Australia today: an historical perspective
Mark Peel
6 points
* Two lectures and one tutorial per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
Objectives In this subject, students will be expected to develop an understanding of key issues in Australian history and their relationship to present-day understandings of land, people and power, including the ways in which protagonists in contemporary debates interpret and `use' history. Students will also develop their skills in the critical analysis of different kinds of sources (including historical documents and visual evidence), while tutorial exercises will focus on writing skills and strategies.
Synopsis This subject examines events and issues from Australia's past which are still debated in the present day. `Land' examines the changing understandings of the natural environment and considers Aboriginal and European attitudes towards the land, technology, time and distance, and the construction and reconstruction of urban landscapes. `People' focuses on issues of population control, demography and reproduction, eugenics, childrearing, education, gender and generational identities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. `Power' examines changing conceptions of `national identity', citizenship and economic structure since 1901, including Australia's relationship to Britain and its place in the postwar world.
Assessment Tutorial exercises (1500 words): 35%
* Essay (2000
words): 40%
* Short answer examination (1 hour): 25%
Recommended texts
Bourke C, Bourke E and Edwards B Aboriginal Australia, University of Queensland Press, 1994
Grimshaw P, Lake M, McGrath, A and Quartly M Creating a nation, 1788-1990 McPhee Gribble, 1994
Macintyre S The Oxford history of Australia vol. 4, 1901-1942, OUP, 1986
McCalman J Struggletown: Portrait of an Australian working-class community 3rd edn, MUP, 1995
Reiger K The disenchantment of the home: Modernizing the Australian family, 1900-1940 OUP, 1986
Whitlock G and Carter D Images of Australia University of Queensland Press, 1992
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