International Symposium on Public Health Systems: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University and Australian Policy and History International Symposium on Public Health Systems: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives A virtual conference Tuesday 9 November 2021, Australian Eastern Daylight Time (UTC + 11) Register here (free) About this event Australian Policy and History and the Contemporary Histories Research Group at Deakin University […]

Q&A with Carolyn Collins, author of Save Our Sons: Women, Dissent and Conscription during the Vietnam War

Jacqui Baker interviews Carolyn Collins about her new book Save Our Sons: Women, Dissent and Conscription during the Vietnam War. Congratulations on the publication of your fascinating book, Carolyn! You wrote that you came across Save Our Sons while researching a different topic and time period. What were you researching at the time and how […]

Aide memoire: Swine flu in Australia, 2009-2010

Remember the swine flu? It’s the pandemic that Australia forgot, arguably to our detriment when it came to wrangling COVID-19. In this article, Dr Richard Trembath looks back on the H1N1 swine flu outbreak, and the impact on Australia, and his own family. During these times, there was a pestilence[i] Procopius On 8 May 2009 […]

Review – The Carbon Club

Jeff Hole reviews Marian Wilkinson’s recent book The Carbon Club: How a network of influential climate sceptics, politicians and business leaders fought to control Australia’s climate policy, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2020 Anyone interested in the question of whether business interests wield too much influence over politicians and policy in Australia should read The Carbon […]

Review: Biting the Clouds

Jacqueline D’Arcy reviews Biting the Clouds, a recent publication by Fiona Foley. Biting the Clouds: a Badtjala perspective on the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, 1897, by Fiona Foley, UQP When one thinks of Fraser Island (K’gari), images of white sands, dingoes, and, more recently, bush fires, come to mind. […]

Q&A with Jenny Hocking, author of The Palace Letters

In our latest author Q&A, Jacquelyn Baker interviews Emeritus Professor Jenny Hocking about The Palace Letters, which describes her long and extraordinary campaign to gain access to the correspondence between the Australian Governor General Sir John Kerr and Queen Elizabeth II in the prelude to the dismissal of the Whitlam government on 11 November 1975. […]

Celebrating the knowledge production of Aboriginal women: Jacquelyn Baker reviews the 20th anniversary edition of Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s ‘Talkin’ up to the white woman’.

In our latest book review, Jacquelyn Baker reviews the 20th anniversary edition of Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s Talkin’ up to the white woman: Indigenous women and feminism (University of Queensland Press). By Jacquelyn Baker 2020 has already been dubbed a historic year. As the new year ticked over, record-breaking bushfires continued to burn throughout New […]

Angie Sassano reviews ‘Indigenous Self-Determination in Australia’, edited by Laura Rademaker and Tim Rowse

In our latest article, Deakin University PhD Candidate Angie Sassano reviews a new collection about the history of Indigenous self-determination edited by Laura Rademaker and Tim Rowse. By Angie Sassano Despite the shift to self-determination in Indigenous policy making in 1973, Australia has faltered, with critics such as Megan Davis (2016) claiming self-determination has […]

Gwyn McClelland reviews Lesley Blume’s ‘Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World’

Dr Gwyn McClelland’s review of Lesley Blume’s Fallout describes how the US government sought to cover up the horrific effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Blume tells us the story of journalist John Hersey’s scoop in the New Yorker in August 1946, which signalled the beginning of a propaganda contest about the […]

The media and Indigenous political aspirations: Michael Dillon reviews Amy Thomas, Andrew Jakubowicz & Heidi Norman’s ‘Does the media fail Aboriginal political aspirations?’

What role does the media play in perpetuating social and economic disadvantage among Indigenous peoples in Australia? Michael Dillon reviews Amy Thomas, Andrew Jakubowicz & Heidi Norman’s survey of media reporting of key political moments, Does the media fail Aboriginal political aspirations? While Dillon agrees with the authors’ conclusions about the inadequacy of media coverage, […]

In Godwin We Trust: Debunk[er]ing the Hitler/Trump Analogy

Academics have been busy in the last few years calling out ham-fisted analogies between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler, and the contemporary United States and 1930s Germany. It’s easy to laugh at clumsy historical references, but harder to make informed judgements about the validity or otherwise of these references. In our latest article, Dr Mathew […]

After COVID-19: Reviews of ‘Upturn’ and ‘What Happens Next?’

The Austrian economic historian’s Walter Scheidel’s 2017 book, The Great Leveler, argues that gross inequality is the natural state of human affairs. This structure is only interrupted by events such as mass war, revolution, state failure and pandemic disease. Does COVID-19 present an opportunity to halt growing inequality and reset our economic and social order? These […]

Australian Soldier Atrocities in Afghanistan: Why We Should Not Be Surprised

By Dale Blair The allegations of atrocities committed by Australian special forces in Afghanistan may be shocking, but they suggest continuity rather than rupture with our military past. In this article, Dr Dale Blair outlines Australia’s past involvement in war crimes, and the exalted status of Australia’s soldiers and official patronage that have obscured the […]

Managing the Federation During a Pandemic: Spanish Influenza and COVID-19

Global health pandemics, it would seem, make us reach for local remedies and cling to local identities. As state borders have closed and parochialism has increased, COVID-19 has made Australians more aware of their federal system of government than they have been for a long time. In this piece about the 1919 Spanish influenza outbreak, […]

Ever-present possibilities and the status quo.

This piece is part of the Urgent Histories forum which has been organised by the Australian Historical Association. Klaus Neumann has written an engaging response to the articles in this forum, which can be found in History Australia. Humankind needs to tackle climate change. Urgently. Historians may want to reconsider their professional practices in light of this […]

Book Review – History Wars: The Peter Ryan – Manning Clark Controversy

Joshua Black has reviewed the new publication by Doug Munro, History Wars: The Peter Ryan – Manning Clark Controversy. Canberra: ANU Press, 2021. At a public talk in Melbourne in 2011, historian Mark McKenna reflected on the challenges of writing a biography about a man whose own narratives often proved so empirically unfaithful. He was […]

Public Health Symposium – Building and Maintaining Medicare: Insiders’ Perspectives

Building and Maintaining Medicare: Insiders’ Perspectives: Panel Discussion chaired by Professor Frank Bongiorno, ANU Hon. Dr Neal Blewett, Commonwealth Minister for Health, 1983-1990 Bill Bowtell, senior adviser to Health Minister Neal Blewett, 1983-1987 and Prime Minister Paul Keating, 1984-1996 Caroline Edwards, Deputy Secretary/Associate Secretary of Commonwealth Department of Health, 2017-2021

Public Health Symposium – Hip-pocket First, Fairness Second: Australians and the Birth of Medicare

‘Hip-pocket First, Fairness Second: Australians and the Birth of Medicare’ Dr Carolyn Holbrook Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University

Public Health Symposium – ‘Isn’t it iconic? Investigating the past, present and future of Medicare as a public sector brand’

‘Isn’t it iconic? Investigating the past, present and future of Medicare as a public sector brand’ Dr Richie Barker School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University

Public Health Symposium – ‘How Healthy is Health Journalism?’

‘How Healthy is Health Journalism?’ Professor Matthew Ricketson and Dr Chris Scanlon School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University

Book Review – What is History, Now? How the past and the present speak to each other

Deborah Lee-Talbot has reviewed a new book edited by Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb. Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb (eds), What is History, Now? How the past and the present speak to each other, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2021. Most of us know the benefits that come from the experience of a good meal, especially […]

Book Review – Leading from the North

Our book editor Lyndon Megarrity has reviewed a new book – Leading from the North. Ruth Wallace, Sharon Harwood, Rolf Gerritsen, Bruce Prideaux, Tom Brewer, Linda Rosenman and Allan Dale (eds), Leading from the North: Rethinking Northern Australia Development, ANU Press, Canberra, 2021. Since Federation, Tropical Australia has enjoyed a few brief moments in the […]

Q and A with Stuart Macintyre

In memory of the late Stuart Macintyre, we are re-publishing a Q&A he took part in with the Director of APH, Carolyn Holbrook. This piece was originally published in the AHA ECR blog in 2018, and we reprint it here with the permission of the AHA ECR Representatives. We send our condolences to Stuart’s family, […]

Australian Policy History International Public Health Symposium

Australian Policy and History and the Contemporary Histories Research Group at Deakin University hosted leading academics and policy experts from across the world to discuss public health policy from historical and contemporary perspectives. Speakers including Hon Dr Neal Blewett, Bill Bowtell and Professor Catherine Bennett talking about the foundation of Medicare and the contemporary state […]

Book Review – Private Ryan and the Lost Peace

Review of Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A Defiant Soldier and the Struggle Against the Great War by Douglas Newton. In October 1916 Australian soldier Private Ted Ryan was in England, recuperating from wounds and shellshock after a stint on the Somme. As he prepared to return to the battlefield he railed against the […]

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