What If?: Australian History as it Might Have BeenStuart Macintyre, Sean Scalmer What if key episodes in Australia's past had turned out differently? If France had colonised part of Australia in the eighteenth century? If the ANZACS had played only a minor role in the Gallipoli landing in World War I? If Gough Whitlam's Labor government had been re-elected after its dismissal in 1975? If Aborigines had been granted citizenship much earlier? What new paths might our national history have followed? In this fascinating volume, leading Australian historians search for answers. Together, they reimagine Australia's environment, race relations, art, political life, and national identity, providing a play on actual and possible, action and result, result and consequence that is as rigorous as it is creative. In the political realm, Jim Davidson asks What if Tasmania had become French?; Marilyn Lake wonders what would have happened had Alfred Deakin made a declaration of Australian independence; Helen Irving questions where we'd be if Federation had failed in 1900; James Walker asks What if Whitlam had won another opportunity to implement his program? The cultural questions include Peter Read asking What if Aborigines had never been assimilated?; Sean Scalmer examines the possible outcome if the attempted assassination of Arthur Calwell had been successful; and Ann Curthoys asks What if a men's movement had triumphed in the 1970s? What If? asks how our history has been written, what our nation has become, and what it might yet be. |
Contents
Statecraft | 9 |
Society and Culture | 10 |
What if Tasmania had become French? | 15 |
Copyright | |
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Aboriginal Council Albrecht Alfred Deakin American arbitration Arrernte Arthur Calwell ATOCA Australian colonies Australian political became Bill Bournailles Bradfield Scheme Britain British Bruce Calwell's campaign Canberra Cawood Cocos Islands Colonial Office conscription conservative Constitution councillors counterfactual history cruisers culture defeat defence delegates dominions economic election electoral emerged empire Eorthen European federal force Fraser French German Gibbs Haasts Bluff historians House Hughes imagined imperial Indigenous industrial Japan Japanese Jongo Labor government Labor Party Lake Eyre land leader League legislation London Maynard and Unaipon Melbourne Men's Liberation men's movement ment Nationalists navy Northern Territory organisation Pacific painting parliamentary payment of members premier prime minister Protectionist Party Queensland Rabbito radical Reform Party River role Senate social socialist South Australia South Wales Stuart Sydney tariff Tasmanie tion Tirrenbong trade union University Press Victoria Vida Goldstein vote welfare Western Australia White Whitlam Wiradjuri women Zealand