Context is all important in asking any question? And these days a key question is the importance of history. Pragmatic agendas of the daily grind obscure how significance the study of the past is for getting a perspective on how to live a better life. This blog looks at how different present contexts are better understood from what preceded.
Rorty Music: Nihilism but beyond it Fallen leaves in the night on the stable sea tide... I could feel at the time There was no way of knowing Fallen leaves in the night Who can say where they're blowing? As free as the wind Hopefully learning Why the sea...
Schools and education policy “It has become commonplace to remark that historians of education have become less interested in schools and schooling, and more interested in a wider range of educational institutions, not to mention education that takes place...
Dear Editor, InQueensland , I am a member of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland) Inc., Australian Historical Association Inc., and my work over the decade goes to the Mapping Brisbane History (MBH) Project, and the Brisbane Southside History...
My new sociological model. Politicians and bureaucrats at the top, bottom-thinking in a tight bubble of a worldview, and thinking well of their 'success'. The public frustrated at policy failure. And policy researchers and developers in the squeeze of being...
Wright Mills’ The Power Elite (1956) has been a major sociological work that has repeatedly been the right framework to understand the political and social chaos I have experienced and witnessed in my lifetime. It is not a perfect work and not a perfect model. The...
This is a blog post to set everyone straight, which makes me open to the critique of being one of Manning Clark’s ‘straighteners’; but that’s another story. My arguments, as a general framework, is based on a basic critique of the neo-conservative paradigm. The...
“Is that really you, Ruth.” I was really feeling her hand on the side of my face, and my finger held in her other hand, as her alive body snugged against my bum, lying on the bed. A dream. A dream very deep in the prefrontal cortex, and after a night of heavy...
"History and historians play a crucial role in Australian culture. They are foundational to other fields in the arts, with historical research often underpinning film, theatre, literature and even, on occasion, dance. A government serious about implementing a cultural...
I was recently shocked by email replies to a short comment I made, as what I thought was a extending out a hand of friendship with an intelligent comment. The replies were hostile in the first case, and extremely annoyed in the second. Both replies...