Born in 1938 in Hobart, son of a journalist and historian, Henry Reynolds graduated from the University of Tasmania with an MA. He taught in secondary schools in Australia and England before taking up an appointment to set up the program in Australian history at James Cook University of North Queensland in the early seventies. Reynolds's ground-breaking work, The Other Side of the Frontier (1982) which won the Ernest Scott Prize, examines Aboriginal responses to British colonisation, including the issues of guerilla warfare and the exploitation of Aboriginal women.
Reynolds's primary research interest has been the history of Aboriginal-white relations in Australia and his publications include Frontier (1987), Dispossession (1989), The Law of the Land (1987), With the White People (1990), Fate of a Free People (1995), Aboriginal Sovereignty (1996) and Why Weren't We Told? (2000). Reynolds is notable for arguing for justice for Aboriginal land rights; his work with Eddie Mabo on an oral history project in the 1970s contributed to the High Court's recognition of land rights.
Henry Reynolds lives and writes in Tasmania.