Vicken Babkenian and Peter Stanley

by Joy Damousi •

September 2016, no. 384

Joy Damousi reviews 'Armenia, Australia and the Great War' by Vicken Babkenian and Peter Stanley

The Armenian Genocide, which claimed an estimated 1.5 million lives, began in 1915. It continues to cause controversy today and is a hotly contested event; ...

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Making the Australian Quilt 1800–1950

NGV Australia

by Margaret Robson Kett •

25 July 2016

'Making the Australian Quilt 1800–1950' (NGV Australia)

With a needle on cloth, Mary Jane Hannaford preserved her sharp observations of people as stout appliquéd figures set amidst interpretative renditions of Australian animals. Late in life she embroidered favourite verses and slyly captioned her pictures in quilts for her family. Close to one hundred ...

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The Lucky Country? Reinventing Australia by Ian Lowe

by Peter Christoff •

August 2016, no. 383

Peter Christoff reviews 'The Lucky Country? Reinventing Australia' by Ian Lowe

When The Lucky Country was published in 1964, its cover – Albert Tucker's painting of a hat-wearing, stony-faced, beer-swilling Aussie gambler – captured its ...

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Anzac Day Then and Now edited by Tom Frame

by Seumas Spark •

June–July 2016, no. 382

Seumas Spark reviews 'Anzac Day Then and Now' edited by Tom Frame

I hazard a guess that more books are published on Anzac – the day, the legend, the myth – than on any other subject in Australian history. The least of these ...

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Unnecessary Wars by Henry Reynolds

by Peter Stanley •

June–July 2016, no. 382

Peter Stanley reviews 'Unnecessary Wars' by Henry Reynolds

In 1885 the Singleton MHA and Militia officer Albert Gould reflected that, New South Wales having sent a contingent to fight for the empire in the Sudan, 'we shall be ...

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Memory and Migration in the Shadow of War: Australia's Greek immigrants after World War II and the Greek Civil War by Joy Damousi

by Alistair Thomson •

June–July 2016, no. 382

Alistair Thomson reviews 'Memory and Migration in the Shadow of War: Australia's Greek immigrants after World War II and the Greek Civil War' by Joy Damousi

When we talk about the importance of Australia's remembered wartime past, we mostly think of home-front experiences or Australians who went away ...

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