Backbencher

The teleconference with Dr Troy Whitford was an interesting experience. It was nice to get a look at Australian history through an Australian, and he made it sound like a pretty unbiased approach when it is compared to some other historians of the topic.

It was a pretty broad presentation, and even Dr. Whitford stated that it was a work in progress. He decided to touch on Settlement, the Eureka Stockade, Federation, the 1920's and Post World War II time periods. His main approach seemed to be the idea that mainstream Australian history has a political agenda with the ideas and main historical events that they bring to the forefront. He says this even of our favorite Australian historian Manning Clark, and how it appears the political left has had a strong influence on the history of Australia.

These political views have sparked what he referred to as a "History War", which really caught my attention. It was interesting to me that a country seems so split over their history and what should be taken from it. From every historian we have talked about it seems clear that they all agree that Australia needs to step up and create a national identity, but they can not decide on what should be a part of it. I never really thought about it before but it seems to me that America doesn't really have one strong national identity; that it is almost expected that everyone will have their own understanding of history and heritage depending on where they came from and where they live now. This idea was brought up in class with the idea of the South focusing more on slavery being a major part of our national identity while in the Midwest area we tend to learn more about and focus on the Native American aspect.