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Image courtesy of publisher's website.
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Geoffrey Blainey is often described as Australia’s greatest living historian, a writer whose prolific output includes such iconic books about the country’s past as The Tyranny of Distance and Triumph of the Nomads.

'However, Blainey has also been a controversial figure. His 1984 comments about Asian immigration triggered a major political controversy. In turn, the reaction of his critics raised fundamental questions about freedom of speech and set the scene for the ‘history wars’ fought out in Australia over the past three decades.

'Many academic historians were amongst Blainey’s critics. After 1984, Blainey became stereotyped as a ‘conservative historian’ and thus outside the bounds of academic history, yet much of Blainey’s historical writing, both in method and outlook, has been far from conservative.

'Geoffrey Blainey: Writer, Historian, Controversialist challenges simplistic descriptions of Blainey’s work. It sheds an important light not just on Blainey’s career, but also on the past and present practice of history in Australia.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Clayton, Murrumbeena - Oakleigh - Springvale area, Melbourne South East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Monash University Publishing , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 7562078891030531748.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 304p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published December 2019.
      ISBN: 9781925835625

Works about this Work

Doug Munro Review of Richard Allsop, Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Doug Munro , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , no. 6 2022; (p. 227-233)

— Review of Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Richard Allsop , 2019 single work biography
'Geoffrey Blainey (b. 1930) has had a most unusual trajectory for a historian. It  started conventionally enough when he enrolled in 1948 in Max Crawford’s history department at the University of Melbourne. He was one of several stellar students of that immediate postwar generation, and topped Manning Clark’s third year history course. At age 20, he then astonished everyone by taking on a full professor, R. S. Parker, in the country’s leading journal in the discipline, Historical Studies, as to whether Australian Federation was primarily motivated by economic considerations. His progression rapidly diverged from his fellow students in other ways. Instead of the usual career path as a tutor, followed by further study at Oxford, he embarked on a commissioned history of Mount Lyell Mining & Railway Company, published in 1954 as The Peaks of Lyell. That set his course for more than a decade, and a further six commissioned histories followed. Only in late 1961 did he become a teaching academic, beginning with a brief (and very successful) stint at the University of Adelaide followed by long-term employment at his alma mater, where he rose to become dean of the Faculty of Arts.' (Introduction)
[Review] Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Don Garden , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society , December vol. 106 no. 2 2020; (p. 224-225)

— Review of Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Richard Allsop , 2019 single work biography
'While it seems unlikely that any Australian historian has had more words written about them, or is better known to the general public, this is the first book-length historiographical and biographical study of Geoffrey Blainey.' (Introduction)
[Review] Geoffrey Blainey: Writer, Historian, Controversialist John Doyle , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 44 no. 4 2020; (p. 553-555)

— Review of Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Richard Allsop , 2019 single work biography

'In Geoffrey Blainey: Writer, Historian, Controversialist, Richard Allsop provides a welcome study of a remarkable, and remarkably polarising, intellectual figure in Australian public life. Placing Blainey with Keith Hancock and Manning Clark in the pantheon of Australia’s leading historians, Allsop observes that, unlike them, Blainey’s body of work has not been comprehensively examined. He sets out to remedy this and to meet the need identified by Graeme Davison 20 years ago for a “more mature” review of Blainey’s writing—one that resists “reading his earlier work for signs of the emerging controversialist” (xiii). From this perspective, Allsop largely succeeds.' (Introduction)

[Review] Geoffrey Blainey: Writer, Historian, Controversialist Frank Bongiorno , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 51 no. 2 2020; (p. 229-230)

— Review of Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Richard Allsop , 2019 single work biography

'Geoffrey Blainey and his lawyers have shown a close interest in this book. Author Richard Allsop has little to say about the bumpy journey to publication, recording cryptically that Blainey gave early encouragement and assistance to the project – originally a Monash University doctoral thesis – and then that he withdrew support. But although Allsop does not mention this himself, it is on the public record that an earlier plan to publish had to be abandoned after a threat of legal action from Blainey's lawyer (The Australian, 29–30 October 2016).' (Introduction)

[Review] Geoffrey Blainey: Writer, Historian, Controversialist Frank Bongiorno , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 51 no. 2 2020; (p. 229-230)

— Review of Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Richard Allsop , 2019 single work biography

'Geoffrey Blainey and his lawyers have shown a close interest in this book. Author Richard Allsop has little to say about the bumpy journey to publication, recording cryptically that Blainey gave early encouragement and assistance to the project – originally a Monash University doctoral thesis – and then that he withdrew support. But although Allsop does not mention this himself, it is on the public record that an earlier plan to publish had to be abandoned after a threat of legal action from Blainey's lawyer (The Australian, 29–30 October 2016).' (Introduction)

[Review] Geoffrey Blainey: Writer, Historian, Controversialist John Doyle , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 44 no. 4 2020; (p. 553-555)

— Review of Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Richard Allsop , 2019 single work biography

'In Geoffrey Blainey: Writer, Historian, Controversialist, Richard Allsop provides a welcome study of a remarkable, and remarkably polarising, intellectual figure in Australian public life. Placing Blainey with Keith Hancock and Manning Clark in the pantheon of Australia’s leading historians, Allsop observes that, unlike them, Blainey’s body of work has not been comprehensively examined. He sets out to remedy this and to meet the need identified by Graeme Davison 20 years ago for a “more mature” review of Blainey’s writing—one that resists “reading his earlier work for signs of the emerging controversialist” (xiii). From this perspective, Allsop largely succeeds.' (Introduction)

[Review] Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Don Garden , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society , December vol. 106 no. 2 2020; (p. 224-225)

— Review of Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Richard Allsop , 2019 single work biography
'While it seems unlikely that any Australian historian has had more words written about them, or is better known to the general public, this is the first book-length historiographical and biographical study of Geoffrey Blainey.' (Introduction)
Doug Munro Review of Richard Allsop, Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Doug Munro , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , no. 6 2022; (p. 227-233)

— Review of Geoffrey Blainey : Writer, Historian, Controversialist Richard Allsop , 2019 single work biography
'Geoffrey Blainey (b. 1930) has had a most unusual trajectory for a historian. It  started conventionally enough when he enrolled in 1948 in Max Crawford’s history department at the University of Melbourne. He was one of several stellar students of that immediate postwar generation, and topped Manning Clark’s third year history course. At age 20, he then astonished everyone by taking on a full professor, R. S. Parker, in the country’s leading journal in the discipline, Historical Studies, as to whether Australian Federation was primarily motivated by economic considerations. His progression rapidly diverged from his fellow students in other ways. Instead of the usual career path as a tutor, followed by further study at Oxford, he embarked on a commissioned history of Mount Lyell Mining & Railway Company, published in 1954 as The Peaks of Lyell. That set his course for more than a decade, and a further six commissioned histories followed. Only in late 1961 did he become a teaching academic, beginning with a brief (and very successful) stint at the University of Adelaide followed by long-term employment at his alma mater, where he rose to become dean of the Faculty of Arts.' (Introduction)
Last amended 5 Sep 2019 13:11:38
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