What If? : Australian history as it might have been / edited by Stuart Macintyre and Sean Scalmer.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Macintyre, Stuart, 1947-2021.

Scalmer, Sean.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historiography.

Australia--History.

Australia.

History.

Australia--Historiography.

Imaginary histories.

Physical Description:

viii, 293 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Victoria, Australia : Melbourne University Press, 2006.

Summary:

Providing a play on actual historical events versus possible ones, this fascinating volume asks leading Australian historians to wonder what might be if key episodes in Australia's past had turned out differently. Re-imagining Australia's environment, race relations, art, political life, and national identity, this title poses such questions as "What if France had colonized part of Australia in the 18th century?" "What if the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps had played only a minor role in the Gallipoli landing in World War I?" and "What if Aborigines had been granted citizenship much earlier?"

Contents:

Statecraft

1 What if Tasmania had become French? / Jim Davidson 15

2 What if Alfred Deakin had made a declaration of Australian independence? / Marilyn Lake 29

3 What if Federation had failed in 1900? / Helen Irving 44

4 What if New South Wales had not paid parliamentarians until after Federation? / Frank Bongiorno 67

5 What if the federal government had created a model Aboriginal state? / Tim Rowse 89

6 What if Australia's baptism of fire had occurred at the Cocos Islands? / Stuart Macintyre 115

7 What if Whitlam had won another opportunity to implement his program? / James Walter 138

Society and Culture

8 What if there had been a school of figure painting in colonial Sydney? / Virginia Spate 163

9 What if Aborigines had never been assimilated? / Peter Read 187

10 What if the attempted assassination of Arthur Calwell had been successful? / Sean Scalmer 212

11 What if the northern rivers had been turned inland? / Tom Griffiths, Tim Sherratt 234

12 What if a men's movement had triumphed in the 1970s? / Ann Curthoys 255.

Notes:

Cover title: What If? Australia became a republic in 1908? The French had colonised Tasmania? Whitlam had stayed?

Includes bibliographic references and index.

ISBN:

9780522851748

0522851746

OCLC:

71244974