There’s no shortage of historical texts, but only a handful are lauded as literature. We can learn valuable lessons by revisiting EP Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class.
Kate Grenville, with The Secret River, found herself in the middle of a debate at the heart of history.
Chris Boland/Flickr
‘History and fiction journey together and separately into the past; they are a tag team, sometimes taking turns, sometimes working in tandem.’ Enjoy the second part of our series, Writing History.
Can history and fiction really be kept separate? A special edition of journal TEXT examines historical fictions and fictional histories. Here, the editors map out the contested territory.
A century after governments wished to erase the convict past, their place in Australian history was being celebrated in programs such as The Colony on SBS.
AAP/Hilton Cordell Productions/Simon Cardwell
Today, a convict ancestor is a matter of pride. But for past generations, including some convicts themselves, it was a shame that had to be hidden at all costs.
Norfolk Island has always had a strained relationship with mainland Australia – and the repeal of self-governance may intensify that strain.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Federal parliament has passed legislation that removes Norfolk Island’s self-government but strong local views about the tiny island’s independence have deep historical roots.
Treasure belonging to the notorious pirate Captain Kidd has been found in Madagascar.
When Vladimir Putin reviews the troops marking the 70th anniversary of Russia’s victory of Nazism, he won’t have many leaders of democratic nations to accompany him.
EPA/Alexey Druzhinin/ RIA NOVOSTI
Victory over Nazi Germany is one unambiguously positive accomplishment of the 20th century; and yet, constructing a positive narrative about the Soviet second world war has proven hard – largely because there are some stubborn facts to contend with.
Robert Menzies meets the US defence secretary, Robert McNamara, at the Pentagon in 1964, the year before committing Australia to the escalating war.
Wikimedia Commons/PHC/Ralph Seghers
The anniversary of Menzies’ fateful decision to commit troops to the escalating war in Vietnam marks a turning point that is at least as significant as the Gallipoli landings for Australia today.
In some parts of Australia, cattle properties have been hand over to the traditional owners, but for others the return of their land seems further away than ever.
AAP/Jordan Baker
The company built by ‘Cattle King’ Sidney Kidman is for sale. He enjoyed good relations with the Indigenous inhabitants, but proper recognition of their rights to their land seems ever more elusive.
A French field kitchen in use by the French troops within half a mile of the Turkish lines on the southern section of Gallipoli Peninsula, 1915.
Ernest Brooks/Flickr
As Australians commemorate the Anzacs who died at Gallipoli, spare a thought for the 10,000 French soldiers who also died on the Dardanelles in the first world war.
Powerful waves of nationalist sentiment have endured since the second world war and continue to pose difficulties for the leaders of Japan and China.
EPA/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Australians now seem so fascinated by the Victoria Cross that such attention has begun to get in the way of a balanced perspective on its place in military history.
The Gallipoli campaign is frequently celebrated as the ‘birth’ of Australia as a nation, but were we already well on our way?
AWM
Every country has its most symbolic year from each of the world wars, and can trace the consequences of the bloodletting that accompanied the global realignment of the last century.
We don’t send as many letters these days but, as historians know, there’s nothing quite as resilient.
Ben/Flickr
Australians might now prefer to send emails over private letters but let’s not overlook the letter’s unique, tactile role, particularly in its most intimate expressions.
Archival photographs such as the above, from Gallipoli, are one resource documentary makers draw upon to communicate understandings of historical events.
Australian War Memorial/Flickr
War history used to be brought to TV audiences by donnish lecturers but historical reconstructions now hold sway. Two recent docos about Gallipoli are hybrid examples of the form that help us better understand the past.
As the Royal Irish Rifles fought at the Somme in 1916, the war was shaping epochal events at home.
Imperial War Museums/Wikimedia Commons