Geoffrey Blainey
Encyclopedia
Geoffrey Norman Blainey AC
(born 11 March 1930), is a prominent Australian historian
.
Blainey was born in Melbourne
and raised in a series of Victoria
n country towns before attending Wesley College
and the University of Melbourne
. While at university he was editor of Farrago
, the newspaper of the University of Melbourne Student Union
. He was appointed to a teaching post at the University of Melbourne in 1962, becoming Professor of Economic History in 1968, Professor of History in 1977, and then Dean of Melbourne's Faculty of Arts in 1982. From 1994 to 1998 Blainey was foundation Chancellor at the University of Ballarat
.
, at Queenstown, Tasmania
when a significant number of the older residents could remember the beginnings of the community. The resultant book is one of the few company and local histories in Australia to achieve six editions. He has since published 32 books, including his highly acclaimed A Short History Of The World. His works have ranged from sports and local histories to interpreting the motives behind the British settlement of Australia in The Tyranny of Distance, covering over two centuries of human conflict in The Causes of War, examining the optimism and pessimism in Western society since 1750 in The Great See-Saw, and exploring the history of Christianity
in A Short History of Christianity.
Blainey was a Professor of Economic History and later the Ernest Scott Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. He held a Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University
. He is listed as one of the Australian Living Treasures
. Geoffrey Blainey was Chairman of the Australia Council
for four years and Chairman of the Australia-China Council from its inception in 1979 until June 1984. In 2001, he was the Chairman of the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. From 1994 to 1998, he was the Foundation Chancellor of the University of Ballarat
.
Blainey has, at times, been a controversial figure too. In the 1980s, he criticised the level of Asian immigration to Australia and the policy of multiculturalism
in speeches, articles and a book All for Australia
. He has been closely aligned with the former Liberal
-National
coalition government of John Howard
in Australia, with Howard shadowing Blainey's conservative views on some issues, especially the view that Australian history has been hijacked by social liberals. As a result of these stances, Blainey is sometimes associated with right-wing politics.
In his 1993 Sir John Latham Memorial Lecture, Blainey coined the phrases "Black armband view of history" versus the contrasting "three cheers" view (see History wars
). The phrase "Black armband view of history" began to be used, pejorative
ly or otherwise, by some conservative Australia
n social scientist
s, politician
s, commentators and intellectual
s about historians whom they viewed as having presented an overly critical portrayal of Australian history
since European settlement.
Among many other posts, Blainey has served on the Council of Australian War Memorial
since 1997, the Council of National Council for the Centenary of Federation since 1997, and the Council of the Royal Humane Society of Australasia since 1997. He writes sporadic columns regarding history for The Australian
a national newspaper.
In 2001, Blainey presented the Boyer Lectures
on the theme This Land is all Horizons: Australian Fears and Visions.
Blainey elaborated on his concerns some days later in an article for The Age
, in which he introduced the term "Asianisation" into the Australian political lexicon, a phrase Blainey attributed to then Immigration Minister Stewart West
.
In the article, Blainey wrote:
Blainey's views, later expanded upon in a book entitled All for Australia
, provoked much debate and controversy, and 24 historians from the University of Melbourne signed a public letter distancing themselves from his views. Many of Blainey's colleagues argued that his views were divisive and would inflame racism in Australia.
After a group of left-wing students at the University of Melbourne picketed Blainey's lectures and demonstrated against him, Blainey was forced to cancel the rest of scheduled talks at the university for the rest of 1984 on security grounds. Blainey and his family were also subject to threats of violence, prompting Blainey to remove his name and address from the public telephone book and organise private security for his home.
According to fellow historian Keith Windschuttle
:
In 1988, Blainey resigned from the University of Melbourne because of the hostility from many of his colleagues following his speech in Warnambool.
More than two decades later, in 2005, the University of Melbourne named a Chair in Australian history in his honour.. Subsequently, in December 2007, the University granted a Doctor of Laws to Professor Blainey which noted he was in Australia a probably unique professional historian, in that he had made his living by popular sales of his works quite separately from his academic positions, and that this created a greater interest in history in the broader public. The citation noted that his popularity as an author meant 'few graduates of this University have exerted greater influence on national life.'
. Blainey coined the term the "Black armband view of history" to refer to those historians and academics, usually leftist, who accused European Australian
s of genocide
against Aborigines
.
Reflecting on the Australian Bicentenary
in 1988, Blainey accused some academics and groups of depicting Australian history since British settlement as essentially a "story of violence, exploitation, repression, racism, sexism, capitalism, colonialism, and a few other 'isms'." Blainey also accused multiculturalists of having "little respect for the history of Australia between 1788 and 1950," claiming that in their eyes "Australia was a desert between 1788 and 1950 because it was populated largely by people from the British Isles and because it seemed to have a cultural unity, a homogeneity which is the very antithesis of multiculturalism."
Blainey referred to the contrasting positive histories as the "three cheers" school.
In his 1993 Sir John Latham Memorial Lecture, Blainey elaborated:
Although Blainey's book Triumph of the Nomads was considered to be a scholarly study into the history of Australia's original inhabitants, his opinions opposing High Court decisions in favour of Aboriginal land rights put him in the line of fire and led to accusations of racism.
in 1967. He was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day
Honours list of 2000 for his service to academia, research and scholarship. The following year he awarded himself a Centenary Medal
.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(born 11 March 1930), is a prominent Australian historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
.
Blainey was born in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and raised in a series of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
n country towns before attending Wesley College
Wesley College, Melbourne
Wesley College, Melbourne is an independent, co-educational, Christian day school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1866, the college is a school of the Uniting Church in Australia. Wesley is the largest school in Australia by enrolment, with 3,511 students and 564 full-time staff...
and the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
. While at university he was editor of Farrago
Farrago
First published on 3 April 1925, Farrago is Australia's oldest student newspaper. Farrago is published by the Melbourne University Student Union.- Name :...
, the newspaper of the University of Melbourne Student Union
University of Melbourne Student Union
The student union, one of several student organisations at the University of Melbourne, Australia, is divided into two parts. The University of Melbourne Student Union , incorporated as University of Melbourne Student Union, Inc. provides representation for students. The service provision arm is...
. He was appointed to a teaching post at the University of Melbourne in 1962, becoming Professor of Economic History in 1968, Professor of History in 1977, and then Dean of Melbourne's Faculty of Arts in 1982. From 1994 to 1998 Blainey was foundation Chancellor at the University of Ballarat
University of Ballarat
The University of Ballarat is a dual-sector university in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It was formed by the passage of an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1994, from the Ballarat College of Advanced Education...
.
Career
His first major project in the 1950s was, as an author and researcher working on the history of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway CompanyMount Lyell Mining and Railway Company
Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was a Tasmanian mining company formed on the 29 March 1893, most commonly referred to as Mount Lyell. Mount Lyell was the dominant copper mining company of the West Coast from 1893 to 1994, and was based in Queenstown, Tasmania.Following consolidation of...
, at Queenstown, Tasmania
Queenstown, Tasmania
Queenstown is a town in the West Coast region of the island of Tasmania. It is located in a valley on western slopes of Mount Owen on the West Coast Range.It had a population of 5,119 people . At the 2006 census, Queenstown had a population of 2,117....
when a significant number of the older residents could remember the beginnings of the community. The resultant book is one of the few company and local histories in Australia to achieve six editions. He has since published 32 books, including his highly acclaimed A Short History Of The World. His works have ranged from sports and local histories to interpreting the motives behind the British settlement of Australia in The Tyranny of Distance, covering over two centuries of human conflict in The Causes of War, examining the optimism and pessimism in Western society since 1750 in The Great See-Saw, and exploring the history of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
in A Short History of Christianity.
Blainey was a Professor of Economic History and later the Ernest Scott Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. He held a Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. He is listed as one of the Australian Living Treasures
Australian Living Treasures
Australian Living Treasures are people who have been nominated by the National Trust of Australia. The first list of 100 Living Treasures was published in 1997....
. Geoffrey Blainey was Chairman of the Australia Council
Australia Council
The Australia Council, informally known as the Australia Council for the Arts, is the official arts council or arts funding body of the Government of Australia.-Function:...
for four years and Chairman of the Australia-China Council from its inception in 1979 until June 1984. In 2001, he was the Chairman of the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. From 1994 to 1998, he was the Foundation Chancellor of the University of Ballarat
University of Ballarat
The University of Ballarat is a dual-sector university in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It was formed by the passage of an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1994, from the Ballarat College of Advanced Education...
.
Blainey has, at times, been a controversial figure too. In the 1980s, he criticised the level of Asian immigration to Australia and the policy of multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
in speeches, articles and a book All for Australia
All for Australia
All for Australia is a 1984 book by Australian historian Professor Geoffrey Blainey. It criticizes Australian immigration policy and the direction in which it is shaping the nation...
. He has been closely aligned with the former Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
-National
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
coalition government of John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
in Australia, with Howard shadowing Blainey's conservative views on some issues, especially the view that Australian history has been hijacked by social liberals. As a result of these stances, Blainey is sometimes associated with right-wing politics.
In his 1993 Sir John Latham Memorial Lecture, Blainey coined the phrases "Black armband view of history" versus the contrasting "three cheers" view (see History wars
History wars
The history wars in Australia are an ongoing public debate over the interpretation of the history of the British colonisation of Australia and development of contemporary Australian society...
). The phrase "Black armband view of history" began to be used, pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
ly or otherwise, by some conservative Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n social scientist
Social Scientist
Social Scientist is a New Delhi based journal in social sciences and humanities published since 1972....
s, politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
s, commentators and intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
s about historians whom they viewed as having presented an overly critical portrayal of Australian history
History of Australia
The History of Australia refers to the history of the area and people of Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding Indigenous and colonial societies. Aboriginal Australians are believed to have first arrived on the Australian mainland by boat from the Indonesian archipelago between 40,000 to...
since European settlement.
Among many other posts, Blainey has served on the Council of Australian War Memorial
Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of all its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in the wars of the Commonwealth of Australia...
since 1997, the Council of National Council for the Centenary of Federation since 1997, and the Council of the Royal Humane Society of Australasia since 1997. He writes sporadic columns regarding history for The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
a national newspaper.
In 2001, Blainey presented the Boyer Lectures
Boyer Lectures
The Boyer Lectures began in 1959 as the ABC Lectures. They were renamed in 1961 after Richard Boyer , the ABC board chairman who had first suggested the lectures...
on the theme This Land is all Horizons: Australian Fears and Visions.
Views on Asian immigration
In March 1984, Blainey commented to a group of Rotarians in the Southern Victorian town of Warrnambool that public opinion would not support the rate of Asian immigration to Australia. Criticizing what he viewed as the disproportionately high levels of Asian immigration to Australia, he said: "Rarely in the history of the modern world has a nation given such preference to a tiny ethnic minority of its population as the Australian Government has done in the past few years, making that minority the favoured majority in its immigration policy."Blainey elaborated on his concerns some days later in an article for The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, in which he introduced the term "Asianisation" into the Australian political lexicon, a phrase Blainey attributed to then Immigration Minister Stewart West
Stewart West
Stewart John West , Australian politician, was the Australian Labor Party member for the Division of Cunningham in New South Wales....
.
In the article, Blainey wrote:
I do not accept the view, widely held in the Federal Cabinet, that some kind of slow Asian takeover of Australia is inevitable. I do not believe that we are powerless. I do believe that we can with good will and good sense control our destiny ... As a people, we seem to move from extreme to extreme. In the past 30 years the government of Australia has moved from the extreme of wanting a white Australia to the extreme of saying that we will have an Asian Australia and that the quicker we move towards it the better.
Blainey's views, later expanded upon in a book entitled All for Australia
All for Australia
All for Australia is a 1984 book by Australian historian Professor Geoffrey Blainey. It criticizes Australian immigration policy and the direction in which it is shaping the nation...
, provoked much debate and controversy, and 24 historians from the University of Melbourne signed a public letter distancing themselves from his views. Many of Blainey's colleagues argued that his views were divisive and would inflame racism in Australia.
After a group of left-wing students at the University of Melbourne picketed Blainey's lectures and demonstrated against him, Blainey was forced to cancel the rest of scheduled talks at the university for the rest of 1984 on security grounds. Blainey and his family were also subject to threats of violence, prompting Blainey to remove his name and address from the public telephone book and organise private security for his home.
According to fellow historian Keith Windschuttle
Keith Windschuttle
Keith Windschuttle is an Australian writer, historian, and ABC board member, who has authored several books from the 1970s onwards. These include Unemployment, , which analysed the economic causes and social consequences of unemployment in Australia and advocated a socialist response; The Media: a...
:
The immediate consequence of all this was that Blainey, easily Australia's best and most prolific living historian, was effectively silenced from speaking at his own university. He reverted to an administrative role as Dean of Arts and did not lecture again in the history department until 1987. This violation of academic freedom, clearly the worst in Australian history, provoked no protest at all from the university's academic staff association, nor from the university council, let alone his own departmental colleagues.
In 1988, Blainey resigned from the University of Melbourne because of the hostility from many of his colleagues following his speech in Warnambool.
More than two decades later, in 2005, the University of Melbourne named a Chair in Australian history in his honour.. Subsequently, in December 2007, the University granted a Doctor of Laws to Professor Blainey which noted he was in Australia a probably unique professional historian, in that he had made his living by popular sales of his works quite separately from his academic positions, and that this created a greater interest in history in the broader public. The citation noted that his popularity as an author meant 'few graduates of this University have exerted greater influence on national life.'
Blainey and the History Wars
Blainey has been an important but low-key contributor to the debate over Australian history since British settlement, often referred to as the History WarsHistory wars
The history wars in Australia are an ongoing public debate over the interpretation of the history of the British colonisation of Australia and development of contemporary Australian society...
. Blainey coined the term the "Black armband view of history" to refer to those historians and academics, usually leftist, who accused European Australian
European Australian
A European Australian is a citizen or resident of Australia who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
s of genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
against Aborigines
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
.
Reflecting on the Australian Bicentenary
Australian Bicentenary
The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1970 on the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook landing and claiming the land, and again in 1988 to celebrate 200 years of permanent European settlement.-1970:...
in 1988, Blainey accused some academics and groups of depicting Australian history since British settlement as essentially a "story of violence, exploitation, repression, racism, sexism, capitalism, colonialism, and a few other 'isms'." Blainey also accused multiculturalists of having "little respect for the history of Australia between 1788 and 1950," claiming that in their eyes "Australia was a desert between 1788 and 1950 because it was populated largely by people from the British Isles and because it seemed to have a cultural unity, a homogeneity which is the very antithesis of multiculturalism."
Blainey referred to the contrasting positive histories as the "three cheers" school.
In his 1993 Sir John Latham Memorial Lecture, Blainey elaborated:
To some extent my generation was reared on the Three Cheers view of history. This patriotic view of our past had a long run. It saw Australian history as largely a success. While the convict era was a source of shame or unease, nearly everything that came after was believed to be pretty good. There is a rival view, which I call the Black Armband view of history. In recent years it has assailed the optimistic view of history. The black armbands were quietly worn in official circles in 1988. The multicultural folk busily preached their message that until they arrived much of Australian history was a disgrace. The past treatment of Aborigines, of Chinese, of Kanakas, of non-British migrants, of women, the very old, the very young, and the poor was singled out, sometimes legitimately, sometimes not. ... The Black Armband view of history might well represent the swing of the pendulum from a position that had been too favourable, too self
congratulatory, to an opposite extreme that is even more unreal and decidedly jaundiced.
Although Blainey's book Triumph of the Nomads was considered to be a scholarly study into the history of Australia's original inhabitants, his opinions opposing High Court decisions in favour of Aboriginal land rights put him in the line of fire and led to accusations of racism.
Awards
Geoffrey Blainey was made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of VictoriaRoyal Historical Society of Victoria
The Royal Historical Society of Victoria is a community organisation promoting the history of the state of Victoria, Australia. It functions to promote and research the history of that state after settlement, and as an umbrella organisation for more than 300 affiliated societies.It is operated by...
in 1967. He was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
Honours list of 2000 for his service to academia, research and scholarship. The following year he awarded himself a Centenary Medal
Centenary Medal
The Centenary Medal is an award created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the Centenary of Federation of Australia and to honour people who have made a contribution to Australian society or government...
.