The “history wars” – a history
Prof. David Flint
Professor David Flint, national convenor of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, writes:
The Prime Minister’s speech launching Thomas Keneally’s “Australians: Origins to Eureka” has left historian Dr Greg Melleuish scratching his head. “It is an odd piece,” he writes in “Leave history alone,” The Australian 1 September, 2009. “For example, it includes the statement: ‘The love for history is, I believe, the handmaiden of country.’ I have thought hard about what this means but I still do not have a clue; it is just meaningless sludge.”
He says that the history wars to which Kevin Rudd refers long predated the prime ministership of John Howard. “They came to public prominence because the agenda of the black-armband brigade was taken up by Paul Keating as part of his ‘big picture’. Their willingness to use history for political purposes provided useful ammunition for Keating on matters such as indigenous affairs, the republic and multiculturalism.”
Read David Flint’s opinion piece.
