Book Review – Decolonial Archival Futures

Book Review – Decolonial Archival Futures

Krista McCracken and Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey, Decolonial Archival Futures (Chicago: Society of American Archivists and the American Library Association, 2023), USD $39.99, 112 pp.   Decolonising archives and record-keeping spaces is a dreadfully slow process, one attached to the post-World War Two decolonisation movement and the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and […]
GOLD STANDARD?: THE HAWKE GOVERNMENT 40 YEARS ON

GOLD STANDARD?: THE HAWKE GOVERNMENT 40 YEARS ON

Celebrate and reflect on the legacy of the Hawke government. Watch a recording on the Museum of Australian Democracy’s website of this conference looking back on the Hawke government – one of the longest-serving and most transformative in Australian political history. Learn about the Hawke government’s successes and failures from key speakers including: Hon Professor […]
Setting a dangerous policy precedent: when digitisation leads to destruction

Setting a dangerous policy precedent: when digitisation leads to destruction

Dr Deborah Lee-Talbot   The libraries and archives of Europe have been described by the Australian researcher George Collinridge, as the ‘great centres and stores of knowledge’ (2018, p. 5). If that is so, the recent proposal to destroy records from Britain needs to be a concern for many. On 15 December 2023, as people […]
Book Review – The Shrinking Nation: How we got here and what can be done about it

Book Review – The Shrinking Nation: How we got here and what can be done about it

Christopher Waters reviews Graeme Turner’s The Shrinking Nation: How we got here and what can be done about it (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2023).   In the last fifteen years several books have been published which start from the position that Australia has run off the rails as a nation over the last […]
Book Review – Australia’s Pivot to India

Book Review – Australia’s Pivot to India

Liam Detering reviews Andrew Charlton’s Australia’s Pivot to India, (Collingwood: Black Inc, 2023).   Australia and India’s relationship has shown signs of maturation over the last decade after a history of false starts in the relationship between the two countries. Therefore, Andrew Charlton’s Australia’s Pivot to India, comes at a timely juncture in the Australia-India […]
Book Review – Killing for Country: A Family History

Book Review – Killing for Country: A Family History

Jonathan Richards reviews David Marr’s Killing for Country: A Family History (Melbourne: Black Inc Books, 2023).   Racial violence is a touchy subject in settler-colonies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) because some non-Indigenous people seem more concerned by the accusation than the action. Perhaps this can be explained by lived experience: the […]
Book Review – Double Nation: A History of Australian Art

Book Review – Double Nation: A History of Australian Art

Emerita Professor Catherine Speck reviews Ian McLean’s Double Nation: A History of Australian Art, (London: Reaktion Books, 2023), 303pp.   Ian McLean’s new history of Australian art, Double Nation, a companion volume to his 2016 book Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art, is a refreshing and engaging read. He hasn’t attempted to do […]
Book Review – My Father’s Shadow

Book Review – My Father’s Shadow

Professor Emerita Joan Beaumont reviews Sandra Goldbloom Zurbo’s My Father’s Shadow: A Memoir, (Clayton: Monash University Publishing, 2023). ISBN 9781922979186   Samuel Goldbloom (1919-1999) was a prominent figure in Australian left-wing politics during the Cold War decades. A professed socialist, he was also a covert and deeply loyal member of the Communist Party. Other radicals […]
Book Reviews – Revealing Secrets and The Factory

Book Reviews – Revealing Secrets and The Factory

Peter Edwards reviews John Blaxland and Clare Birgin’s Revealing Secrets: An Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence & The Advent of Cyber (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2023) and John Fahey’s The Factory: The Official History of the Australian Signals Directorate, Volume 1, 1947 to 1972 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2023).   The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), […]
Q&A with Jordana Silverstein, author of Cruel Care: A History of Children at Our Borders

Q&A with Jordana Silverstein, author of Cruel Care: A History of Children at Our Borders

Jacquelyn Baker interviews Jordana Silverstein about her book, Cruel Care: A History of Children at Our Borders (Clayton: Monash University Publishing, 2023).   Congratulations on the publication of Cruel Care, Jordy! I learnt so much about the history of Australia’s immigration policies and found it difficult to put down. The back cover of your book […]
2023 HTAV Annual Conference – Dr Carolyn Holbrook Keynote Recording

2023 HTAV Annual Conference – Dr Carolyn Holbrook Keynote Recording

History Education for the Citizens of the Future Dr Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University Keynote Recording The discipline of History has always been concerned with educating the citizens of the future. For the first decades of Australian nationhood, this largely consisted of inculcating young Australians in the virtues of British imperial liberalism—the kind of citizenship education […]
Book Review – Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country

Book Review – Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country

James Watson reviews Ryan Cropp’s Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country (Collingwood: La Trobe University Press, 2023)   Did Donald Horne have anything meaningful to say? It’s a harsh question of a man who wrote more than two dozen books, edited multiple literary journals at once, and published countless articles, essays, and reviews; […]