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history
Books & arts
That elusive je ne sais quoi
Alexis Bergantz
25 July 2021
Why did French culture matter not only to French migrants but also to colonial Australians?
Essays & reportage
The Great Divide
Bill Gammage
20 July 2021
The debate about
Dark Emu
is trapped in a centuries-old European worldview, says the author of
The Biggest Estate on Earth
Books & arts
Sea of islands
Alison Bashford
16 July 2021
Anthropologist Nicholas Thomas is a skilled and knowledgeable guide to Pacific voyaging
Books & arts
Funny things happened on the way to the Forum
Brett Evans
9 July 2021
Even the Romans used jokes to drive home their point, though they tend to lose something in the translation
National affairs
The National Archives matter for government as well
Mark Finnane
2 July 2021
More than a “nation’s memory” is at stake in the funding debate
From the archive
Shanghai, July 1921
Linda Jaivin
30 June 2021
When communist delegates met secretly in Shanghai in July 1921, their individual fates — as well as their party’s — were impossible to foresee
National affairs
The place of reconciliation
Amanda Nettelbeck
29 June 2021
Does our opening up to Indigenous history work best locally?
From the archive
Born survivor
Hamish McDonald
25 June 2021
A seasoned observer of Indonesian politics has written a gripping account of Soeharto’s early years
National affairs
A certain class of consent
Alecia Simmonds
18 June 2021
Is a concept drawn from contract law the best test of sexual assault?
Books & arts
Sydney’s modernist wave
Meg Brayshaw
18 June 2021
Linked by its famous waterway, the city’s interwar fiction proved remarkably prescient
Books & arts
The teller and the tale
Tim Rowse
16 June 2021
What is Indigenous knowledge and who has it? Tim Rowse reviews Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe’s critique of Bruce Pascoe’s
Dark Emu
National affairs
Dr X meets his end
Frank Bongiorno
12 June 2021
Buying the Sydney Swans bolstered the swashbuckling 1980s image of medical entrepreneur Geoffrey Edelsten, who died this week
Essays & reportage
Why does Truth come third?
Kate Fullagar
8 June 2021
The awarding of the Sydney Peace Prize to the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a reminder of the challenges it raises for historians
Books & arts
Gloves off
Carolyn Collins
5 June 2021
Beguiled by familiar photos, have we forgotten one of the first anti–Vietnam war groups?
Books & arts
Menzies the puritan idealist
Ian Hancock
4 June 2021
Conservative or liberal? A new book about the former prime minister rejects the old binary in favour of two other strands of thought
Books & arts
Metamorphosis
Peter Singer
31 May 2021
Why the world needed a new edition of
The Golden Ass
Essays & reportage
The 1967 referendum: inspiration or burden?
Tim Rowse
27 May 2021
The overwhelming Yes vote still grips our imagination
Books & arts
“Better to lose Australia”
Mark Edele
25 May 2021
Sean McMeekin’s new account of Stalin’s war will suit Vladimir Putin very well
From the archive
Becoming Taiwanese
Klaus Neumann
18 May 2021
Memories and identities have proved surprisingly adaptable in a society forged by migration
Books & arts
All quiet about the Western Front
Margaret Hutchison
17 May 2021
Why did Australians forget the battles of 1917?
Books & arts
Become what you are!
Seumas Spark
17 May 2021
One man’s unspoken
Dunera
story lies behind an exhibition in rural Victoria
Essays & reportage
Friendless in the courtroom
Alecia Simmonds
14 May 2021
Women’s full right — and responsibility — to sit on juries came late to Australia
From the archive
In the shadow of heroes
Klaus Neumann
7 May 2021
The centenary of the birth of Sophie Scholl, the Munich student executed in 1943, prompts reflections on the legacy of Germany’s anti-Nazi resistance
National affairs
The wait of history
Frank Bongiorno
7 May 2021
Inadequate funding doesn’t explain all the problems at the National Archives
Essays & reportage
The names inlaid
Anne-Marie Condé
24 April 2021
A photograph in the Australian War Memorial sends our contributor on a journey to a Tasmania rent by war
Essays & reportage
The fall of Singapore
Mark Baker
24 April 2021
Extract
| Signals officer Doug Lush witnessed up close the disastrous impact of a strategic miscalculation
Books & arts
Balkan polyphony
Sara Dowse
16 April 2021
Books
| The region that gave the world the word “balkanised” proves a fascinating setting for a travel book with a difference
Books & arts
A style we could call our own?
Gary Werskey
12 April 2021
It’s time for a new conversation about Australian impressionism
Essays & reportage
Was Bob Askin corrupt?
Mike Steketee
9 April 2021
With a new book reopening the debate about the one-time NSW premier’s behaviour in office, our correspondent assesses the evidence
National affairs
Invisible arrivals
Stuart Macintyre
1 April 2021
The national identities ascribed to Australia’s postwar migrants masked a striking diversity of backgrounds and attitudes
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