Category: Engaging

Enjoyed being one of four historians asked to reflect on what they thought MOST shaped Australian history. Fortunately we all had slightly different answers, but they all certainly rhymed. Mine starts: "Failure to come to terms with Indigenous dispossession haunts Australian history at every turn. Contrary to common assumptions, it did not have to be … Continue reading HistoryToday on Australian History

I am a bit slow to this—I spoke with Paul Daley at the Guardian last December about this, but then didn't notice it come out. I assumed the project had been binned. But today for some reason I came across it! Daley wrote it for readers to find some hope in the dark days after … Continue reading Recommendations on Hope

My favourite online magazine Inside Story thought it was going to close down a few months ago. I was very sad to hear it. Some of the magazine's regular authors were asked to write a reflection on one of their pieces as a kind of farewell. I unhappily did so for the first piece I … Continue reading Five Years On…

Another review for Inside Story, on a topic that I didn't think I would know enough to write upon. But it turns out this great book by Kate Loveman on Pepys's famous 17th-century diary is mostly about the different ways readers have and can approach history. Loved it. Here it begins: The website pepysdiary.com has been posting … Continue reading Gateways to History and Samuel Pepys

Loved writing this more personal (for me) and reflective essay for Australian Book Review. It begins: Zoom in. The most unusual detail in this painting is the left hand, with tattooed dots carefully spaced across its back and knuckles. The fingers themselves are poorly done. The thumb and pointer are folded into the figure’s thick … Continue reading Questions for Mai – ABR essay

Loved doing this podcast with Richard Whatmore for the ANU's new Urgent History series. It was based mostly on Richard's last book, The End of Enlightenment (2023), which I reviewed in May 2024 in Inside Story. Here we discuss his book, eighteenth-century Europe, the Voice Referendum, and Trumpian USA. This series looks like a good … Continue reading Podcast on Enlightenment

The best advocacy I could do right now as a historian is to help fight for equity and recognition of the value of the humanities and social sciences in Australia. Both are under severe threat, from both the government and Vice Chancellors (who take their cues from govt). Most specifically we fight the egregious Job-Ready … Continue reading Advocacy for Humanities

The art journal J18 recently published a roundtable that I led in 2024 on Joshua Reynolds' Mai portrait. The roundtable discussion is reproduced here in a fashion; it reflects something of the rich conversations we had. It includes seven of the participants as well as the keynote, Prof. Peter Brunt. My thanks to Robert Wellington … Continue reading Roundtable on Reynolds’ Mai

Some things come in clusters. I was profiled by my associated organisations recently. Both here below by the Australian Historical Association and here by my employer ACU, where I discussed my upbringing and life in Canberra. And here is a scholarly review of many of my works.