The Fuss That Never Ended

The Life and Work of Geoffrey Blainey

Deborah Gare, Geoffrey Bolton, Stuart Macintyre, Tom Stannage
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The Fuss That Never Ended

Published

18 April 2013

ISBN

9780522863680

Ebook File Size

525KB

Imprint

Melbourne University Press

The Fuss That Never Ended

The Life and Work of Geoffrey Blainey

Deborah Gare, Geoffrey Bolton, Stuart Macintyre, Tom Stannage
A lively and distinguished assembly of fellow historians take a fresh look at Geoffrey Blainey's distinguished career.
It is time to reassess the work of Geoffrey Blainey, and consider his role in Australian history, politics and public life.

Geoffrey Blainey has steered Australian history into the nation's conversation. No one would dispute that he is a courageous public intellectual, a writer of rare grace and a master storyteller. And he has indeed provoked a rare fuss, both public and professional, with some of his comments on Asian immigration and Aboriginal land rights.

Blainey has challenged the academic history profession, not only with his ideas but also by his practice. A brilliant student, he looked set for Oxford but chose instead the austere west coast of Tasmania for his postgraduate research. For the next decade he earned a living with his pen. And instead of political history in the traditional academic mould, he wrote corporate histories that dispensed with footnotes.

Always probing and speculative, Blainey has dislodged many…
It is time to reassess the work of Geoffrey Blainey, and consider his role in Australian history, politics and public life.

Geoffrey Blainey has steered Australian history into the nation's conversation. No one would dispute that he is a courageous public intellectual, a writer of rare grace and a master storyteller. And he has indeed provoked a rare fuss, both public and professional, with some of his comments on Asian immigration and Aboriginal land rights.

Blainey has challenged the academic history profession, not only with his ideas but also by his practice. A brilliant student, he looked set for Oxford but chose instead the austere west coast of Tasmania for his postgraduate research. For the next decade he earned a living with his pen. And instead of political history in the traditional academic mould, he wrote corporate histories that dispensed with footnotes.

Always probing and speculative, Blainey has dislodged many of the keystones in our understandings of Australia's past. He was one of the first to write about the expansive social history of this land before 1788; he questioned whether Botany Bay was founded primarily as a convict colony; he argued that the Eureka uprising had economic rather than political causes; and he identified sport as a neglected key to the Australian character. His controversial views earned such newspaper headlines as 'Brave Man Set Upon by Thugs for Telling Truth'.

In The Fuss That Never Ended a lively and distinguished assembly of fellow historians—of various ages, interests and political stances—take a fresh look at Blainey's remarkable and sometimes controversial career.

Deborah Gare

Deborah Gare

Deborah Gare completed a PhD in Australian History at the University of Western Australia. She was a Research Associate at Curtin University, a Visiting Fellow of the University of British Columbia and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Manchester. Gare is Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning, Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences and leads the History program in Fremantle at the University of Notre Dame Australia. Her books include When War Came

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Geoffrey Bolton

Geoffrey Bolton

Geoffrey Bolton (1931–2015) was Chancellor of Murdoch University and an adjunct professor at Curtin University of Technology. He was a Fellow of the Australian Academies of Humanities and Social Sciences and of the Royal Historical Society, and an Officer of the Order of Australia. His books include Edmund Barton: The One Man for the Job and The Oxford History of Australia. He first met Geoffrey Blainey in 1950.

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Stuart Macintyre

Stuart Macintyre

Stuart Macintyre was Ernest Scott Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. His previous works include A Proletarian Science, Winners and Losers: The Pursuit of Social Justice in Australian History, Volume 4 of the Oxford History of Australia and A Colonial Liberalism.

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Tom Stannage

Tom Stannage

Charles Stannage (1944–2012) was Professor of History and Executive Dean of the Division of Humanities at Curtin University of Technology. He was a Member of the Order of Australia, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. His books include The People of Perth, Lakeside City, Embellishing the Landscape, and Baldwin Thwarts the Opposition and he edited A New History of Western Australia. He first wrote about Geoffrey…

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