Students

MHIS749 – Australian Historiography

2015 – S2 External

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff
Mark Hearn
Credit points Credit points
4
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Admission to MRes
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
This unit provides students with a comprehensive introduction to key themes in Australian historiography and cultivates critical research and teaching methodologies by revealing the constructed nature of historical practice and its relationship with crucial aspects of Australian experience - national identity and nation building, the experience of war, gender relations, and the treatment of Indigenous people.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Develop and critical thinking and analytical skills Identify and apply key historiographical concepts Build personal and communication skills through participation in seminar discussion. Identify socially complex problems, formulate own questions, and work out paths of investigation/creative resolution Reflect on how you have analysed information and solved problems, and incorporate lessons learned into future work Treat information in an ethical manner

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Due
Diagnostic task 20% Friday 21 August 2015
Research essay 60% Friday 2 October 2015
Online Participation 20% Friday 6 November 2015

Diagnostic task

Due: Friday 21 August 2015
Weighting: 20%

This task is related to the first topic: 'How have Australian historians helped shape the national story?' Select one Australian historian from the list below and outline how that historian's work has helped Australians either form or redefine a sense of national identity, and assess the response to their work - by academic critics and in the public sphere.

Geoffrey Blainey

C.M.H. (Manning) Clark

Miriam Dixson

Marilyn Lake

Henry Reynolds

Russel Ward


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Develop and critical thinking and analytical skills Identify and apply key historiographical concepts Build personal and communication skills through participation in seminar discussion. Identify socially complex problems, formulate own questions, and work out paths of investigation/creative resolution Reflect on how you have analysed information and solved problems, and incorporate lessons learned into future work Treat information in an ethical manner

Research essay

Due: Friday 2 October 2015
Weighting: 60%

Write a 3,000 word essay by selecting a question from one of the Topic One to Nine discussion questions. Consult the reading lists included in the Unit Guide, but you should also conduct your own research and seek out other relevant readings. Please also consult the advice below on writing an essay in history.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Develop and critical thinking and analytical skills Identify and apply key historiographical concepts Build personal and communication skills through participation in seminar discussion. Identify socially complex problems, formulate own questions, and work out paths of investigation/creative resolution Reflect on how you have analysed information and solved problems, and incorporate lessons learned into future work Treat information in an ethical manner

Online Participation

Due: Friday 6 November 2015
Weighting: 20%

The online discussion and participation task, undertaken through the iLearn Online Website, tests your ability to communicate ideas, your appreciation and comprehension of the themes and concepts discussed in the course, your ability to critically assess and evaluate the arguments of others, and your ability to clearly articulate your thoughts. It is also a task that monitors your progress across the unit topics. Each week you will find recommended discussion readings, but you may of course have to find alternatives if those recommendations are not available to you. Each topic reading list includes a number of alternative readings.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Develop and critical thinking and analytical skills Identify and apply key historiographical concepts Build personal and communication skills through participation in seminar discussion. Identify socially complex problems, formulate own questions, and work out paths of investigation/creative resolution Reflect on how you have analysed information and solved problems, and incorporate lessons learned into future work Treat information in an ethical manner

Delivery and Resources

• Topic One:

Welcome to Australian Historiography

Discussion Question: How have Australian historians helped shape the national story?

Recommended discussion reading (PDF copy available to download from the MHIS749 web page in iLearn):

Mark Hearn, ‘Writing the Nation in Australia: Australian Historians and Narrative Myths of Nation’, in National Histories – A Global Perspective, edited by Stefan Berger, Palgrave MacMillan 2007.

• Topic Two:

The European settlement of Australia

How have historians assessed the nature of the nineteenth century European settlement of Australia?

Recommended discussion readings:

Alan Attwood, The Europeans in Australia

Tim Flannery, The Future Eaters, Reed New Holland Sydney 1994.

Bill Gammage, The Biggest Estate on Earth, Allen and Unwin 2011.

Keith Windschuttle, ‘In defense of colonialism’, American Outlook Vol 3, Summer 2003 (http://www.sydneyline.com/InDefenceofColonialism.htm)

Other Readings:

Geoffrey Blainey, A Land Half Won, Macmillan Sydney 1980.

Geoffrey Blainey, Black Kettle and Full Moon

Tim Bonyhady, The Colonial Earth, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne 2000

James Boyce, 1835, The Founding of Melbourne & the Conquest of Australia, Black Inc. 2013.

Graeme Davison, ‘Punctuality and Progress: the Foundations of Australian Standard Time’, Australian Historical Studies, Vol.25 April 1992.

Brian Fletcher, Landed Enterprise and Penal Society: a history of farming and grazing in New South Wales before 1821, Sydney University Press, Sydney 1976.

Raelene Frances, ‘Sex Workers or Citizens? Prostitution and the Shaping of “Settler” Society in Australia’, International Review of Social History, No.44 1999, Supplement

David Goodman, Goldseeking, Allen and Unwin Sydney 1994.

Keith Hancock, Australia, Ernest Benn Ltd 1930.

Grace Karskens, The Colony, a history of early Sydney, Allen and Unwin 2010.

Richard Waterhouse, The Vision Splendid, A Social and Cultural History of Rural Australia, Curtin University Books Perth 2005.

• Topic Three:

Frontier conflict in Nineteenth Century Australia

How have historians assessed the historical evidence of violence on the nineteenth century Australian frontier?

Recommended discussion readings:

Alan Atkinson, ‘Honey and wax: a review of Keith Windschuttle, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, volume one, Van Diemen's Land 1803-1847 (Macleay Press, Sydney 2002)’, Journal of Australian Colonial History, Volume 4 Issue 2 (Oct 2002)

John Connor, The Australian Frontier Wars, 1788-1838, University of New South Wales Press, Kensington 2002.

Robert Manne (ed.), Whitewash: on Keith Windschuttle’s fabrication of Aboriginal history, Black Inc. Melbourne 2003.

Keith Windschuttle, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Macleay Press, Sydney 2002.

Paul Daley, ‘Why does the Australian War Memorial ignore the frontier war?’ Guardian Australia, 12 September 2013

Other Readings:

Bain Attwood and S. G. Foster (eds.), Frontier conflict: the Australian experience, National Museum of Australia, Canberra 2003.

Tracey Banivanua-Mar, ‘Consolidating Violence and Colonial Rule: Discipline

and Protection in Colonial Queensland’, Postcolonial Studies, Vol.8 No.3

2005 pp.303-319

James Boyce, Van Diemen’s Land, Black Inc., Melbourne 2008.

Richard Broome, Aboriginal Victorians since 1800, Allen & Unwin Sydney 2005.

Barry Butcher and David Turnbull, ‘Aborigines, Europeans and the Environment’, in Verity Burgmann and Jenny Lee (eds.), A Most Valuable Acquisition, A People’s History of Australia since 1788, Penguin Books Melbourne 1988.

Inga Clendinnen, Dancing with Strangers, Text Publishing, Melbourne 2003

Raymond Evans, Kay Saunders, Kathryn Cronin, Race Relations in Colonial Queensland: a history of exclusion, exploitation and extermination, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia 1988.

David Kent, ‘Frontier conflict and Aboriginal deaths: how do we weigh the evidence’, Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol.8 2006.

Henry Reynolds, The Other Side of the Frontier, Penguin Books Sydney 1981.

Henry Reynolds, With the White People: the crucial role of the Aborigines in the exploration and development of Australia, Penguin Books Sydney 1990 [reprinted as Black Pioneers, Penguin Books 2000].

A.G.L. Shaw, ‘British Policy Towards the Australian Aborigines, 1830-1850’, Australian Historical Studies, No.99 October 1992.

Lorenzo Veracini, ‘A prehistory of Australia's History Wars: the evolution of Aboriginal history during the 1970s and 1980s’, The Australian Journal of Politics and History, 52.3 September 2006.

Keith Windschuttle, ‘The myths of frontier massacres in Australian History’, Parts I & II, Quadrant, October and November 2000.

• Topic Four:

The federation of the Australian colonies

Discussion Question: How have historians assessed the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901, achieved despite strong forces of opposition?

Recommended discussion readings:

Patricia Grimshaw, ‘Federation as a turning point in Australian history’ Australian Historical Studies, 33:118, 2002, pp.25-41

John Hirst, Sentimental Nation, The Making of the Australian Commonwealth, Oxford University Press Melbourne 2000.

Marilyn Lake, ‘In the interests of the home: Rose Scott’s Feminist Opposition to Federation’, in David Headon and Stuart Macintyre (ed.), Makers of Miracles, The Cast of the Federation Story, Melbourne University Press Melbourne 2000.

Other readings:

Bob Birrell, Federation: The Secret Story, Duffy and Snellgrove Sydney 2001

Patricia Clarke (ed.), Steps to Federation, Australian Scholarly Publishing Melbourne 2001.

Raymond Evans et. al., 1901, Our Future’s Past, Documenting Australia’s Federation, Macmillan Sydney 1997.

Richard Ely, Unto God and Caesar: religious issues in the emerging Commonwealth, 1891-1906 Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1976

Mark Hearn and Greg Patmore (eds.), Working the Nation, Working Life and Federation, Pluto Press Sydney 2001.

Helen Irving, To Constitute a Nation, a Cultural History of Australia’s Constitution, Cambridge University Press Melbourne 1997.

Mark McKenna, The Captive Republic, A History of Republicanism in Australia, 1788-1996, Cambridge University Press Melbourne 1996.

Bede Nairn, Civilising Capitalism, the Beginnings of the Australian Labor Party, Melbourne University Press Melbourne 1989.

John Rickard, ‘H.B. Higgins: Federation as “A Mere Word”’, in David Headon and Stuart Macintyre (ed.), Makers of Miracles, The Cast of the Federation Story, Melbourne University Press Melbourne 2000.

Marian Simms (ed.), 1901, The Forgotten Election, University of Queensland Press St. Lucia 2001.

Geoffrey Stokes, ‘The “Australian Settlement” and Australian Political Thought’, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol.39 No.1 March 2004.

Luke Trainor, British Imperialism and Australian Nationalism, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne 1994.

• Topic Five:

Gender and the Australian Legend

Discussion Questions: How has the historical debate over Russel Ward’s Australian legend developed since its publication in 1958? How has a feminist revision of the legend changed historiographical constructions of gender?

Recommended discussion readings:

Marilyn Lake, ‘The Politics of Respectability: identifying the masculinist context’, Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 22 No.86 April 1986.

Richard Nile (ed.), The Australian Legend and Its Discontents, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia 2000

Russel Ward, The Australian Legend Oxford University Press Melbourne 1958

Other readings:

Frank Bongiorno and David Roberts (eds.), ‘Russel Ward: Reflections on the Legend’, Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol.10, No.2 2008.

Martin Crotty, Making the Australian Male, Middle Class Masculinity 1870-1920, Melbourne University Press Melbourne 2001.

Graeme Davison, ‘Sydney and the Bush: an Urban Context for the Australian Legend’ Historical Studies Vol.18, no.71 October 1978

Miriam Dixson, The Real Matilda, Penguin Books Melbourne 1976

Miriam Dixson, The imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and identity, 1788 to the present, UNSW Press Sydney 1999.

Margaret Fitzherbert, Liberal Women, Federation to 1949, The Federation Press Sydney 2004

Patricia Grimshaw et. al., Creating a Nation, Penguin Books Sydney 1996.

Mark Hearn, ‘Writing the Nation in Australia: Australian Historians and Narrative Myths of Nation’, National Histories – A Global Perspective, edited by Stefan Berger, Palgrave MacMillan 2007.

John Hirst, 'The pioneer legend', Historical Studies, vol. 18, no. 71, 1978; this article is also available as a chapter in John Hirst, Sense and Nonsense in Australian History, Black Inc. Melbourne, 2006.

Noeline Kyle, ‘Give us the franchise …(and)… we will show how we will use it! The story of Euphemia Allen Bowes, a leading “older citizen”’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol.84 pt.1 June 1998.

Marilyn Lake, “Personality, Individuality, Nationality: Feminist Conceptions of Citizenship 1902-1940”, Australian Feminist Studies, Vol. 19 Autumn 1994

Susan Margarey, Sue Rowley, Susan Sheridan (eds.), Debutante Nation: feminism contests the 1890s, Allen & Unwin Sydney 1993.

Susan Margarey, ‘History, Cultural Studies, and Another Look at First-Wave Feminism in Australia’, Australian Historical Studies, No.106 April 1996

Susan Magarey, Passions of the First Wave Feminists University of New South Wales Press, Kensington 2001

Kay Saunders & Raymond Evans (eds.), Gender Relations in Australia: domination and negotiation, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Sydney 1992.

Russel Ward ‘The Australian Legend Revisited’ Historical Studies Vol.18, no.71 October 1978

Richard White, Inventing Australia George Allen and Unwin Sydney 1981

• Topic Six:

White Australia

Discussion Question: How have historians assessed how White Australia has shaped Australian identity?

Recommended discussion readings:

John Kane, ‘Racialism and Democracy: the Legacy of White Australia’, in Geoffrey Stokes (ed.), The Politics of Identity in Australia, Cambridge University Press Melbourne 1997.

Marilyn Lake, ‘On Being a White Man, Australia, circa 1900’, in Hsu-Ming Teo and Richard White (eds.), Cultural History in Australia, University of New South Wales Press Kensington 2003.

David Walker, Anxious Nation, Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850-1939, University of Queensland Press St. Lucia 1999.

Keith Windschuttle, ‘Why Australia is not a racist country’, Quadrant March 2006.

(http://www.sydneyline.com/WhyAustralianotracist.htm)  

Other Readings:

Verity Burgmann, “Racism, Socialism and the Labour Movement, 1887-1917”, Labour History No.47 November 1984.

A. E. Cahill, ‘Cardinal Moran and the Chinese’, Manna, No.6 1963.

Graeme Davison, ‘Unemployment, race and public opinion: reflections on the Asian immigration controversy of 1888’, in A. Markus and M.C. Ricklefs, Surrender Australia?, George Allen and Unwin Sydney 1985.

Miriam Dixson, The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and identity, 1788 to the present, University of New South Wales Press Kensington 1999.

Raymond Evans, ‘Keeping Australia Clean White’, in Verity Burgmann and Jenny Lee (eds.), A Most Valuable Acquisition, A People’s History of Australia since 1788, Penguin Books Melbourne 1988.

Mark Hearn, ‘Cultivating an Australian Sentiment: John Christian Watson’s Narrative of White Nationalism.’ National Identities Vol.9 No.4 2007.

Laksiri Jayasuriya, David Walker and Jan Gothard, Legacies of White Australia: race, culture and nation, University of Western Australia Press, Perth 2003.

Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, Drawing the global colour line: white men’s countries and the question of racial equality, Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne 2008.

Andrew Markus, Australian Race Relations, Allen & Unwin Sydney 1994.

Andrew Markus, Race: John Howard and the remaking of Australia, Allen & Unwin Sydney 2001.

Gwenda Tavan, The Long, Slow Death of White Australia, Scribe Publications Melbourne 2005.

David Walker, ‘Strange Reading: Windschuttle on Race, Asia and White Australia’, Australian Historical Studies No.128 October 2006.

Keith Windschuttle, The White Australia Policy, Macleay Press Sydney 2004.

A.T. Yarwood, & M.J Knowling. Race Relations in Australia, a History, Methuen Australia Melbourne 1982.

• Topic Seven:

The Anzac Legend

Discussion Question: How have historians assessed the Anzac Legend?

Recommended discussion readings:

‘The Diggers’, C.E.W. Bean, The official history of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, Angus & Robertson, Sydney 1921-42, Vol.6 pp.4-8. (note: available online via the Australian War Memorial website)

Alistair Thomson, "Steadfast until death? C.E.W.Bean and the representation of Australian military manhood" Australian Historical Studies, 23:93, 1989, pp.462-478.

Marilyn Lake et. al., What's Wrong with ANZAC?, New South Books 2010. Geoffrey Blainey, ‘We weren't that dumb’, (review of What's Wrong with ANZAC?) The Australian, 7 April 2010.

Other readings:

E.M. Andrews, The Anzac illusion: Anglo-Australian relations during World War 1, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne 1993.

Martin Ball, ‘Re-reading Bean's last paragraph’, Australian Historical Studies, Volume 34 Issue 122 2003

John Barrett, "No straw man: C.E.W Bean and some critics" Australian Historical Studies , 23:90 , 1988 , 102-114.

Dale Blair, Dinkum diggers: an Australian battalion at war, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 2001.

Peter H. Hoffenberg, ‘Landscape, Memory and the Australian War Experience, 1915-18’, Journal of Contemporary History, 2001 36: 111-131.

K. S. Inglis, "Anzac, the substitute religion" in Observing Australia: 1959 to 1999, 1999 , 61-70 .

K. S. Inglis, Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape, Melbourne University Press, Carlton 1998, pp.458-483 .

D. N Jeans, "The making of the Anzac Memorial, Sydney towards a secular culture" Australia 1938: A Bicentennial History Bulletin, 4, 1981 , 48-60.

Jane Ross, The myth of the digger: the Australian soldier in two world wars, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1985.

Geoffrey Serle,. "The digger tradition and Australian nationalism" Meanjin Quarterly, 24:June , 1965, 149-158 .

Richard White, "The soldier as tourist: The Australian experience of the great war" War and Society, 5:1 , 1987 , 63-77 .

Richard White, "Motives for joining up: Self-sacrifice, self-interest and social class, 1914-18" Journal of the Australian War Memorial, 1986, pp.3-16 .

Denis Winter, Making the legend, the war writings of C.E.W. Bean, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia 1992.

• Topic Eight:

The Cold War

Discussion Question: How have historians assessed the impact of the Cold War on Australian politics and society?

Recommended discussion readings:

David Lowe, Menzies and the "great world struggle": Australia’s Cold War 1948-1954, University of New South Wales Press Kensington 1999.

David McKnight,’Rethinking Cold War History’, Labour History, No.95 November 2008.

John Murphy, Imagining the fifties: private sentiment and political culture in Menzies’ Australia, Pluto Press Sydney 2000.

Other readings:

Ann Curthoys and John Merritt (eds.), Australia's first Cold War, Vols.1 & 2, Allen & Unwin Sydney 1984.

Joy Damousi, Women Come Rally, Socialism, Communism and Gender in Australia 1890-1955, Oxford University Press Melbourne 1994.

Alistair Davidson, The Communist Party of Australia Hoover Institution, NY 1969.

David Day, Chifley, Harpercollins, Melbourne 2001.

Phillip Deery, 'Chifley, the Army and the 1949 Coal Strike', Labour History, no. 68, May 1995.

Phillip Deery and Neil Redfern, ‘No Lasting Peace? Labor, Communism and the Cominform: Australia and Great Britain, 1945–50’, Labour History, Vol.88 May 2005.

Robin Gollan, Revolutionaries and Reformists, Communism and the Australian Labour Movement 1920-1950, Allen & Unwin, Sydney 1975.

Mark Hearn, ‘Means and Ends: The Ideology of Dr Lloyd Ross’, Labour History, No. 63 November 1992.

John Hirst, ‘The Communist Threat’, in John Hirst, Sense and Nonsense in Australian History, Black Inc. Agenda, Melbourne 2006

Robert Manne, The Petrov Affair: politics and espionage, Permagon Melbourne 1987.

Robert Manne The Shadow of 1917: Cold War conflict in Australia, Text Publishing Melbourne 1994.

A.W. Martin, Robert Menzies, a life, Melbourne University Press Melbourne 1993.

Andrew Moore, ‘The “Historical Expert”: M.H. Ellis and the Historiography of the Cold War’, Australian Historical Studies, No.114 April 2000.

David McKnight, Australia’s Spies and their Secrets, Allen & Unwin Sydney 1994.

John Murphy, ‘Shaping the Cold War family: Politics, Domesticity and Policy Interventions in the 1950s’, Australian Historical Studies, No.105 October 1995.

Robert Murray, The Split, Australian Labor in the 1950s, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney 1984.

Tom Sheridan, Division of Labour: industrial relations in the Chifley years, 1945-49, Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1989.

G.S. Prasser, J.R. Nethercote and J.L. Warhurst (eds.), The Menzies Era: a reappraisal of government, politics and policy, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney 1984.

Zora Zimic, ‘Butter not bombs: a short history of the Union of Australian Women’, History Australia, Vol.4 No.1 June 2007.

• Topic Nine:

The History Wars and 20th century indigenous historiography

Discussion Questions: Is Australian history ‘little more than a litany of sexism, racism and class warfare’ as former Prime Minister John Howard suggested? Why has the history of indigenous Australians in the twentieth century been so politically contentious?

Recommended discussion readings:

Geoffrey Blainey, “Drawing Up a Balance Sheet of Our History”, Quadrant, July-August 1993

John Hirst, ‘Australian History and European Civilisation’, in John Hirst, Sense and Nonsense in Australian History, Black Inc. Melbourne Agenda, 2006.

Stuart Macintyre and Anna Clark, The History Wars, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 2004.

Greg Melleuish, Australian Intellectuals, Connorcourt Publishing, 2013.

Other readings:

Bain Attwood (ed.), In the age of Mabo: history, Aborigines and Australia, Allen & Unwin, St.Leonards, 1996.

Bain Attwood and Andrew Markus, 'The 1967 Referendum and All That: Narrative and Myth, Aborigines and Australia', Australian Historical Studies, Vol.29, No.111, 1998.

Bain Attwood and Andrew Markus, The 1967 referendum: race, power and the Australian Constitution, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra 2007

Carl Bridge (ed.), Manning Clark, Essays on his Place in History, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1994.

Maryrose Casey, ‘Referendums and reconciliation marches: What bridges are we crossing?’ Journal of Australian Studies, Volume 30, Issue 89 2006.

Inga Clendinnen, The history question: who owns the past? Black Inc., Melbourne 2006.

Graeme Davison, The Use and Abuse of Australian History, Allen and Unwin Sydney 2000

Deborah Gare et. al., The Fuss That Never Ended, Melbourne University Press Melbourne 2003.

Stephen Garton, ‘On the defensive: poststructuralism and Australian Cultural History’, in Hsu-Ming Teo and Richard White, Cultural History in Australia, University of New South Wales Press, Kensington 2003.

Murray Goot & Tim Rowse, Divided nation? indigenous affairs and the imagined public, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, 2007.

Patricia Grimshaw, ‘The Fabrication of a Benign Colonisation? Keith Windschuttle on History’, Australian Historical Studies, Vol.35, No.123, April 2004.

Mark Hearn, ‘Writing the Nation in Australia: Australian Historians and Narrative Myths of Nation’, National Histories – A Global Perspective, edited by Stefan Berger, Palgrave MacMillan 2007.

John Howard,’Address To The Quadrant Magazine 50th Anniversary Dinner’,3 October 2006, http://www.pm.gov.au/news/speeches/speech2165.html

Neil Levi, ‘No Sensible Comparison? The Place of the Holocaust in Australia’s History Wars’, History and Memory, Vol. 19 Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2007

Martyn Lyons and Penny Russell (eds.), Australia’s history: themes and debates, University of New South Wales Press Sydney 2005.

Andrew Markus and M.C. Ricklefs (ed.) Surrender Australia? Essays in the study and uses of history: Geoffrey Blainey and Asian immigration, Allen & Unwin Sydney 1985.

Russell McGregor, ‘An absent negative: the 1967 referendum’, History Australia, v.5, no.2, August 2008.

Mark McKenna, ‘“I Wonder Whether I Belong”, Manning Clark and the Politics of Australian History, 1970-2000’, Australian Historical Studies, No.122 October 2003.

Peter Read, A rape of the soul so profound: the return of the stolen generations, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, 1999.

Henry Reynolds, Aboriginal sovereignty: reflections on race, state and nation, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, 1996.

David Ritter, ‘The Judgement of the World: The Yorta Yorta Case and the Tide of History’, Australian Historical Studies, Volume 35, Issue 123 April 2004

Jane Robbins, ‘The Howard Government and Indigenous Rights: An Imposed National Unity?’ Australian Journal of Political Science, Volume 42, Issue 2 June 2007.

Ryan, Peter. "Is the uncivil war over?", Quadrant October 2006): 95(2)

Peter Sutton, The politics of suffering: indigenous Australia and the end of the liberal consensus, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 2009.

Keith Windschuttle, ‘The Break-Up of Australia’, Quadrant, September 2000.

• Topic Ten:

Postmodernism and Poststructuralism

Discussion Question: Have postmodernism and poststructuralism degraded or invigorated Australian history writing?

Recommended discussion readings:

Stephen Garton, ‘On the defensive: postructuralism and Australian Cultural History’, in Hsu-Ming Teo and Richard White (eds.), Cultural History in Australia, University of New South Wales Press 2003.

Martin Stuart-Fox, ‘Two views of the history of historiography and the nature of history’, History Australia, Volume 4, No. 2, December 2007

Keith Windschuttle, The Killing of History, Macleay Press 1996

 

Other readings:

Paul Carter, The road to Botany Bay: an essay in spatial history, Faber, London 1987.

Ann Curthoys and John Docker, Is history fiction? UNSW Press, Sydney 2006.

Greg Dening, Mr Bligh’s bad language: passion, power, and theatre on the Bounty, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,1992.

Greg Dening, Performances, Melbourne University Press, Carlton 1996.

John Docker, Postmodernism and popular culture: a cultural history, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne 1994.

John Frow, ‘Australian cultural studies: theory, story, history’, Postcolonial Studies, Vol.10 No.1 2007

Mark Hearn, ‘Writing a Life: John Dwyer’s Narrative Identity’, Rethinking History, Vol. 10 No.1 2006.

* Topic Eleven:

Reflections on the Historians’ purpose

Discussion Questions: How successfully have Australian historians reconciled their ethical responsibilities with their desire to imaginatively construct a story? For your discussion, select one of the historians’ you’ve read from amongst the course topics.

Discussion reading (PDF copy available to download from the MHIS749 web page in iLearn):

Penny Russell, ‘Almost Believing: the Ethics of Historical Imagination’, in Stuart McIntyre (ed.), The historian’s conscience: Australian historians on the ethics of history, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 2004.

Unit Schedule

Week One (27 July): Welcome to Australian Historiography

Week Two (3 August): The European settlement of Australia

Week Three (10 August): Frontier conflict in Nineteenth Century Australia

Week Four (17 August): The federation of the Australian colonies

Week Five (24 August): Gender and the Australian Legend

Week Six (31 August): White Australia

Week Seven (7 September): Preparation of Unit Project

Mid-semester break (14 – 25 September)

Week Eight (28 September): The Anzac Legend

Week Nine (5 October): The Cold War

Week Ten (12 October): The History Wars and 20th century indigenous history

Week Eleven (19 October): Postmodernism and Poststructuralism

Week Twelve (26 October): Reflections on the Historians’ purpose

Week Thirteen (2 November): Revision

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Graduate Capabilities

PG - Discipline Knowledge and Skills

Our postgraduates will be able to demonstrate a significantly enhanced depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content knowledge in their chosen fields.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Develop and critical thinking and analytical skills Identify and apply key historiographical concepts Build personal and communication skills through participation in seminar discussion. Identify socially complex problems, formulate own questions, and work out paths of investigation/creative resolution Reflect on how you have analysed information and solved problems, and incorporate lessons learned into future work Treat information in an ethical manner

Assessment tasks

  • Diagnostic task
  • Research essay
  • Online Participation

PG - Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

Our postgraduates will be capable of utilising and reflecting on prior knowledge and experience, of applying higher level critical thinking skills, and of integrating and synthesising learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments. A characteristic of this form of thinking is the generation of new, professionally oriented knowledge through personal or group-based critique of practice and theory.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Develop and critical thinking and analytical skills Identify and apply key historiographical concepts Build personal and communication skills through participation in seminar discussion. Identify socially complex problems, formulate own questions, and work out paths of investigation/creative resolution Reflect on how you have analysed information and solved problems, and incorporate lessons learned into future work Treat information in an ethical manner

Assessment tasks

  • Diagnostic task
  • Research essay
  • Online Participation

PG - Research and Problem Solving Capability

Our postgraduates will be capable of systematic enquiry; able to use research skills to create new knowledge that can be applied to real world issues, or contribute to a field of study or practice to enhance society. They will be capable of creative questioning, problem finding and problem solving.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Develop and critical thinking and analytical skills Identify and apply key historiographical concepts Build personal and communication skills through participation in seminar discussion. Identify socially complex problems, formulate own questions, and work out paths of investigation/creative resolution Reflect on how you have analysed information and solved problems, and incorporate lessons learned into future work Treat information in an ethical manner

Assessment tasks

  • Diagnostic task
  • Research essay
  • Online Participation

PG - Effective Communication

Our postgraduates will be able to communicate effectively and convey their views to different social, cultural, and professional audiences. They will be able to use a variety of technologically supported media to communicate with empathy using a range of written, spoken or visual formats.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Develop and critical thinking and analytical skills Identify and apply key historiographical concepts Build personal and communication skills through participation in seminar discussion. Identify socially complex problems, formulate own questions, and work out paths of investigation/creative resolution Reflect on how you have analysed information and solved problems, and incorporate lessons learned into future work Treat information in an ethical manner

Assessment tasks

  • Diagnostic task
  • Research essay
  • Online Participation

PG - Engaged and Responsible, Active and Ethical Citizens

Our postgraduates will be ethically aware and capable of confident transformative action in relation to their professional responsibilities and the wider community. They will have a sense of connectedness with others and country and have a sense of mutual obligation. They will be able to appreciate the impact of their professional roles for social justice and inclusion related to national and global issues

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Develop and critical thinking and analytical skills Identify and apply key historiographical concepts Build personal and communication skills through participation in seminar discussion. Identify socially complex problems, formulate own questions, and work out paths of investigation/creative resolution Reflect on how you have analysed information and solved problems, and incorporate lessons learned into future work Treat information in an ethical manner

Assessment task

  • Online Participation