“Quora advertises with the slogan ‘The best answer to any question’, ‘Quora aggregates questions and answers to topics. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to other users’ answers’” (Anon 2015, ‘quora’).” (Wawra, D. 2015: 225).
“I am subscribed to something called Quora Digest. I have no idea how that happened, but each week this website accepts questions that anyone is free to answer. Lots of the questions are silly, but some are pretty interesting.” (Robertson, B. 2017: 66).
“Creating a social networking presence that will be in any way effective requires careful analysis of your business goals, strategic planning that is incorporated into your overall marketing efforts, diligence, time by you or someone else, and in most cases, money.
Below are several key points to bear in mind when venturing into the vast world of social media and social networking platforms such as blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and, most recently, Quora.” (Schuele, S. 2011:25).
“Try reading and answering academic blog posts. This can be great practice in responding to ideas in a creative but informed way. Do it properly too – don’t just offer opinion: apply some critical thinking to your responses. Some digital scholars actively use blog answering as their principal ‘online voice’. Or join Quora and try answering a few questions (www.quora.com). Again, do this properly –make it a piece of research and academic text. (Jones, D. 2014).”
“Food Logging and Blogging was created in an educational setting; however, there are many arenas within the health profession that can easily adapt these blogging concepts. It is a valid forum for communicating and has the potential to expand any program that is considering to increase awareness within the health community. The Internet website, Quora, puts the number of blogs that exist on the Internet at roughly 152,000,000. However, it is difficult finding an exact number because of the blogs still online but abandoned by their creators.” (Percoco, V. M. 2017: 80).
“Moviemakers risk millions in the hope of producing the next big hit. Could artificial intelligence and machine learning improve the odds? Disney Research, the media giant’s science lab, thinks so, and is working with colleagues at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, to develop an AI algorithm that can predict if readers will enjoy a short story. To create a database, the Disney team used the crowd-sourced Q&A website Quora to collect nearly 55,000 responses, classifying 28,000 as stories. They then used reader votes as “a proxy for narrative quality” and created several neural networks—which simulate human brain reactions—to determine the popularity of each story. The technology is a long way from being able to pick hot scripts, the ultimate goal.” (T.G. 2017: 12).
This blog article explains the primary problem of the platform Quora and demonstrate that the platform Academia.edu serves the truth value of community education far better.
The article was spurred by the blocking of an answer I had placed on Quora; for the reason Quora provided as violating their ‘spam policy’ (see image below). I had violated the policy by recommending that a scholarly book would be a far better answer than what the platform was garnishing. Admittedly, the language was strong, but ought not to have been taken as offensive – “Try reasoning a scholarly book for once.” It was not SPAM, as I was not the author and have no relation to the author or the publisher, and I was recommending it as a better read that the Quora answers. I was not promoting the book for purchase. Apparently, it is not hard to block intelligent content:
“In 2017, a single typo from an Amazon engineer accidentally blocked access to a large set of servers resulting in disruption of Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and outages on sites such as Quora, Trello, and IFTTT.” (Handler, S., Liu, L., & Herr, T. 2020: 4).
The response in this blog article is more considered and has researched an answer, not like most of the Quora answers to which Quora believes worthy to be published. Questions which are more reliably answered in Quora would be those not on the basis of the automotive-generated (A.I.) “research” technologies (e.g., Candeub, A. 2017: 153). The answers are highly technical in relation to the technology but, in most cases, there is misinformation and discrimination to the thinking on what is “research” and the educative concept of “research” in every other topic, subject, and discipline (the abuse of the technology demonstrates an inability to make these cognisant distinctions).
Anya Schiffrin (2017: 119-20) well sums up why platforms, such as Quora, cannot publish reliable research, let alone demonstrate that the concept and practice is understood:
By 2016, it was apparent that something had gone very wrong; many of the optimists of 2010 and 2011 had changed their thinking, warning of the dangers of digital technology. Wael Ghonim, whose Facebook pages are credited with galvanizing the protests in Egypt, declared that the web had become a “mobocracy.” Along with Emily Parker, Ghonim launched a site called Parlio that was meant to encourage civilized and expert discourse online about vital topics of the day. The site never garnered a large following but was bought by Quora and eventually closed down. Philip Howard began studying bot activities and disinformation during the 2016 elections in Europe and the US and came up with some startling numbers about the amount of disinformation shared over Twitter. Howard and his colleagues at the Computational Propaganda Research Project at the Oxford Internet Institute looked at seven million tweets that used hashtags related to the 2016 election between November 1 and November 11 in 16 swing states. After developing a typology based on the URLs included in these tweets, which sorted all tweets into six categories including professional political content such as government and campaign sources, professional news outlets, and polarizing and conspiracy content; Howard and his colleagues found overwhelming levels of news from Russian outlets, Wikileaks, and “junk news” sources flooding Twitter just before the 2016 US presidential elections. Howard and his colleagues also noted that in these 16 swing states, levels of “junk” and polarizing news exceeded those of the United States as a whole.
One only has to scratch the surface in research to find the insights to “the impacts of cyber-enabled information operations on the thinking minds and feeling hearts of target audiences” (Boyd, B., & Lin, H. 2019: 49).
And yet the public, including myself, continue to use Quora in high numbers. Quora can defend itself by referring to cases where their answers might lead to better answers (e.g., Nyffenegger, N. 2020: 222-3, 232). There are often issues with the semantics of survey questions and answers, however, if the parameter is to only record direct testimony than platforms like Quora are effective. The accuracy is read as recorded direct testimony (e.g., Bass, H. 2018: 8).
A study of the research shows several factors in why Quora fails in the truth value of community education and platforms, such as academia.edu, are much more reliable:
Search Engines as Tools and the IT Futurist Vision of replacing direct in-person community education: It is a type of archetype that IT Futurists (futurism) are grossly anti-intellectualists in all other disciplines than theoretical science, technology, and mathematics; and that is difficult to pin down since the search engines avoid the term. An example is Futurism.com, a science and tech website formerly owned by Singularity University. The company has faced allegations of sexual assault, embezzlement, and discrimination since its founding. The public marketplace has been sold this falsehood that we no longer need direct in-person community education since the I.T. and I.A. will replace the need for such community education. In denying intelligence from the other disciplines, the fool-idiot of the IT Futurist merely points the finger at everyone else as an I.T. and I.A. user, and that being the dismissive conclusion. If the stupidity, idiocy, foolishness has to be explained, there are such violations of critical thinking in several fallacies here for the counter-argument; the key one is it is the dismissal by not addressing the specific problems stated.
What needs to be explained is the I.T. broad system where the I.T. specialist is the one who speaks beyond their expert knowledge-bases and skills, and in the process, created an insular bubble:
“A Bing search from Internet Explorer produces a Wikipedia digest, Poe works, people (Virginia Clemm, Hawthorne, John Cusack), images, the Wikipedia URL, videos, eight Poe-related suggestions (biography, history, short story, quotes, raven, poem, death theories, collected works), and the promise of 10,900,000 results. At the page top we find Bing’s invitation to make Firefox one’s default browser with Bing its home page. The major innovation for Bing is the column on the right third of the screen called Social Results, beginning with five potential Facebook connections, followed by a selection of some ten recent Poe postings from social networks, such as Twitter, Klout, Quora, Huffngton [sic] Post, and Baltimore Sun. The Bing top menu includes Web, Images, Videos, Maps, News, and More—the last with more than a dozen additional choices, including Entertainment, Social, Weather, Translation, Events, Math, Dictionary, Developer Tools, and Bing Apps for mobile devices and social networking. Microsoft’s position in the new browser wars is to standardize one interface throughout its entire line, Windows 8 to operate desktop and laptop computers, Internet Explorer as browser, Bing as search engine, and its new ventures into hardware, the Windows Surface tablet and Windows smartphone using versions of Windows 8.” (Heyward Ehrlich. 2013: 115-6).
The wide application of the tools without sufficient direct in-person community education has created misunderstanding in a bubble which becomes stupidity, idiocy, or foolishness; for the reason of its lack of openness to deeply-human communication.
The I.T. industry completely misses the problem. For example, van Manen, H., et. al. (2019: 25) concluded:
“…the infrastructure component of the country’s scoring exercise is conceptualized as being contingent on the existence of resources which facilitate:
a) the harvesting and/or generation of large reams of data, referred to as digitization;
b) the speedy processing and/or analysis thereof, referred to as data processing potential;
c) the development of innovative and/or utile algorithms, referred to as innovation infrastructure.
The absence of any of these three factors negatively impacts a nation’s ability to develop cutting-edge AI and to apply it towards geopolitically-relevant outcomes…Even if a large volume of data is harvested, its use within the context of training algorithms will be limited in the absence of the computing power necessary to analyze it.”
Van Manen, H., et. al. (2019) sets out well the problem within the I.T. bubble, but concludes the matter as computing power. That maybe true but the greater truth is quality facts, not the numbers calculated in computing power. It is that the training algorithms cannot be simply applied towards geopolitically-relevant outcomes, even if “unlimited”. The archetypal problem with I.T. futurists is the “mad-scientist crazy idea” that human factors can be reduced to computing power. This is the greater truth, not the technical answers inside the bubble.
There are several other factors in why Quora fails in the truth value of community education and platforms, such as academia.edu, are much more reliable. These factors come from the relations of the issues, stated above, and that there are only rare interdisciplinary conversations between the disciplinary bubbles:
Automation: The problems speak to the “intense software filtering that has allowed [specific] e-print repository” (Reyes-Galindo, L. 2016; 586).
Disclosure: The problems speak to the “women’s and men’s privacy concerns and management when communicating on the social websites” (Wawra, D. 2015: 219). This has to do with the right of privacy weighted against deliberate attempts for concealing content relating to significant public interest.
Cognitive Design: This goes to the statement of David D. Caron in his work, Confronting Complexity, Valuing Elegance — “we should distrust complex solutions to complex problems and seek instead those that are elegant.” John Crook, however, easily demonstrates (but as complexity, not elegancy) that the stupidity of the IT futurists [my term] of seeking out “elegant software to be ‘simple, obvious, straightforward and [to require] very little intellectual effort to understand immediately.’” (Crook, J. R. 2019: 72, as one example). The critical point is that elegance in all disciplines is not simple, but complex, in many cases far too complex for the types of algorithms that Quora use.
One disciplinary solution offered up is the Law discipline. The abstract of Andrew Keane Woods (2018) sums up the problem(s) well and discusses the legal solution:
“Because the internet is so thoroughly global, nearly every aspect of internet governance has an extraterritorial effect. This is evident in a number of high-profile cases that cover a wide range of subjects, including law enforcement access to digital evidence; speech disputes, such as requests to remove offensive or hateful web content; intellectual property disputes; and much more. Although substantively distinct, these issues present courts with the same jurisdictional challenge: how to ensure one state’s sovereign interest in regulating the internet’s local effects without infringing on other states’ interests.
The answer, for better or for worse, is comity, the foreign affairs principle that informs a number of sovereign- deference doctrines. Sovereignty arguments have pervaded a number of recent consequential cases, including Google’s challenge to the ‘right to be forgotten’ in Europe and Microsoft’s challenge to a court order to produce foreign-held emails under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. These arguments will continue to play a significant role in future cases. Yet the proper application of foreign affairs law to cross-border internet disputes is not what many litigants and courts have claimed. Crucially, no sovereign-deference doctrine prohibits global takedown requests, foreign production orders, or other forms of extraterritorial exercises of jurisdiction over the internet. To the contrary, one of the key lessons of the sovereign-deference jurisprudence is that in order to avoid tensions between sovereigns, courts often enable, rather than inhibit, extraterritorial exercises of authority.
This Article [Woods, A. K. 2018] has three goals. First, it seeks to identify and characterize an emerging body of case law, which we might call data-sovereignty litigation: a diverse set of cases pitting national sovereigns against large internet firms. Second, the Article aims to show how the doctrinal rules of sovereign deference ought to apply to these disputes. Finally, it makes the case for a policy of sovereign deference beyond courts. The stakes are considerable. If we do not find ways to accommodate legitimate sovereign claims over global cloud activity, states will forcefully assert those interests – typically by taking physical control over local network infrastructure – imposing significant costs on entrepreneurship, privacy, and speech.” (Woods, A. K. 2018: 328).
Google’s challenge to the ‘right to be forgotten’ in Europe is particularly of interest to historians. The concept of the ‘right to be forgotten’ is extremely disturbing when it comes to the destruction of historical records which will have extraordinary consequences for future public histories (Buch, 2023). The line between the right of privacy and significant public interest is not as solid as folk thinks on social media. Woods also raised the issue of significant costs on entrepreneurship, privacy, and speech in taking physical control over local network infrastructure. These issues are not only beholden to the Law discipline; however, it is important discipline not to dismiss in the light of litigation in the I.T. Industry (e.g., Hermes, J. 2017). To the credit of the Economics discipline, this is one multi-disciplinary issue that the I.T. Industry has to take seriously and the economists can explain why (Greenstein, S. 2020: 192-214). The Literary and Publishing Industry are also set by problems which the I.T. Industry has very little understanding inside its bubble (e.g., Hunter, et al. 2013).
There is no shortage in the multi-disciplinary literature to speak of both the vices and virtues of both online and in-person interaction (e.g., Haugen, K., et al. 2016). This blog article has said nothing of the academia.edu as the alternative, and that is, to go to the question, “why academia.edu”, goes to the virtues of the platform as the opposites of the vices in Quora. This can be summed up as three points as the conclusion, and answering the question:
Answer: The best Online Platform is –
1) collegial with experts listening to each other across the disciplines;
2) based in the epistemology of critical thinking; and most importantly, is
3) research-focused, according to the academia protocols.
REFERENCES
Bass, H. (2018). President’s Message: The Truth Is Out There. ABA Journal, 104(1), 8–8. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26516123
Buch, Neville (2023). The Right Not to Be Forgotten, Dr Neville Buch Teaching Documents, ABN 86703686642
Boyd, B., & Lin, H. (2019). Affecting the Cognitive Dimension of the Information Environment through Cyber-Enabled Information Operations. Journal of Information Warfare, 18(3), 49–66. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26894681
Candeub, A. (2017). Networks, Neutrality & Discrimination. Administrative Law Review, 69(1), 125–173. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44648609
Crook, J. R. (2019). Finding Elegance in Unexpected Places. Ecology Law Quarterly, 46(1), 71–80. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26853543
Greenstein, S. (2020). The Basic Economics of Internet Infrastructure. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 34(2), 192–214. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26913190
Handler, S., Liu, L., & Herr, T. (2020). Where is The Cloud? In Dude, Where’s My Cloud?: A Guide For Wonks And Users (pp. 3–5). Atlantic Council. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep26654.6
Haugen, K., Rodriguez, A., Minchella, A. R., Johnston, M. S., Gibbs, T. N., Hornick, A., & Field, J. B. (2016). Networking Online and in Person. GPSolo, 33(6), 10–16. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44736981
Hermes, J. (2017). Section 230 as Gatekeeper: When Is an Intermediary Liability Case Against a Digital Platform Ripe for Early Dismissal? Litigation, 43(3), 34–41. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26402058
Heyward Ehrlich. (2013). Poe in Cyberspace: The Browser Wars Redux. The Edgar Allan Poe Review, 14(1), 113–118. https://doi.org/10.5325/edgallpoerev.14.1.0113
Hunter, A., Lipskar, S., O’Leary, A., Ratliff, E., & Tayman, J. (2013). The Writer’s Dilemma. The Virginia Quarterly Review, 89(2), 28–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26446734
Jones, D. (2014). Broadcast Your Ideas. In D. Jones, A. Williams, & J. Robertson (Eds.), BITE: Recipes for Remarkable Research (pp. 105–107). Brill. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv2gjwn0p.31
Nyffenegger, N. (2020). The Illicit Touch: Theorising Narratives of Abused Human Skin. In C. Nirta, D. Mandic, A. Pavoni, & A. Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos (Eds.), Touch (Vol. 3, pp. 195–234). University of Westminster Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv11cvxbx.8
Percoco, V. M. (2017). Food Logging and Blogging Toward Healthier Nutrition: Bringing the Curriculum Out of the Classroom and Into the 21st Century. Pedagogy in Health Promotion, 3(2), 77–81. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26652613
Reyes-Galindo, L. (2016). Automating the Horae: Boundary-work in the age of computers. Social Studies of Science, 46(4), 586–606. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26100615
Robertson, B. (2017). Science 101: Q: Can Electromagnetic Waves Affect Emotions? Science and Children, 55(1), 66–69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26387035
Schiffrin, A. (2017). Disinformation and Democracy: The Internet Transformed Protest But Did Not Improve Democracy. Journal of International Affairs, 71(1), 117–126. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26494367
Schuele, S. (2011). Social Networking: How To Be Effective. GPSolo, 28(4), 24–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23630380
van Manen, H., Atalla, S., Arkhipov-Goyal, A., Sweijs, T., Hristov, A., Zensus, C., & Torossian, B. (2019). Actor: AI Programs and Profiles. In Macro Implications of Micro Transformations: An Assessment of AI’s Impact on Contemporary Geopolitics (pp. 24–53). Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep19557.5
Wawra, D. (2015). Digital Communication and Privacy: Is Social Web Use gendered? AAA: Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, 40(1/2), 219–245. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24722047
Woods, A. K. (2018). Litigating Data Sovereignty. The Yale Law Journal, 128(2), 328–406. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45389445
THE GLOBAL PROBLEM: MY LOCAL-REGIONAL-NATIONAL ACADEMIC AND POPULAR SCHOLARLY WORK
Robert Cady Saler (2024). “Death to the World” and Apocalyptic Theological Aesthetics, T&T Clark (Bloomsbury), pp. 152, e-book US$ 122.41 discounted, hardcover US$ 153.00.
A MAJOR WAY TO A SOLUTION: A SHIFT IN SPIRAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
David Fergusson (2024). Reformed Humanism: Essays on Christian Doctrine, Philosophy, and Church, T&T Clark (Bloomsbury), pp. 304, e-book US$ 122.41 discounted, hardcover US$ 153.00.
*****
This blog article is both 1) a plea to be employed, or have a contract, to the level of my knowledge-base and skills, and 2) a clear demonstration that I am an academic and popular scholar at the global cutting-edge of several fields of knowledge, and 3), from the blog article, the question has to be ask why I am not employed or contracted in an Australian university or think-tank.
Two recently-published books is introduced as evidence: Robert Cady Saler’s “Death to the World” and Apocalyptic Theological Aesthetics, and David Fergusson’s Reformed Humanism: Essays on Christian Doctrine, Philosophy, and Church. The former is the global problem; and my local-regional-national academic and popular scholarly work in exploring, intellectually (i.e. what are the ideas), the problem. The latter is a major way to a solution; a likely shift based on my spiral historiography model. I cannot afford either books, currently, living off social security. However, I can ascertain that these books demonstrated that my work in the scoping of local, regional, and national “thinking” is at the global cutting-edge in research, writing, and publications.
Robert Saler examines the small but influential Death to the World movement in US Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Presenting a case study in theological aesthetics, Saler demonstrates how a relatively small consumer phenomenon within US Eastern Orthodoxy sits at the centre of a variety of larger questions, including:
– The relationship between formal ecclesial and para-church structures
– The role of the Internet in modern religiosity
– Consumer structures and patterns as constitutive of piety
– How theology can help us understand art and vice versa
Understanding “Death to the World” as an instance of lived religion tied to questions of identity, politics of religious purity, relationships to capitalism, and concerns over conspiracy theory helps us to see how studies of uniquely American Eastern Orthodox identity must address these broader cultural strands.
The volume comprises a collection of essays ordered in three parts, each of which describes broadly the sub-fields of theology to which these belong. The essays tackle core themes in Christian doctrine, the longstanding relationship of theology to philosophy, and a series of challenges facing churches today. While the volume represents a Reformed theological approach often with a historical focus, it self-consciously reflects an ecumenical and critical perspective. The term ‘humanism’ reflects an openness to insight, understanding and correction from different fields of knowledge, while its ‘Reformed’ designation positions the work within a recognized theological tradition though seeking to avoid imprisonment by it.
A further feature of the collection is its attempt to overcome the curricular divisions between systematic theology, Christian ethics, and practical theology. The third section in particular deal with issues in social ethics, theological aesthetics, the place of the church in a secular culture, and the role of theology in the university.
Much of these insights have been published in my:
Buch, N. (2024). Damien B. Schlarb, Melville’s Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 37(1), Special Issue: New Perspectives on Religions and Traditions, 135-7, ISBN 978-0-197-58556-6 (hbk).
Buch, Neville (2024). Queensland History, Religious Education, and Belief, in David W. Kim and Duncan Wright’s Socio-Anthropological Approaches to Religion: Environmental Hope, Edited by David W. Kim and Duncan Wright, London: Lexington Books.
Buch, N. (2023). W. Y. Alice Chan, Teaching Religious Literacy to Combat Religious Bullying: Insights from North American Secondary Schools. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 36(2), 263–264. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.26719
Buch, N. (2021).Book Review of Blin, Arnaud, War and Religion: Europe and the Mediterranean from the First through the Twenty-first Centuries, University of California Press, 2019, pp. 335, ISBN 9780520961753, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, Volume 34, No 2.
Buch, Neville (2021). The Intellectual Ethos of Charles Strong in Queensland 1855-1917, in Marion Maddox’s, Charles Strong’s Australian Church: Christian Social Activism, 1885–1917, University of Melbourne Press.
Buch, Neville (2016). A Quest for a Fair Go: A History of the KSC in Queensland (with Beryl Roberts). Stafford, Qld. The Knights of the Southern Cross (Qld) (pp. 281).
Buch, Neville (2015). No Regrets in the Evening of Life: The History of Junction Park State School (1888-2013). Boolarong Press (pp. 459).
Buch, Neville (2014). Celebrating 40 Years. St Thomas More College, God’s Servant First (1974-2014). St Thomas More College (pp. 123).
Buch, N. (2007). Religion Remain a Problem. The Skeptic. Summer 2007.
Buch, N. (2007).The Value of the Secular. Quadrant. Volume 51, No. 1, March 2007.
Now, this is what what my colleagues do, who are employed or contracted at local institutions, but, looking at the chapter outline of each book, we find that I have translated the knowledgeof global thinking into the local-regional-national public history and sociology:
Introduction: Marketplace and Identity. I have shown that its idiotic employment practices that skews the thinking on “big belief and doubt.”
1. Concepts in Public History for Marketplace Dialogue: https://drnevillebuch.com/concepts-in-public-history-for-marketplace-dialogue/
2. Neo-Orthodoxy Today from Historical Legacy: https://drnevillebuch.com/neo-orthodoxy-today-from-historical-legacy/
3. Lee A. Dew. The “Professional” Historian and Local History: https://drnevillebuch.com/lee-dew-professional-historian-local-history/
4. The American Modernism of The Great Gatsby: Concepts of Landscape, Persons, and Time-Past: https://drnevillebuch.com/the-american-modernism-of-the-great-gatsby-concepts-of-landscape-persons-and-time-past/
5. Essay 3 — The Spirit (1967-1975). Jesus Revolution (1967-1971). https://drnevillebuch.com/projects/intellectual-history/tcq/essay-3-the-spirit-1967-1975/
6. Public Transport System of Brisbane: A Conversation with the folk of South-East Queensland: https://drnevillebuch.com/public-transport-system-of-brisbane-a-conversation-with-the-folk-of-south-east-queensland/
Chapter 2: Reaching a Lost Generation: The Zine Begins. I have shown that the Lost Generation of a hundred years ago contributes to our current state of affair.
8. The American Modernism of The Great Gatsby: Concepts of Landscape, Persons, and Time-Past: https://drnevillebuch.com/the-american-modernism-of-the-great-gatsby-concepts-of-landscape-persons-and-time-past/
9. Jesus Revolution: Film Propaganda or History? https://drnevillebuch.com/jesus-revolution-film-propaganda-or-history/
Antiquarianism, Intellectual Confusion, and the Worship of Unintelligent Fiction: https://drnevillebuch.com/antiquarianism-intellectual-confusion-and-the-worship-of-unintelligent-fiction/
8. D.H. Lawrence’s Kangaroo (1923): One Hundred Years On, Questioning Social Philosophy and Policy for Today: https://drnevillebuch.com/d-h-lawrences-kangaroo-1923-one-hundred-years-on-questioning-social-philosophy-and-policy-for-today/
9. The Grapes of Wrath: A Retrospect on the Folkish Expression of Justice in Popular Culture and Family: https://www.academia.edu/42816377/The_Grapes_of_Wrath_A_Retrospect_on_the_Folkish_Expression_of_Justice_in_Popular_Culture_and_Family
10. The Memories – Road Trip Day 2: Neville Still Alive, Ruth as History, the Great Journey we Wanted: https://drnevillebuch.com/the-memories-road-trip-day-2-neville-still-alive-ruth-as-history-the-great-journey-we-wanted/
11. Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, The Humanist Overlap and Differences: Humanist Brisbane (Humanists Australia) Film and Dinner Event, Monday April 1 (Easter Monday). https://drnevillebuch.com/sigmund-freud-and-c-s-lewis-the-humanist-overlap-and-differences-humanist-brisbane-humanists-australia-film-and-dinner-event-monday-april-1-easter-monday/
12. Brisbane Humanists Film and Dinner Discussion: The Way, My Way. https://drnevillebuch.com/brisbane-humanists-film-and-dinner-discussion-the-way-my-way/
Chapter 3: Revival and Influence. I have shown the role of the American Revivalist Tradition (ART) in our state of affair.
13. American influence on Protestantism in Queensland since 1945; Neville Douglas Buch, School of History, Philosophy, Religion, and Classics, The University of Queensland, 1995: https://www.textqueensland.com.au/item/thesis/fc385b39583707b141ce48f5a966ee7f
14. RESEARCH NOTE: ANGLO-AMERICAN MAJOR BELIEF-DOUBT SYSTEMS: https://drnevillebuch.com/research-note-anglo-american-major-belief-doubt-systems/
15. The American Revivalist Tradition Mark II: https://drnevillebuch.com/services/religion-secular-history/the-american-revivalist-tradition-mark-ii/
16. Why the Disciplines and No Apologetics? Part 1: The Collapse of Schaefferan Apologetics: https://drnevillebuch.com/why-the-disciplines-and-no-apologetics-part-1-the-collapse-of-schaefferan-apologetics/
Chapter 4: Whose Authority to Fight? I have shown that it is right and proper to resist unjust authority, even when it is “of the people.”
17. Why the Disciplines and No Apologetics? Part 1: The Collapse of Schaefferan Apologetics: https://drnevillebuch.com/why-the-disciplines-and-no-apologetics-part-1-the-collapse-of-schaefferan-apologetics/
18. IDRlabs.com 8 Values Political Test: Why informing opinion is better than behavioural psychology? https://drnevillebuch.com/idrlabs-com-8-values-political-test-why-informing-opinion-is-better-than-behavioural-psychology/
19. The 2024 State of the Union Speech: Commentary from an Australian-American Relational Historian: https://drnevillebuch.com/the-2024-state-of-the-union-speech-commentary-from-an-australian-american-relational-historian/
Chapter 5: Theological Potential(S). I have shown that the potential of theology in Australia.
20. RESEARCH NOTE: ANGLO-AMERICAN MAJOR BELIEF-DOUBT SYSTEMS: https://drnevillebuch.com/research-note-anglo-american-major-belief-doubt-systems/
21. Concept, Semantics, and Strategies for the Level Playing Field: https://drnevillebuch.com/concept-semantics-and-strategies-for-the-level-playing-field/
22. 2024-03-13 Habermas and Public Theology Presentation Text and PowerPoint.
23. The Language and Ignorance of the Culture Warrior and Knowledge of Religion & Culture in Late 20th Century Queensland: https://drnevillebuch.com/the-language-and-ignorance-of-the-culture-warrior-and-knowledge-of-religion-culture-in-late-20th-century-queensland/
24. Revelatory and Recovery Moments: Assessing Life’s Journeys and Directions: https://drnevillebuch.com/revelatory-and-recovery-moments-assessing-lifes-journeys-and-directions/
25. D.H. Lawrence’s Kangaroo (1923): One Hundred Years On, Questioning Social Philosophy and Policy for Today: https://drnevillebuch.com/d-h-lawrences-kangaroo-1923-one-hundred-years-on-questioning-social-philosophy-and-policy-for-today/
Part One: Christian Doctrine: 2. The Power of God: Its Use and Abuse as a Theological Concept. I have shown that the historiographical use and abuse in the Image of God (imago dei).
26. Neo-Orthodoxy Today from Historical Legacy: https://drnevillebuch.com/neo-orthodoxy-today-from-historical-legacy/
27. RESEARCH NOTE: ANGLO-AMERICAN MAJOR BELIEF-DOUBT SYSTEMS: https://drnevillebuch.com/research-note-anglo-american-major-belief-doubt-systems/
28. Why the Disciplines and No Apologetics? Part 1: The Collapse of Schaefferan Apologetics: https://drnevillebuch.com/why-the-disciplines-and-no-apologetics-part-1-the-collapse-of-schaefferan-apologetics/
29. Revelatory and Recovery Moments: Assessing Life’s Journeys and Directions: https://drnevillebuch.com/revelatory-and-recovery-moments-assessing-lifes-journeys-and-directions/
Part One: Christian Doctrine: 5. Providence. I have shown what the role of providence has in our current state of affairs.
30. Brewer’s Insights on Popular Historiography: https://drnevillebuch.com/brewers-insights-on-popular-historiography/
31. Revelatory and Recovery Moments: Assessing Life’s Journeys and Directions: https://drnevillebuch.com/revelatory-and-recovery-moments-assessing-lifes-journeys-and-directions/
32. What is Wrong with “the world”: A Christmas Thought in Our Violent Times: https://drnevillebuch.com/what-is-wrong-with-the-world-a-christmas-thought-in-our-violent-times/
Part Two: Philosophy: 8. Hume as Religious Sceptic. I have shown what the role of skepticism has in our current state of affairs.
34. Neo-Orthodoxy Today from Historical Legacy: https://drnevillebuch.com/neo-orthodoxy-today-from-historical-legacy/
35. A Brief Look at Psychological Theories in Group Psychology, and Epistemology: https://drnevillebuch.com/a-brief-look-at-psychological-theories-in-group-psychology-and-epistemology/
Part Two: Philosophy: 9. Adam Smith on Ethics and Religion. I have shown that market ethics is what theory articulates in the current state of affairs.
36. Synopsis for Book Project: Education for Faith and Belief – Religious Instruction, Religious Education, and Christian Education in Queensland 1875-2020: https://drnevillebuch.com/synopsis-for-book-project-religious-instruction-religious-education-and-christian-education-in-queensland-1875-2020/
37. Letter: Education ? All Types of Placement poverty in Australia: https://drnevillebuch.com/letter-education-all-types-of-placement-poverty-in-australia/
38. 2023-08-28 Plea to the Queensland State Government: https://drnevillebuch.com/2023-08-28-plea-to-the-queensland-state-government/
Part Two: Philosophy: 10. Natural Theology After Darwin. I have shown what the role of naturalism has in our current state of affairs.
39. Synopsis for Book Project. Horizon Worldviews: The Makings of A Broad Society In Queensland 1911-2001 (a Philosophic History): https://drnevillebuch.com/synopsis-for-book-project-horizon-worldviews-the-makings-of-a-broad-society-in-queensland-1911-2001-a-philosophic-history/
40. Mapping Locations on the Mind-Brain Belief Spectrum: https://drnevillebuch.com/mapping-locations-on-the-mind-brain-belief-spectrum/
41. The Ontological Compass: https://drnevillebuch.com/the-ontological-compass/
42. RESEARCH NOTE: ANGLO-AMERICAN MAJOR BELIEF-DOUBT SYSTEMS: https://drnevillebuch.com/research-note-anglo-american-major-belief-doubt-systems/
Part Three: Church: 11. Theology of Worship: A Reformed Perspective. I have shown what the role of Reformed Theology has in our current state of affairs.
43. Neo-Orthodoxy Today from Historical Legacy: https://drnevillebuch.com/neo-orthodoxy-today-from-historical-legacy/
44. Antiquarianism, Intellectual Confusion, and the Worship of Unintelligent Fiction: https://drnevillebuch.com/antiquarianism-intellectual-confusion-and-the-worship-of-unintelligent-fiction/
45. Sartre on Humanism – Annotated. CRT No. 2: https://drnevillebuch.com/sartre-on-humanism-annotated-crt-no-2/
Part Three: Church: 12. Reformed Theology and Visual Culture. I have shown that what the cultural impacts are from Reformed Theology in our current state of affairs.
46. Why the Disciplines and No Apologetics? Part 1: The Collapse of Schaefferan Apologetics: https://drnevillebuch.com/why-the-disciplines-and-no-apologetics-part-1-the-collapse-of-schaefferan-apologetics/
47. Synopsis for Book Project: Education for Faith and Belief – Religious Instruction, Religious Education, and Christian Education in Queensland 1875-2020: https://drnevillebuch.com/synopsis-for-book-project-religious-instruction-religious-education-and-christian-education-in-queensland-1875-2020/
48. Essay 2 — Historical Overview. The Days of “Teen Challenge Inc. Antecedence.” https://drnevillebuch.com/projects/intellectual-history/tcq/essay-2-historical-overview/
Part Three: Church: 13. Mapping the Church: Current Challenges of History and Mission. I am continuing to mapping the local Church culture.
49. Mapping Brisbane History Project: https://mappingbrisbanehistory.com.au/
Part Three: Church: 14. The Bible in Modernity. I have shown that American modernism has shaped the global reading of the Bible.
50. Concepts in Public History for Marketplace Dialogue: https://drnevillebuch.com/concepts-in-public-history-for-marketplace-dialogue/
51. Neo-Orthodoxy Today from Historical Legacy: https://drnevillebuch.com/neo-orthodoxy-today-from-historical-legacy/
52. Lee A. Dew. The “Professional” Historian and Local History: https://drnevillebuch.com/lee-dew-professional-historian-local-history/
53. The American Modernism of The Great Gatsby: Concepts of Landscape, Persons, and Time-Past: https://drnevillebuch.com/the-american-modernism-of-the-great-gatsby-concepts-of-landscape-persons-and-time-past/
Part Three: Church: 15. Reformed Social Theology: Contexts and Constants. I have shown that Reformed Social Theology is skewed in a misunderstanding of conservatism.
54. Why the Disciplines and No Apologetics? Part 2: The History and Future of Apologetics Courses in Christian colleges: The Historiographical Challenges from Marc Bloch (1886-1944): https://drnevillebuch.com/why-the-disciplines-and-no-apologetics-part-2-the-history-and-future-of-apologetics-courses-in-christian-colleges-the-historiographical-challenges-from-marc-bloch-1886-1944/
Part Three: Church: 16. Theology and Therapy. I have given examples of therapy-driven theology, which is not all bad, but always misses something intellectually.
55. Synopsis for Book Project. The Educated Society, Queensland 1859-2009 – Landscape and Culture in the Groundwork of the Mapping Brisbane Education Project: https://drnevillebuch.com/synopsis-for-book-project-the-educated-society-queensland-1859-2009-landscape-and-culture-in-the-groundwork-of-the-mapping-brisbane-education-project/
56. Essay 9 — Learning the Lessons for Teen Challenge Inc. Australia (1957-2020): https://drnevillebuch.com/projects/intellectual-history/tcq/essay-9-learning-the-lessons-for-teen-challenge-inc-australia-1957-2020/
57. The History of Ruth 1: https://drnevillebuch.com/projects/personal-history/the-history-of-ruth/the-social-worker/cathy-martin-24-may-2014/
58. The History of Ruth 2: https://drnevillebuch.com/projects/personal-history/the-history-of-ruth/the-long-journey/margaret-warnick-19-may-2017/
Part Three: Church: 17. The Place of Christian Theology in the University. I have shown that higher education and universities have failed according to our large, and often entangled, horizon worldviews.
59. Synopsis for Book Project. Horizon Worldviews: The Makings of A Broad Society In Queensland 1911-2001 (a Philosophic History): https://drnevillebuch.com/synopsis-for-book-project-horizon-worldviews-the-makings-of-a-broad-society-in-queensland-1911-2001-a-philosophic-history/
With this evidence that 1) for a plea to be employed, or have a contract, to the level of my knowledge-base and skills, and 2) a clear demonstration that I am an academic and popular scholar at the global cutting-edge of several fields of knowledge, then3), from the blog article, the question has to be ask why I am not employed or contracted in an Australian university or think-tank.
I end this blog article with a series of public statements on my work:
“…give me time to absorb Neville’s work and schedule a meetup with you so you and I can also go ‘NEXT level’.”
“I should mention that I read the paper on Runcorn that you e-mailed me in the summer and enjoyed it a lot.” [a global sociologist from the United States]
“By contrast, studies of individual schools are comparatively rare in the periodical literature for 2016, although some are mentioned in other sections of this review. Two articles in the Australian journal History of Education Review are exceptions: Neville Douglas Buch and Beryl Roberts present a quantitative study of pupils from a Brisbane school in the early twentieth century, while Tony James Brady considers the education of warders’ children at the St Helena Penal Establishment in Queensland in the late nineteenth.”
“Thanks for that reference, I have read it. What a pleasant change, to see an academic reference to support a point of view.”
“Yours has the distinction of being the last paper I edited for Lucas at the end of my 30 year stint. It was a good note on which to finish.”
“That’s a great strong letter you’ve written there. I hope you get a response and a result.”
“Many thanks Neville for the kind message. And apologies for the inevitable silence which must descend as I try to makes sense of, and contribute to, a very different role. But appreciate your support and encouragement along the way.”
“Your project proposal exploring the foundations of the History profession in Queensland and the importance of UQ’s historians, was highly regarded by the panel.”
“I want to express my appreciation for your recent application for the position of Program Director (The Queensland Commitment) R-38317. Your interest in joining The University of Queensland truly means a lot to us, and we are genuinely appreciative of the effort and time you dedicated to your application.”
On 7 May 2015 I was contacted by Ingrid Bergenstrahle, art collector from Sweden, who had purchased an oil painting in good condition, signed “H Buch 1894”, which measured about 25 by 36 cm with gilded frame about 41 by 51 cm. It was purchased at an auction in Malmö Sweden. The auction house was Lauritz, the largest auction house in Scandinavia. It is where Ingrid Bergenstrahle worked as an expert in jewellery diamonds and old tools from prehistory. Ms Bergenstrahle believed the “H Buch” was Hans Rasmussen Buch, my great grandfather, the father of Hans Buch, the eldest son, who was the father of my father, Douglas Buch, the younger of two brothers –my uncle Henry passed away several decades ago. I never knew either grand or great-grand father, dying before I was born. I am the eldest among my brother and sister. Not that any of the genealogy matters in the way that people generally think it matters.
Close up of East Brisbane Painting, depicting Hanworth House, by Hans Rasmussen Buch
What was significant was that it appeared that an early twentieth century minor Queensland artist has had an artwork depicting a local Queensland landscape sold in auction, in good condition, in Scandinavian in the early twentieth-first century. The delight of this discovery is not only the appearance of an artwork half-way-around the world, a century on, but if it is the artwork of Hans Rasmussen Buch, it is a reconnection to the origins of the family, in the region of Rudkjobing on the Isle of Langeland, Denmark.
Close up of East Brisbane Painting, depicting East Brisbane ridge from Norman Creek, Hanworth House centre, by Hans Rasmussen Buch
Two tasks were then presented: was the untitled painting from Sweden the work of Hans Rasmussen Buch? And what was the landscape depicted in the painting? The two questions and their answers would reinforce a conclusion. If the landscape depicted was a Queensland location close to where Hans Rasmussen Buch traversed, it would confirm the artist connection to the work. I enlisted the aid of Timothy Roberts, a specialist in Queensland art and decorative art heritage to 1945. Mr Roberts thought that the painting was conceived well and sensitively coloured. Like Ingrid Bergenstrahle’s original assessment, when the painting from the auction house is compared to the known works of Hans Rasmussen Buch, there are strong similarities in the strokes and features. Since there are no documentary ties in the provenance of the artwork found in Sweden, we can only conclude on the weight of affirming evidence that “H Buch” is the Queensland artist Hans Rasmussen Buch. The signature of Hans Rasmussen Buch fits with the basic signature on the painting; the senior Hans tended not to sign his artwork. To date there is no alternative conjectures for the identity of the artist, and thus, further evidence was needed on whether the location of the landscape depicted in the painting could confirm strongly in the direction of Hans Rasmussen Buch.
Heath Street Compared
The issue turns on the main distinctive feature in the painting being the homestead on the hill, in a common Queensland style of the era. Tim Roberts believed that it looks like a grand Queenslander with several chimneys and at least two dormer windows, and thought that those featured would narrow down the search for the location. From at least 1896 and for the next two decades, Hans Rasmussen Buch and the family resided in Heidelberg Street, East Brisbane. Discussions with Roy Buch, a senior cousin who has ownership of the other half of the Hans Rasmussen Buch’s art collection, lead us to start to consider the landscape of East Brisbane in the early twentieth century. It was at this point that Tim Roberts suggested that the homestead was Hanworth House, with the perspective of the painting being from a little creek around the modern-day Walter Ave/Real Park area. The painting depicted a view looking up what has become Heath Street. The ditch would be where Clarendon Street is now and the artist’s position would be just in Real Park. At the top of the hill, the gravel street would be Heidelberg. The assistance of East Brisbane historians Geraint and Justeen Gregory were sought.
Heath Street Area (painter’s position across from old tributary off the Creek marked)
It was concluded that the landscape image of the painting was 1) the rough match with topography today – the house is on the correct angle to the street as portrayed in the painting, the distance up the hill seems also to match; and 2) the view of the rear of the house in the painting is very similar to Hanworth House.
Aerial View Of Hanworth Street
Accepting the thesis of connecting the painting to Hans Rasmussen Buch, a third question comes forth is how the painting came to be in Scandinavia. As Roy Buch points out, who would Hans senior and Louisa (Han’s wife) be sending a painting to in Denmark, since Hans parents already passed away. Roy’s only thought was that the painting could have been sent to Louisa’s mother, Johansine Emilie Andersen. Equally, it might have had something to do with Hans Rasmussen Buch’s role as President of the Danish Association “Heimdal” for 1894-1895 and for 1899-1900.
Dr Buch’s Historiography as Business. It is Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642. It is a Not-For-Profit business. Income is to sustain the business. What the general population does not understand is the cost to the professional historian. To take my best example:
I have not been paid for a formal contract since late 2017. The income 2019-2021 was the non-profit investment into my business. What it demonstrates over the life of the business, since 2009-2010, is that the average annual cost for the business has been $4,000-$5,000 which is the average cost of paying a contract. One quarter for the not-for-profit business, to be sustainable, would be a few hundred dollars.
This is the financial report. Unfortunately, as a general truth, most businesses priorities the finances above the quality of the product, and, furthermore, most businesses considered the product as bullshit thinking (yes, a thing), when the thinking on the product challenges the finances. Where’s the evidence? See the bibliography. However, just on a personal positioning: the question is why have not I had a contract since late 2017? I am saying that the Australian demography is against me. For evidence for this argument. see https://drnevillebuch.com/news/
IMPACT
My sound, but radical, argument is that the over-prioritizing finances does not determine 1) quality of the product (scholarship, history, in this case), 2) fair pay, and 3) what the common person calls, “reality.”
My daily writing is in the main blog articles and essays. The below image is a measure of my impact from one of two major blogging platforms, as of November 1, 2024. I have three more platforms I regularly use. In academia.edu I have just reached an international audience of over 7000 persons, with nearly 3000 persons highly engaged. I average 2-3 scholarly blogs a week.
When I started my career with an honours’ thesis, it was attitudes in Queensland history I was examining. My doctorate extended the examination with philosophical valuations in common life. My commitment to intellectual history has always reflected the same commitment to public history. There is significant pressure on the history industry to change its attitude. Money does speak for a period of time. Business contractors can work on the principle of who “calls the piper pays the tunes”, and attempt to skew the histories. But as Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” There are early signs that the history industry is coming out of a slumber, and hopefully return (somewhat close) to the golden age of Australian history in the 1970s and 1980s. Spiral Historiography.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anwar, J., Shah, S., & Hasnu, S. (2016). Business Strategy and Organizational Performance: Measures and Relationships. Pakistan Economic and Social Review, 54(1), 97–122. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26616701
Bamberger, K. A., & Lobel, O. (2017). Platform Market Power. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 32(3), 1051–1092. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26488977
Berry, S., Gaynor, M., & Morton, F. S. (2019). Do Increasing Markups Matter? Lessons from Empirical Industrial Organization. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33(3), 44–68. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26732321
Brennan, M. J. (1995). Corporate Finance over the Past 25 Years. Financial Management, 24(2), 9–22. https://doi.org/10.2307/3665531
Cook, A., & Glass, C. (2015). Do minority leaders affect corporate practice? Analyzing the effect of leadership composition on governance and product development. Strategic Organization, 13(2), 117–140. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26478206
Eid, R., Elbeltagi, I., & Zairi, M. (2006). Making Business-to-Business International Internet Marketing Effective: A Study of Critical Factors Using a Case-Study Approach. Journal of International Marketing, 14(4), 87–109. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25049066
Einav, L., & Levin, J. (2014). The Data Revolution and Economic Analysis. Innovation Policy and the Economy, 14(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1086/674019
Esty, D. C. (2017). Red Lights to Green Lights: From 20th Century Environmental Regulation to 21st Century Sustainability. Environmental Law, 47(1), 1–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44219037
Filatotchev, I., & Nakajima, C. (2014). Corporate Governance, Responsible Managerial Behavior, and Corporate Social Responsibility: Organizational Efficiency Versus Organizational Legitimacy? Academy of Management Perspectives, 28(3), 289–306. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43822069
Ghemawat, P. (2002). Competition and Business Strategy in Historical Perspective. The Business History Review, 76(1), 37–74. https://doi.org/10.2307/4127751
Khan, L. M. (2019). The Separation of Platforms and Commerce. Columbia Law Review, 119(4), 973–1098. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26632275
Mithas, S., Tafti, A., & Mitchell, W. (2013). How a Firm’s Competitive Environment and Digital Strategic Posture Influence Digital Business Strategy. MIS Quarterly, 37(2), 511–536. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43825921
Mok, K. H. (2000). Impact of Globalization: A Study of Quality Assurance Systems of Higher Education in Hong Kong and Singapore. Comparative Education Review, 44(2), 148–174. https://doi.org/10.1086/447601
Oh, W., & Pinsonneault, A. (2007). On the Assessment of the Strategic Value of Information Technologies: Conceptual and Analytical Approaches. MIS Quarterly, 31(2), 239–265. https://doi.org/10.2307/25148790
Omagu, D. O. (2012). State, Politics, and Globalisation. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 21, 70–98. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41857190
Walker, O. C., & Ruekert, R. W. (1987). Marketing’s Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework. Journal of Marketing, 51(3), 15–33. https://doi.org/10.2307/1251645
Featured Image: Dr Neville Buch with Fryer Manager Simon-Farley at the Geopoetry Talk University of Queensland (QU), 30 October 2018.
(Robert Buch in front of) Norman Creek Sailboats on Danish Waters. Still Life — Flowers Untitled, no date. Still Life — Fruit Tree overlooking river A mountain path near Eide, Norway, no date. Heidelberg Street, East Brisbane Creek at sunset Backyard view at East Brisbane. Augusta Buch jun Hans Buch jun, 1909 Sunset in the Hardanger, Norway Ischia — Mount Epomea
Hans Rasmussen Buch was a local Brisbane artist. Unfortunately little is known about his oil paintings that have survived. The paintings are in the possession of three of Han’s Rasmussen’s descendents.
Half a dozen paintings are in the collection of a grandson (Roy Buch) and great grand-daughter (Carol Rice), the son & grand-daughter of Hans Rasmussen’s son, Robert.
The thirteen paintings listed below were originally in the collection of a great grandson (Neville Buch), the eldest grandson of Hans Rasmussen’s son, Hans. In August 2011 three of the paintings were donated to the State Library of Queensland. These are three paintings which are particularly important in that they depict scenes of East Brisbane around the turn of the twentieth century.
Many of the paintings are slightly damaged and three paintings are significantly damaged. There is a tear in the portrait of Hans Buch Jr. Many of paintings have their original ornate frames. The large painting of the backyard view at East Brisbane has no frame at all. Quite of a few of the frames need repairs.
There is no evidence that Hans painted the two Norwegian paintings, the ‘Danish Waters’ and ‘Ischia’ paintings, in Europe and brought them to Queensland in 1887. Roy Buch remembers that Hans Rasmussen painted scenes from geographical magazines.
Roy Buch indicates that the board used in many of the paintings are referred to as “Beaver Board”.
Hans Rasmussen Buch
Hans Rasmussen Buch was born on 11 February 1852. He lived out his childhood in a house on Rainshead Street, in the township of Rudkjobing on the Isle of Langeland, Denmark.
On 15 September 1878 Hans married Augusta Louise Andersen at St Paul’s Church, Copenhagen. The couple lived in few different homes in Copenhagen before residing in Norregarde around 1884-1885. The Queensland colonial government was recruiting for Scandinavian migrants, sending agents to the three Scandinavian countries, and advertising in these countries with handbills and poster billboards. The Queensland government offered an assisted passage program for would-be immigrants. It would have been a momentous decision for Hans & Augusta. Thousands of Northern & Southern Europeans were migrating to the Americas and Australasia in the late nineteenth century but it meant a total extraction from the familiar environment of extended family & culture, and ending up in primitive townships set against an alien landscape. To take such an adventure, you probably felt that the prospects were not particularly good in the home country and that the other-side of the world promised some second chance for a better life.
By this time Hans & Augusta had four children. A daughter, Veronica, died in infancy. With three boys, Robert (age 5), Hans Jr (age 2), and Albert (Age 1), they made their way to London in 1886. At Blackwall Pier on the London Docks, the family departed aboard the ship “Almora”, on 11 January 1887. The Buch family arrived in Rockhampton later in the year. The family travelled as “Free Nominated”, as opposed to Assisted, Free or Remittance Passage. Hans was listed as a painter and Hans & Augusta were in their early thirties.
The journey would have been arduous. Whether from the travel or succumbing to the new conditions of tropical Queensland, young Robert died in Rockhampton in a matter of weeks from the time of their arrival. A few months after Robert’s death, Emily was born. Carl was born three years later, meaning that Hans & Augusta again had four children, all under the age of six, this time living in George Street, Rockhampton.
Sometime between 1890 and 1892 the Buch family moved down the Queensland coast to Brisbane. They lived, in short succession, in Paris Street, West End, and both Ashfield Street and Heidelberg Street, East Brisbane. From at least 1896 and for the next two decades, they resided in Heidelberg Street. The three younger children were added to the family – Elsa, Augusta, and (another) Robert. Albert, born two years before the family left Denmark, only made it to his 19th birthday; he died in 1904. With Albert’s demise, the middle-aged Hans & Augusta shared the house with the adult & eldest son Hans and five other children.
Figure 1: Buch Children circa 1898. From L-R, Elsa, Carl (Top), Robert, Hans, Augusta, Albert, Emily.
Hans Rasmussen Buch was active during these years in the local Danish Association, known as “Heimdal”. The association was established in 1872, in Brisbane; originally as a broad Scandinavian society, the first in Australia. From 1929 it became an exclusively Danish friendly society. Hans served as President of the Danish Association “Heimdal” for 1894-1895 and for 1899-1900.
Han’s wife, Augusta Louise, died in 1915. In his widower years Hans lived with his eldest son and his family. He lived for most of those years in Slacks Creek and died on 10th July 1935.
Neville Buch (Pronounced Book) Ph.D. is a certified member of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). Since 2010 he has operated a sole trade business in history consultancy. He was a Q ANZAC 100 Fellow 2014-2015 at the State Library of Queensland. Dr Buch was the PHA (Qld) e-Bulletin, the monthly state association’s electronic publication, and was a member of its Management Committee. He is the Managing Director of the Brisbane Southside History Network.
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