Ann Curthoys

Paul Robeson was once the most famous African American in the world. Not only was he a renowned singer and actor with a stunning bass baritone voice, he was also a former professional athlete, lawyer and civil rights activist. Paul and his wife, Eslanda—a notable civil rights activist, author, United Nations journalist and anthropologist—were finally able to tour Australia and New Zealand. First mooted in the 1930s, it had been delayed by war and then the Cold War, when Paul’s outspoken support for the Soviet Union and against his country’s race relations had led the US government to deny him a passport until 1958. Now, in 1960, the tour occurred at a time when the world was at the tipping point between the Cold War 1950s and the turbulent 1960s. The Robesons’ tour encompassed concerts—the first one ever at the Sydney Opera House, which was still under construction—talks to unionists, fans, women’s organisations, communists, and peace activists. It involved active engagement with Indigenous peoples and their struggles in both countries. Through the Robesons’ eyes we see life on the far Left, the emergence of new forms of Aboriginal and Maori protest, and the reception and influence of African American entertainers in Australia and New Zealand. By bringing Eslanda’s work as a writer and journalist to the fore, historian Ann Curthoys sheds light on the intersections of race, gender and women’s political activism. Based on extensive new documentary and oral history research, The Last Tour explores why Paul and Eslanda Robeson’s trip was such a success and how it exerted a profound influence both at the time and over future generations.

This book is a biographical history of Rottnest Island, a small carceral island offshore from Western Australia. Rottnest is also known as Wadjemup, or "the place across the water where the spirits are", by Noongar, the Indigenous people of south-western Australia. Through a series of biographical case studies of the diverse individuals connected to the island, the book argues that their particular histories lend Rottnest Island a unique heritage in which ? Indigenous, maritime, imperial, colonial, penal, and military histories intersect with histories of leisure and recreation. Tracing the way in which Wadjemup/Rottnest Island has been continually re-imagined and re-purposed throughout its history, the text explores the island’s carceral history, which has left behind it a painful community memory. Today it is best known as a beach holiday destination, a reputation bolstered by the "quokka selfie" trend, the online posting of photographs taken with the island’s cute native marsupial. This book will appeal to academic readers with an interest in Australian history, Aboriginal history, and the history of the British Empire, especially those interested in the burgeoning scholarship on the concept of "carceral archipelagos" and island prisons.

This book is a biographical history of Rottnest Island, a small carceral island offshore from Western Australia. Rottnest is also known as Wadjemup, or "the place across the water where the spirits are", by Noongar, the Indigenous people of south-western Australia. Through a series of biographical case studies of the diverse individuals connected to the island, the book argues that their particular histories lend Rottnest Island a unique heritage in which ? Indigenous, maritime, imperial, colonial, penal, and military histories intersect with histories of leisure and recreation. Tracing the way in which Wadjemup/Rottnest Island has been continually re-imagined and re-purposed throughout its history, the text explores the island’s carceral history, which has left behind it a painful community memory. Today it is best known as a beach holiday destination, a reputation bolstered by the "quokka selfie" trend, the online posting of photographs taken with the island’s cute native marsupial. This book will appeal to academic readers with an interest in Australian history, Aboriginal history, and the history of the British Empire, especially those interested in the burgeoning scholarship on the concept of "carceral archipelagos" and island prisons.

At last a history that explains how indigenous dispossession and survival underlay and shaped the birth of Australian democracy. The legacy of seizing a continent and alternately destroying and governing its original people shaped how white Australians came to see themselves as independent citizens. It also shows how shifting wider imperial and colonial politics influenced the treatment of indigenous Australians, and how indigenous people began to engage in their own ways with these new political institutions. It is, essentially, a bringing together of two histories that have hitherto been told separately: one concerns the arrival of early democracy in the Australian colonies, as white settlers moved from the shame and restrictions of the penal era to a new and freer society with their own institutions of government; the other is the tragedy of indigenous dispossession and displacement, with its frontier violence, poverty, disease and enforced regimes of mission life.

At last a history that explains how indigenous dispossession and survival underlay and shaped the birth of Australian democracy. The legacy of seizing a continent and alternately destroying and governing its original people shaped how white Australians came to see themselves as independent citizens. It also shows how shifting wider imperial and colonial politics influenced the treatment of indigenous Australians, and how indigenous people began to engage in their own ways with these new political institutions. It is, essentially, a bringing together of two histories that have hitherto been told separately: one concerns the arrival of early democracy in the Australian colonies, as white settlers moved from the shame and restrictions of the penal era to a new and freer society with their own institutions of government; the other is the tragedy of indigenous dispossession and displacement, with its frontier violence, poverty, disease and enforced regimes of mission life.

The title question becomes a rabbit-hole through which we tumble in search of an answer, encountering everyone from Herodotus to Humphrey Bogart along the way. Is History Fiction? is an invaluable guide on how to weld creative thinking and sound research into meaningful history, and how to understand the different arguments that have abounded throughout time regarding the nature of history. More than a book of theory, this innovative work is an asset to the undergraduate classroom and the research seminar alike. Is History Fiction? will be a welcome aid for teaching historical writing and examining an age-old question. Is History Fiction? is a must-read for undergraduate and graduate students and scholars from the humanities and social sciences, or anyone grappling with the enduring issues that have shaped the theory and practice of recording history. In this second edition, Curthoys and Docker bring their history of history up to the present in their study of the History Wars and new approaches to world history and environmental history.

An original and insightful examination of the ways in which history is - and might be - written. It traces history's divided nature, beginning with its founding figures, Herodotus and Thucydides, right up to the key figures of historical reflection, such as Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, and Hayden White. It also explores the challenges posed by postmodernism, and the literary conventions of historical writing.

This book examines the role of history in key Indigenous rights cases which occurred during the era of the Howard government, when Indigenous rights and the place of Aboriginal people in the national story were repudiated in a variety of government laws and policies. The book investigates how the courts have made use of historians as expert witnesses, and how the colonial past has been framed and understood by the courts. This is an important historical record of a unique period of litigation in Indigenous affairs in Australia.