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Issue Details: First known date: 2021... 2021 History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'‘In 1993, Manning Clark came under severe (posthumous) attack in the pages of Quadrant by none other than Peter Ryan, who had published five of the six volumes of Clark’s epic A History of Australia. In applying what he called “an overdue axe to a tall poppy”, Ryan lambasted the History as “an imposition on Australian credulity” and declared its author a fraud, both as a historian and a person. This unprecedented public assault by a publisher on his best-selling author was a sensation at the time and remains lodged in the public memory. In History Wars, Doug Munro forensically examines the right and wrongs of Ryan’s allegations, concluding that Clark was more sinned against than sinning and that Ryan repeatedly misrepresented the situation. More than just telling a story, Munro places the Ryan-Clark controversy within the context of Australia’s History Wars. This book is an illuminating saga of that ongoing contest.’

— James Curran, University of Sydney

'‘The Ryan-Clark controversy … speaks to the place of Manning Clark in Australia’s national imagination. Had Ryan taken his axe to another historian, it’s unlikely that we would be still talking about it 30 years later. But Clark was the author and keeper of Australia’s national story, however imperfect his scholarship and however blinkered that story. Few, if any, historians in the Anglo-American world have occupied the space that Clark occupied by dint of will, force of personality, and felicity of pen.’

— Donald Wright, University of New Brunswick' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Martin Crotty Review of Doug Munro, History Wars: The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Martin Crotty , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , no. 7 2023; (p. 261-263)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism
Review : History Wars. The Peter Ryan-Manning Clark Controversy Andrew Bonnell , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Politics and History , March vol. 69 no. 1 2023; (p. 164-165)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism
Doug Munro Locates the Infamous Ryan–Clark Contretemps in Australia’s ‘History Wars’ Robert Pascoe , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 19 no. 3 2022; (p. 625-626)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism

'For mostly practical reasons of time and distance, Doug Munro has relied on documentary sources and email correspondence to analyse the perplexing story of Manning Clark’s publisher defaming his prize author three years after his death. Oral history would have helped fill in some of the gaps in the account, but the book manages to explain in sufficient detail the contours of the episode, and to place it in the larger story of Australia’s History Wars. Key figures in the new Albanese Ministry promise an end to these History Wars, but, for reasons that are implicit in Munro’s account, the struggles to define Australian history and how it has been ‘manufactured’ are likely to continue unabated.' (Introduction)

[Review] History Wars: The Peter Ryan – Manning Clark Controversy Bobbie Oliver , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 53 no. 1 2022; (p. 173-174)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism

'The Australian Historical Studies guideline that critiques should be conducted ‘in the spirit of generosity and engagement, and of furthering an academic conversation’ is particularly apposite when reviewing this book about one of the most bitter historical controversies in recent years. Doug Munro offers a restrained and reflective account of Peter Ryan’s surprising, tasteless and relentless posthumous attack on the person and writings of Manning Clark.' (Publication summary)

The Eclipse of Manning Clark Ross Fitzgerald , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Quadrant , January vol. 66 no. 1-2 2022; (p. 101-103)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism
A Tidy Little Earner : Peter Ryan Meets His Match Mark McKenna , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January–February no. 439 2022; (p. 13-14)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism

'It was one of the most notorious episodes in the annals of Australian publishing. In September 1993, writing in Quadrant, Peter Ryan, the former director of Melbourne University Press (1962–87), publicly disowned Manning Clark’s six-volume A History of Australia. Clark had been dead for barely sixteen months. For scandalous copy and gossip-laden controversy, there was nothing to equal it, particularly when Ryan’s bombshell was dropped into a culture that was already polarised after more than a decade of the History Wars.'  (Introduction)

The Eclipse of Manning Clark Ross Fitzgerald , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Quadrant , January vol. 66 no. 1-2 2022; (p. 101-103)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism
[Review] History Wars: The Peter Ryan – Manning Clark Controversy Bobbie Oliver , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 53 no. 1 2022; (p. 173-174)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism

'The Australian Historical Studies guideline that critiques should be conducted ‘in the spirit of generosity and engagement, and of furthering an academic conversation’ is particularly apposite when reviewing this book about one of the most bitter historical controversies in recent years. Doug Munro offers a restrained and reflective account of Peter Ryan’s surprising, tasteless and relentless posthumous attack on the person and writings of Manning Clark.' (Publication summary)

Doug Munro Locates the Infamous Ryan–Clark Contretemps in Australia’s ‘History Wars’ Robert Pascoe , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 19 no. 3 2022; (p. 625-626)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism

'For mostly practical reasons of time and distance, Doug Munro has relied on documentary sources and email correspondence to analyse the perplexing story of Manning Clark’s publisher defaming his prize author three years after his death. Oral history would have helped fill in some of the gaps in the account, but the book manages to explain in sufficient detail the contours of the episode, and to place it in the larger story of Australia’s History Wars. Key figures in the new Albanese Ministry promise an end to these History Wars, but, for reasons that are implicit in Munro’s account, the struggles to define Australian history and how it has been ‘manufactured’ are likely to continue unabated.' (Introduction)

Review : History Wars. The Peter Ryan-Manning Clark Controversy Andrew Bonnell , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Politics and History , March vol. 69 no. 1 2023; (p. 164-165)

— Review of History Wars : The Peter Ryan–Manning Clark Controversy Doug Munro , 2021 multi chapter work criticism
Last amended 4 Jan 2022 09:20:02
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