Alistair Thomson Alistair Thomson i(A69774 works by)
Born: Established: 1960 ;
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 ‘Take a Step Forward’ : An Eloquent Holocaust Story Alistair Thomson , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 437 2021; (p. 56)

— Review of The Keeper of Miracles Phillip Maisel , 2021 single work autobiography
1 Oral History and Australian Generations Katie Holmes , Alistair Thomson , Kate Darian-Smith , Penelope Edmonds , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 47 no. 1 2016; (p. 1-7)
'the articles in this theme issue of Australian Historical Studies use interviews from the Australian Generations Oral History Project to explore a range of issues in Australian social and cultural history and about the documentation, interpretation and use of oral history. ...'(Abstract)
1 2 y separately published work icon Australian Lives : an Intimate History Anisa Puri (editor), Alistair Thomson (editor), Clayton : Monash University Publishing , 2016 10983667 2016 anthology interview oral history

'Australian Lives: An Intimate History illuminates Australian life across the 20th and into the 21st century: how Australian people have been shaped by the forces and expectations of contemporary history and how, in turn, they have made their lives and created Australian society. From oral history interviews with Australians born between 1920 and 1989, fifty narrators reflect on their diverse experiences as children and teenagers, in midlife and in old age, about faith, migration, work and play, aspiration and activism, memory and identity, pain and happiness.

'In Australian Lives you can read and in the e-version of the book listen to the comedy, heartache and drama of ordinary Australians’ extraordinary lives. As our interviewee Kim Bear (born 1959) explains, ‘Stories are a great way to inform people about what it is to be human. Even if you say one thing that resonates… there’s that connection made.’ ' (Publication summary)

1 2 y separately published work icon Anzac Memories : Living with the Legend Alistair Thomson , Clayton : Monash University Publishing , 2013 7367631 2013 single work biography

'What is taboo in any family or in any society is never fixed. And neither is that body of family information which everybody knows but no one talks about. Mental illness is one such subject, and it created a kind of fence around one central element of Thomson's work in the 1980s - his grandfather Hector's story. He has had the courage to take that fence down and use a range of sources to enter the no man's land of suffering and isolation which was a part of his grandfather's life, and perforce, that of his grandmother and the young child who became his father. When the first edition was in preparation, Alistair Thomson's father objected strenuously to any mention in the book of his father's (Alistair's grandfather's) mental illness; reluctantly Alistair agreed to leave out the subject. We can understand why the author's father, himself a soldier, felt so strongly. ' (Publication summary)

1 4 y separately published work icon Moving Stories : An Intimate History of Four Women across Two Countries Alistair Thomson , Sydney : University of New South Wales Press , 2011 Z1802258 2011 single work biography 'This book represents a unique collaboration between a historian and four ordinary women who were extraordinary letters-writers, family photographers and memoirists. As British migrants to Australia these women recorded in intimate detail aspects of everyday life and women's experience that are often lost to history: childcare and housework, housing and domestic appliances, friendship, family and married life. Taken together, their stories enrich and complicate our understanding of key themes in twentieth century women's history. More than that, this is an exploration of the creation and interpretation of the stories we make of our lives through letters, photographs, life writing and oral history. What shapes women's life stories? What do they reveal and conceal? What can we learn when these women look back over their lives and the dramatic transformations of self, family and society since the 1930s?' (Manchester University Press website)
1 Untitled Alistair Thomson , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: History Australia , April vol. 6 no. 1 2009; (p. 21.1-21.2)

— Review of Oral History and Public Memories 2008 anthology criticism
1 Landscapes of Memory Alistair Thomson , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 61 no. 3 2002; (p. 81-96)
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