'This issue of Australian Historical Studies opens with two articles that explore the struggles for the recognition of human rights, including the protection offered for women and children, in Australia's recent history. From today's vantage point, looking back to the experiences and politics of the 1970s is a reminder of how far we have advanced as a society when it comes to such issues as the acknowledgement of child sexual abuse and gender equity in the workplace and the wider community. But it is also sobering to see that many of the concerns about the status and safety of women and children that were expressed almost five decades ago have not been fully addressed in 2018. One lesson we can draw from the past is that social change can be slow and halting, even when the need for reform is compelling.' (Kate Darian-Smith & Penelope Edmonds; Introduction)
Contents indexed selectively.
Kenneth Stanley Inglis died of pancreatic cancer on 1 December 2017. He continued to write until a few days before his death, imparting careful instructions to Jay Winter and Seamus Spark, on their collective two-volume biography of the 'Dunera Boys'. It says much about Ken Inglis that his last work was a collaborative endeavour, and a project that profiled the talent of both established and early career scholars. As Frank Bongiorno, one of many grateful students, has noted, the measure of Inglis' scholarship is not just the distinctive contribution he made to our discipline, but the opportunities he created all his life for others.' (Introduction)
'Dr Michelle ('Mickey') Sue Dewar was an outstanding historian of the Northern Territory (NT) and a champion of history across many genres. Her contribution to the study of the north was rigorous, broad-ranging and prolific. Her body of work is often iconoclastic, but always entertaining and meticulously researched. ' (Introduction)
'In their introduction to this collection, David Stephens and Alison Broinowski distinguish between ‘honest history’, the concept, and ‘honest history’, the coalition: a group of (mostly) historians disturbed at the unbalanced mobilisation of Australia's past for political purposes. The Honest History Book is a reflection of that coalition and its concerns. Here, ‘dishonest history’ resides largely in politicians’ persistent and exaggerated emphasis on the importance of Anzac in the making of Australia, otherwise termed ‘Anzackery’. The book's stated aim is to provide a perspective on Australian history in which the significance of war and the Anzac tradition is reduced, and drawn in proportion to other major themes in the national past.' (Introduction)
