HSY1040

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 national identity 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 Students will also develop their skills in the critical analysis of different kinds of sources (including historical documents and visual evidence), while tutorial exercises will focus on writing skills and strategies.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 issues from Australia's past which are still debated in the present day, including: the changing understandings of the natural environment; Aboriginal and European attitudes towards the land; population control, demography and reproduction; and.education, delinquency and youth. The subject also examines changing conceptions of `national identity' and citizenship 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 UQP, 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
Peel M A little history of Australia MUP, 1997
Rickard J Australia: A cultural history Longman, 1997
Reiger K The disenchantment of the home: Modernizing the Australian family, 1900- 1940 OUP, 1986