Backbencher

Yesterday we had Dr. Troy Whitford, a university professor from Australia, give us a guest lecture over a webcam from Australia. I found his lecture to be a very interesting one, especially since it came from a different point of view that I have ever seen. It is not often that you can actually have a guest lecturer from the country that you are studying come and teach you about that country's history. That being said, his lecture was entitled A Short History of Mentalities, and it focused on the middle class of Australia through the years and what their mentalities were and how they helped to shape what the country is today. In the beginning Australia was a country of convicts, but there was a desire for them to be self sufficient. They were taught many things in order for them to get on their feet and establish themselves. Then came the Eureka stockade, which was a rebellion against taxation by the self employed. Dr. Whitford described this event as sort of Australia's Boston Tea Party, in that it was a statement against a strong centralized government. Then came Australia's federation, which was the uniting of the colonies. This was different from the United States, however, because in Australia it was done for economic reasons and not for idealogical ones. They once again emphasized no big government. In the 1920s Australia was concerned with creating wealth and maintaining capitalism. Then, after World War II, Australia wanted to shake off government controls once again and embrace a new consumerism. They viewed home ownership and family as a very valuable asset in doing this.
I really enjoyed this lecture. The question part at the end was interesting when someone asked him about American football and he said, "Why does it stop so much?" Another thing he asked was how our education system teaches American history, and whether they stick to just the good or focus on the bad as well. This got me thinking about my experiences. Throughout my schooling, I have had nothing but glorified American history up until high school. In high school the bad stuff was brought up, but not in much detail. It wasn't really until college that my teachers actually started teaching us about what I would call "real American history," that is including the bad with the good.