John Hirst (historian)
| John Hirst | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
9 July 1942 Adelaide, South Australia |
| Died |
3 February 2016 (aged 73) Melbourne, Victoria |
| Awards | Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (1986) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Adelaide (BA, PhD) |
| Thesis title | Adelaide and the Country, 1870–1914: A Study of their Social and Political Relationship |
| Thesis url | University of Adelaide |
| Thesis year | 1970 |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | La Trobe University |
| Main interests |
Australian history Political history |
John Bradley Hirst FASSA (9 July 1942 – 3 February 2016)[1] was an Australian historian and commentator. He has been described as an "historian, public intellectual, and active citizen".[2] Hirst undertook his undergraduate and postgraduate study at the University of Adelaide. Appointed to the staff of the History Department at La Trobe University, Melbourne in 1968, he was subsequently head of department and Reader in History. He retired in 2006, and was an Emeritus Scholar at La Trobe until his death.[3][4] Hirst had a distinguished career "in teaching, supervision and research. He developed new subjects and methodologies to teach them. In addition to those concerning Australian history there was his pioneering subject designed to inform students about Australia's European cultural heritage."[5] This work was published as The Shortest History of Europe and has been translated into nine languages (Swedish, Greek, Chinese, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and Korean). Hirst was seconded to the University of Melbourne to edit Historical Studies, Australia's leading historical journal, from 1977 to 1980.[5]
Academic contribution
Hirst wrote a large number of important articles, chapters and books on Australian history. His academic interests were wide-ranging, including social, cultural and political history. Hirst wrote for the benefit of the national culture. His mission to influence how Australians understood the qualities and characteristics of their society "accounts for his unparalleled ability to write for a general audience. For all his readability, Hirst was an elegant and outstanding stylist, as adept at clarifying complex issues by reducing them to their essentials as he was at crafting the pithy line that eliminated all doubt his interpretation was true and correct".[6] In his historical work, he "challenged orthodoxies and produced many new insights".[5] Hirst wrote two seminal books on colonial New South Wales: Convict Society and its Enemies (1983) and The Strange Birth of Colonial Democracy (1988) (both reprinted as Freedom on the Fatal Shore in 2008). His study of Federation, The Sentimental Nation, was a ground-breaking work, arguing that national sentiment was more important than economics in uniting the nation. Some of his shorter analyses have also been notable: "Distance in Australia: Was It a Tyrant?" (1975), his response to Geoffrey Blainey's most famous concept, "deserves much more attention than it now receives";[5] his "Egalitarianism" (1986) "challenges received wisdom about colonial life".[5] Many of his best shorter pieces were collected in Sense and Nonsense in Australian History (2009). A major achievement of Hirst's was a project to index the Melbourne Argus newspaper (1860–1909).[5]
Public intellectual
Hirst contributed many influential opinion pieces and commentaries to leading Australian newspapers and journals. He was a "culture warrior", motivated by "his fierce independence combined with a brilliant mind. But he defied simplistic categorisation as a partisan because his politics were idiosyncratic".[6] Hirst regularly produced "impeccably scholarly, and enormously entertaining, ripostes against orthodoxies he believed to be in error". To read Hirst "is not to encounter a curmudgeon but to be delighted as he marshals facts, logic and evidence with unarguable skill and precision to establish the heterodox case, while conveying powerful insights into whatever historical experience or process is discussed". Hirst boldly stated his opinions "no matter the political and cultural dynamite he was handling ... It was his commitment to the rigorous pursuit of historical truth that drove him to explore the deeper patterns and meanings of the past, and the contemporary implications, that others had missed or misled us about".[6]
Public appointments
Hirst held a number of influential appointments during the course of his career. He has been a member of the Prime Minister's Republic Advisory Committee, the chair of the Commonwealth Civics Education Group, a member of the Film Australia Board, a council member of the National Museum of Australia, and is currently a member of the board of Old Parliament House in Canberra. He has written the official history of Australia for new citizens and took a prominent part in the history summit convened by Prime Minister John Howard in 2006. Hirst advised the Victorian Government on the school history curriculum and was history adviser to the National Curriculum Authority. He was elected to the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1986. A committed republican, Hirst was the Convenor of the Republican Movement in Victoria.
Hirst died on 3 February 2016 at the age of 73.[3]
Bibliography
- Adelaide and the Country, 1870–1917 (1973) ISBN 9780522840452
- Convict Society and Its Enemies: A History of Early New South Wales (1983) ISBN 978-0-86861-349-9
- The Strange Birth of Colonial Democracy: New South Wales, 1848–1884 (1988) ISBN 9780043271001
- The Sentimental Nation: The Making of the Australian Commonwealth (2001) ISBN 978-0-19550-620-4
- The world of Albert Facey, Allen and Unwin (1992), ISBN 978-1-86373-161-4.
- A republican manifesto, Oxford University Press (1994), ISBN 0195536495.
- The Oxford Companion to Australian History, edited with Graeme Davison, and Stuart Macintyre, Oxford University Press (1998; revised edition 2001), ISBN 019551503X .
- Discovering Democracy: a guide to government and law in Australia, Curriculum Corporation (1998), ISBN 1863664319.
- Australia’s Democracy: A Short History (2003) ISBN 978-1-86508-845-7
- Kangaroo Court: Family Law in Australia, Quarterly Essay 17, (2005) ISBN 978-1-86395-341-2
- Sense and Nonsense in Australian History (2006) ISBN 978-0-9775949-3-1
- The Australians: Insiders and Outsiders on the National Character since 1770 (2007) ISBN 978-1-86395-408-2
- The Shortest History of Europe (2009) ISBN 978-1-86395-439-6
- Looking for Australia (2010) ISBN 978-1-86395-486-0
- Australian History in 7 Questions (2014) ISBN 9781863956703
- Australia's Catholic University: The first twenty-five years (2015) ISBN 978-1-922097-29-3
References
- ↑ "Death notice". Herald Sun. The Herald and Weekly Times Pty Ltd (News Corp). Retrieved 11 February 2016.
- ↑ Markwell, Don; Gerson, Elliot F., (writer of preface.) (2013), 'Instincts to lead' : on leadership, peace, and education, Australia Connor Court Publishing, ISBN 978-1-922168-70-2
- 1 2 Steger, Jason (6 February 2016). "Leading Australian historian and public intellectual John Hirst has died". The Age. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- ↑ Buckingham-Jones, Sam (8 February 2016). "Public intellectual has last argument: John Hirst dies at 73". Australian. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Frost, Alan (September 2010). "Challenging the Orthodoxies: a distinctive figure in our intellectual life". Australian Book Review (324): 15–16.
- 1 2 3 Sammut, Jeremy (9 Feb 2016). "John Hirst: culture warrior shaped future through the past". Australian. Retrieved 10 Feb 2016.
External links
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