PublishedMonash University Publishing, December 2019 |
ISBN9781925835625 |
FormatSoftcover, 304 pages |
Dimensions23.4cm × 15.4cm |
Geoffrey Blainey is often described as Australia's greatest living
historian, a writer whose prolific output includes such iconic books about the
country's past as The Tyranny of Distance
and Triumph of the Nomads.
However, Blainey has also been a controversial figure. His 1984
comments about Asian immigration triggered a major political controversy. In
turn, the reaction of his critics raised fundamental questions about freedom of
speech and set the scene for the 'history wars' fought out in Australia over
the past three decades.
Many academic historians were amongst Blainey's critics. After
1984, Blainey became stereotyped as a 'conservative historian' and thus outside
the bounds of academic history, yet much of Blainey's historical writing, both
in method and outlook, has been far from conservative.
Geoffrey
Blainey: Writer, Historian, Controversialist challenges
simplistic descriptions of Blainey's work. It sheds an important light not just
on Blainey's career, but also on the past and present practice of history in
Australia.
