Drawing the historian back into history: creativity, writing, and The Art of Time Travel

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jim Goodman for his insightful comments, tireless support and for encouraging me to take a creative approach to this article. To Grace Karskens for her probing suggestions, continuous inspiration, candour and infectious enthusiasm. To Tom Griffiths for writing such an incredible book and for talking candidly about the profound power of the past. To Matthew Barry, James Keating, Sophie Robinson and Lisa Ford for your ongoing encouragement, generosity and rich insights. And last, but not least, to all the historians who continue to write and inspire, who give themselves to their histories completely, and who bring the magic of the past back to our modern world.

Notes

1. Griffiths (2016, 285).

2. Ibid., 11.

3. Ibid., 285–302 and Karskens (2010).

4. Griffiths (2016, 2).

5. Ibid., 14.

6. This essay uses Jörn Rüsen’s working definition of ‘historical consciousness’ as

‘historical sense-generation’. This making sense of the past … is ‘a mental procedure by which the past is interpreted for the sake of understanding the present and anticipating the future’. Rather than simply defining levels of attainment in historical literacy or understanding … historical consciousness covers ‘every form’ of thinking about the past, from ‘historical studies’ to the ‘use and function of history in private and public life’.

Jörn Rüsen and Anna Clark in Clark (2014, 88, 89).

7. Evans (1997, 17).

8. Ibid.,19.

9. John Pemble in Evans (1997, 23).

10. Evans (1997, 16–23).

11. Becker (1955, 327).

12. Ibid., 327–340.

13. Carr (2008, 23).

14. Ibid., 3–6.

15. See for example: Schneider and Woolf (2011), Lyons and Russell (2005), Weisner-Hanks (2011, 1–24) and Cook (2008, 65–78).

16. See for example, Dening (1997, 419–429, 2004), Clendinnen (1998, 2002, 157–174, 2005), Sachs (2013), and Lanz (2015, 314).

17. Sachs (2010, 5–38). See also, Rosenstone (2010, 55–58), Brown (2010, 65–69) and Price (2010, 39–41).

18. Sachs (2010, 30).

19. Ibid., 7.

20. Griffiths (2016, 1–15).

21. Making History (2016); see also note 15.

22. Windschuttle (2000).

23. Macintyre and Clark (2004), Manne (2003), Macintyre (2003, 77–83), Clark (2010, 120–129), McKenna (1997) and Windschuttle (2005).

24.

The expression ‘black armband view of history’ has been used to describe a brand of Australian history which its critics argue ‘represents a swing of the pendulum from a position that had been too favourable, too self congratulatory’, to an opposite extreme that is even more unreal and decidedly jaundiced. Not only, it is said, does the black armband view belittle past achievements, it also encourages a ‘guilt industry’ and impedes rational thinking on current problems. From this perspective, the black armband view of history is a strand of ‘political correctness’-the dominant but erroneous view of how we see ourselves and what we see as worthwhile in our culture. For others, the term is inherently political and a misrepresentation of the work of many serious historians. It is an attempt to appropriate an established symbol of genuine grieving, loss and injustice by those who do not accept, or do not want to accept, that past wrongs must be fully recognised before present problems can be resolved. Both sides accuse each other of attempting to distort history and of taking an extreme view.

By contrast, the ‘Three Cheers’ view of history looks at Australia’s past as a series of achievements, and emphasises events from history that Australians should apparently be proud of. Taken from McKenna (1997).

25. See note 23.

26. Ibid.

27. Kohn (1995, 1036–1063), Linethal and Engelhardt (1996). See also a comparative study between Australia’s ‘History Wars’ and those of Japan; Yonetani (2013, 33–50).

28. Foster (2014, 1–20).

29. Belgrave (2013, 311–322) and Ritter (1999).

30. Evans (2002).

31. University of Sydney (2016).

32. Macintyre (2004, 10, 11).

33. Griffiths (2016, 131).

34. Foster (2014, 7).

35. Manne (2010). See also for example: Manne (2003).

36. Gustave Flaubert in Evans (1997, 23).

37. Russell (2004, 110).

38. White (1980, 5–27) and Williams (1983).

39. Griffiths (2016, 137).

40. Ibid., 138.

41. See for example: Reynolds (2000, 1989, 2006), Attwood and Griffiths (2009).

42. Griffiths (2016, 261). See also: Russell (2004, 106, 107).

43. Karskens (2010, 14).

44. Franken (1994, 396).

45. See also Judith Wright in Griffiths (2016, 102).

46. Inga Clendinnen in Griffiths (2016, 261–263) and Clendinnen (1998).

47. Clendinnen in Griffiths (2016, 261).

48. Griffiths (2016, 137).

49. Clendinnen in Griffiths (2016, 261–263) and Clendinnen (1998).

50. Ibid.

51. Seymour (2012, 178).

52. See for example: Ibid., Gammerl (2012, 161–175) and Pinto (2010), 189–207).

53. Atkinson (2004, 20).

54. Seymour (2012, 194), note 3.

55. See for example, the discussion in Macintyre (2004).

56. Griffiths (2016, 12).

57. Atkinson (2004, 23).

58. Ibid., 22.

59. Griffiths (2016, 136).

60. Ibid., 220–246.

61. Ibid., 104, 105.

62. Ibid., 113.

63. Ibid., 273–279.

64. Ibid., 8.

65. Ibid. See book index for references to each historian.

66. Ibid., 115.

67. For a particularly critical study, see Chapter 4 on Geoffrey Blainey. Griffiths (2016, 74–93).

68. Times Higher Education (2010).

69. Ibid.

70. For different approaches to academic genealogies, compare: Times Higher Education (2010), Boon (2015) and Ahmed (2016).

71. Ashton and Hamilton (2010, 27).

72. Griffiths (2016, 14).