I was invited to answer a Quora question, on ‘facts’ that I would like Americans to know. Here are my answers.
Facts in chronological reverse order, all of equal importance.
- The Culture-History War from Prime Minister John Howard had obscured an adequate understanding of Australian History, but also this has been a longer path in neo-conservative historiography.
Parsons, G. (2006). John Howard and the: Politics of Australian History Writing. AQ: Australian Quarterly, 78(4), 32–33. https://doi.org/10.2307/20638414
- The Australia Act 1986, was the last stage in the development of Australian constitutional relations which brought to a close any remaining vestiges of Australia’s colonial past, and should have signalled a general cultural change in Australia. Whether the change did or not occurred is a contentious question.
Watts, A. D. (1987). The Australia Act 1986. The International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 36(1), 132–139. http://www.jstor.org/stable/760463
- The American ‘cultural invasion’ of 1942 marked, not only a process of American acculturalisation in Australian society, but it also shifted models and practice of religion.
Buch, Neville (1995) American Influence on Protestantism in Queensland since 1945, Ph.D. thesis, Department of History, University of Queensland, August 1994 (submission).
Buch, Neville. (1993). Clio or St Luke? When the Evangelist becomes the Historian: A Former Evangelical’s concerns about contemporary Evangelical Historiography [Documents]. https://jstor.org/stable/community.32071082
- The Labor Split of 1916 and the role of Nationalist Prime Minister Billy Hughes had profound influence in the reading for Australian history, including the ANZAC mythology.
Dyrenfurth, Nick. (2014). Labor and the Anzac Legend, 1915–45. Labour History, 106, 163–188. https://doi.org/10.5263/labourhistory.106.0163
- From 1788 the ‘Terra nullius’ was the great lie in Australian history.
Buchan, B., & Heath, M. (2006). Savagery and civilization: From terra nullius to the “tide of history.” Ethnicities, 6(1), 5–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23889334
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Neville Buch
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G’day Neville Five facts I’d like Americans to know about our country : 1.Australia stood by the US to fight and defend the Pacific Theatre in WWII and operated the Pacific Theatre HQ out of Brisbane for Gen McArthur ( if they know who he is) 2. Australia like USA had a discrimination policy against its native inhabitants, only granting them a federal vote in 1966 3. Australia is about the size of contiguous, mainland USA 4. We take ANZUS very seriously and hold the value that if we helped our ally in many wars when called upon that we… Read more »
Peter, they are all good ‘facts’ except No. 5 does not qualify as a fact. It has been a contested question how much the American Revolutionary War contributed to the thinking in the Naval Office and Joseph Banks’ campaign. Both are true, it is matter of weight in the decision-making. Was it a matter, to have another colony for the sake of the lost of American colonies? It would have depended upon what player we are talking about, and it was a recommendation of a Parliamentary Select Committee. “Prompted” is a too stronger word.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Australia#Plans_for_colonisation_before_1788