Australian Historical Studies (CLB102)
Semester 2 / 2012

Texts

y separately published work icon Freedom Ride : A Freedom Rider Remembers Ann Curthoys , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2002 Z1027919 2002 single work autobiography (taught in 1 units) 'In 1965, 29 students from Sydney University set out on a road trip through northwestern NSW, to challenge the ingrained discrimination and racism that was a largely unacknowledged feature of NSW country towns. The trip was marked by confrontation, intense street debates, some physical violence and much courage from local Aborigines.' (Source: LibrariesAustralia)
y separately published work icon Shoot Straight, You Bastards! : The Truth Behind the Killing of 'Breaker' Morant Nick Bleszynski , Milsons Point : Random House Australia , 2002 Z943204 2002 single work biography (taught in 1 units)

Murder or justice? This question is still being fiercely debated a century after Lieutenant Harry 'Breaker' Morant and Lieutenant Peter Handcock were shot on a lonely veldt outside Pretoria at dawn on 27 February 1902, by a British military firing squad. They were found guilty by court martial of murdering Boer prisoners. In popular vernacular 'shoot straight' means 'tell the truth'. The lies, deceit and political skulduggery behind these executions are exposed here for the first time.

The issue of Harry 'Breaker' Morant's guilt or innocence remains unresolved. In this work Nick Bleszynski asserts that the guilt for Morant's and Peter Handcock's deaths lies with Lord Kitchener.

Melbourne: MUP, 2004!$!Australian historians on the ethics of history!$!Macintyre Stuart, ed!$!!$!
y separately published work icon Monash : The Outsider Who Won a War : A Biography of Australia's Greatest Military Commander Roland Perry , Milsons Point : Random House Australia , 2004 Z1138900 2004 single work biography (taught in 1 units)
y separately published work icon John Gorton : He Did It His Way Ian Hancock , Sydney : Hodder Headline Australia , 2002 Z1002781 2002 single work biography (taught in 1 units)
y separately published work icon Evil Angels John Bryson , Ringwood : Viking , 1985 Z809307 1985 single work non-fiction (taught in 1 units)

Non-fiction account of the prosecution of Michael and Lindy Chamberlain for the alleged murder of their daughter Azaria at Uluru in 1980.

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.

Description

Rationale

The appropriate content of Australian history courses is openly debated. Even the nation called Australia is problematic as competing identities, discourses, conceptualisations and nations-within-the-nation claim space in the academic, community and personal fabric. There are now competing ideologies and contexts shaping, dominating and influencing the way we think historically about Australia.Lectures and tutorials interrogate how histories of the past have been presented. Essay questions, student seminars and lectures are based around the ideas presented in Australia's history. This unit presents a past in Australia that is constructed, invented, contested and open to interpretation.

Aim

To acquire an appreciation that academic, public and political influences can determine historians' portrayal of historical events.

Assessment

Presentation; weekly quiz; exam.

Supplementary Texts

References:

Curthoys, A. & Docker, J. Is history fiction? Sydney. UNSW Press.

Davison, G. & Hirst, J. & McIntyre, S. Eds. (2002). The Oxford Companion to Australian History, Melbourne, OUP.

Davison, G. (2000). The use and abuse of Australian history. Sydney. Allen and Unwin.

Day, D. (1996). Claiming a continent; a history of Australia, Sydney: Harper Collins.

Grimshaw, P. & Lake, M. & McGrath, A. & Quartly, M. (1994). Creating a nation 1788-1990. Melbourne. McPhee Gribble.

Healy, C. (1997). From the ruins of colonialism; history as social memory, Melbourne. CUP.

Lake, M. Ed. (2006). Memory, monuments and museums; the past in the present. Melbourne. MUP.

Macintyre, S. and Clark, A. (2003). The history wars. Melbourne. MUP.

Macintyre, S. (Ed.) (2004). The Historian's conscience; Australian historians on the ethics of history. Melbourne: MUP.

Macintyre, S. (2004). A concise history of Australia, Cambridge, CUP.

Molony, J. (2005). Australia our heritage; a history of a nation. Melbourne. ASP.

Nile, R. (Ed). (2000). The Australian legend and its discontents. St Lucia. UQP.

Rickard, J. (1998). Australia; a cultural history. Melbourne. Longman.

Welsh, F. (2004). Great Southern land; a new history of Australia. London. Penguin.

White, R. & Teo, H. (Eds.) (2004). Cultural history in Australia. Sydney. UNSW Press.

Other Details

Offered in: 2011, 2009
Current Campus: Kelvin Grove
Levels: Undergraduate
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