In 2001 Neville Meaney published a landmark article which questioned the place of nationalism in Australian historiography. He argued that up to the 1960s Britishness, not nationalism, was the hegemonic marker of identity for Australians, and warned that nationalist historians had fallen into the trap of writing their histories through nationalism’s own teleological imperative. This article revisits Meaney’s hegemonic claim for the role of Britishness in Australian history by arguing that he went too far. By leeching out nationalism as an ideology at play in Australian politics in the mid-twentieth century historians are in danger of taking Australian history out of its world historical context: the Age of Decolonisation.
Language
eng
Field of Research
210303 Australian History (excl Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History)
Socio Economic Objective
970121 Expanding Knowledge in History and Archaeology
Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au.