Backbencher

Lecture 10 was about Clark and Sinclair and how they made histories for their countries. Clark was a man who was definitely not a historian who took a step back and wrote Australian history as a neutral observer. He let his left-wing views permeate his writings. In fact, he was awarded a medal by the Soviet Union for his views. His history of Australia gave Australians a sense of national identity at a time when Australians were not sure who they were. Sinclair was much the same as Clark in that respect, that he wrote his New Zealand history at a time when New Zealand was in the same situation. Both these men gave their countries a sense of identity that they were different and unique from Britain. Before these books, Australians and New Zealanders thought of themselves as British in a far land.
What these two men did was exactly what historians are supposed to do. They served their countrymen at a time when national identity was a gray area. That is what historians should do; build histories of places and people. This history is important, as it gives people a sense of who they are and where they come from. It gives them a sense that they have not come from nothing to end up as nothing. Everybody and every place have a history, and it is history that makes the person and place.
History and historians may be different in Australia and New Zealand in the fact that they had to build their countries history. In the United States, we have always seen ourselves as a unique and independent country. Australia and New Zealand have not seen them selves as independent nations until about forty years ago. History in Australia and New Zealand of Australia and New Zealand is a relatively new concept for these nations.