Australia and the World in the Twentieth Century (HIST 2004/3004)
School of History & Politics - University of Adelaide
Semester 2 / 2008

Texts

The Australian Century: Political Struggle In The Building Of A Nation!$!Manne, Robert (ed)!$!!$!Text Publishing!$!2001
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y separately published work icon Making Australian History : Perspectives on the Past Since 1788 Deborah Gare (editor), David Ritter (editor), South Melbourne : Cengage Learning , 2008 Z1601730 2008 anthology non-fiction (taught in 5 units)

Making Australian History: Perspectives on the Past since 1788 is an exciting new text that meets an unusual gap in the literature of Australian history. It presents students with an in-depth, multi authored collection of articles, documents and short essays that are structured around the major themes discussed in most history courses.

Each theme in Making Australian History contains a collection of primary and secondary sources, including chapters by current leading scholars, reprints of publications from previous decades that have proven seminal in the historiographical debate or research of each theme, photographs or artwork, and short feature articles on matters of human interest.

Making Australian History gives students the unique opportunity to study a range of articles and commentary on such themes as the Anzac legend, the convict stain, gold and federation, white Australia, Australians at war, myth, environmentalism and sustainability, ideology and politics. Publisher's blurb.
y separately published work icon Dispossession, Dreams & Diversity: Issues in Australian Studies David Carter , Frenchs Forest : Pearson Education Australia , 2006 Z1258484 2006 multi chapter work criticism (taught in 12 units) This work introduces key topics and questions about Australia as a society, a culture and a nation. It contains a useful chapter on Australian modernities, which deals in part with literature in the early to mid 20th century.
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Description

Australians have variously been described as a nation of sporting champions, yet we lose more often than we win; of battling when we live in relative wealth; and of settling in the outback while we sprawl into cities. Weve been characterised as a classless society and an equal one, which is at odds with the experience of many women and unemployed people. Weve been introduced as descendents of convicts and Poms when our families are just as likely to have emigrated from Eastern Europe or Asia or lived on this land for thousands of years.

Students in this course will learn how each of these descriptions has been evoked for a purpose. They are used by politicians willing to appeal to a particular constituency, and by opponents in debates about federation, immigration, aboriginal rights, welfare, the status of women, and the possibility of Australia becoming a republic.

In this course, the trajectory of these debates, which have shaped Australian identity, will be explored in addition to the social effects of the 1930s Depression, the legacy of the Menzies and Whitlam Governments, Australias participation in war and its place in the global village.

Students will have the opportunity to recall our long-felt deference to Britain, our more recent acceptance of our Aboriginal heritage, our brief fl irtation as an Asian nation, and our current coalition with the United States, and ponder where our future might lay.

Assessment

Essay (level III students will be required to write a longer paper than level II students), museum exhibition project, exam with pre-circulated questions.

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate
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