by Rowan Cahill There is a vast amount of material, published and otherwise, relating to the history of the Communist Party of Australia/CPA (1920-1991). Examination of the footnotes to Stuart Macintyre’s first volume of the history of the CPA, The Reds (1998), attests to this, as does familiarity with the two resource bibliographies of CPA… Read More

by Rowan Cahill Back in the 1980s, the autodidact bookseller Bob Gould pressed a book into my hands, as was his way whenever I visited the Aladdin’s Cave rabbit warrens of his Sydney bookshop. “Comrade, you’ve got to read this”, usually his way of recommending the latest or neglected anti-Stalinist publication. This time it was… Read More

Conference: 20 May 2017, 9am-4.30pm, Siteworks, 33 Saxon Street, Brunswick 2017 marks the centenary of the defeat of the 1917 conscription plebiscite. During 1917, in the midst of the war, Australian anti-conscription campaigners succeeded in defeating the introduction of conscription for a second time. This was a unique example of popular opposition to conscription in the countries engaged in WW1,… Read More

Frank Bongiorno   Many of us owe a very great debt to Dr Sigrid McCausland, whose untimely death on 30 November 2016 has been widely mourned by her many friends and colleagues in the archival and historical communities. The biographical notes at the end of Light from the Tunnel, a history of the Noel Butlin… Read More

Frank Bongiorno* The eminent historian, Hugh Anderson, died on 3 March 2017 at the age of 90. He leaves us with an enduring legacy, a prodigious body of work, and his collection of materials which led to the creation of the Radical Collection at Victoria University. A public celebration of his life was held at University House, University of… Read More

Terry Irving Terry Irving was invited to address the Sydney Historical Research Network in March 2017, as part of a session on ‘Histories of Class Now’. The other speakers were Hannah Forsyth and Elizabeth Humphrys. Each of them was asked to say something about their current research. A revised version of his address, followed by… Read More

John Myrtle  Review of Chris Mullin, Hinterland: A Memoir (London: Profile Books, 2016), pp. 271. £20 cloth There is something unusual about a politician who when preselected for parliament would be described as ‘a certifiable lunatic’ by his party leader; and who some years later would be labelled by Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper as a… Read More

NO WAY BUT THIS: IN SEARCH OF PAUL ROBESON by Jeff Sparrow To be launched by TONY BIRCH Venue BELLA UNION Cnr Victoria St & Lygon St Carlton Date THURSDAY 16TH MARCH Time 5:30 FOR 6PM RSVP Friday 10th March to danielle@scribepub.com.au or (03) 9388 8787 or online Paul Robeson was an actor and performer, a… Read More

By Rowan Cahill When Yarn Spinners was initially published in 2001 by University of Queensland Press, it was lengthily titled Yarn Spinners. A Story in Letters: Dymphna Cusack, Florence James, Miles Franklin. Marilla North was credited as ‘Editor’.  The title partially explained the contents of the book, but did not do justice to the nature… Read More

Melbourne University’s School of Historical and Philosophical Studies is running a Public Seminar on “Social Movements, Archives and Memory” – Wednesday 8 February 2017, 1.30pm – 3.30pm. Arts West Building, Lectorial Room 156, North Wing, The University of Melbourne, Parkville. This event will bring together a variety of people working with social movement archives in Melbourne. Each will give a short presentation about their work followed by a… Read More

By Kevin Peoples The following is a speech given by Kevin at the launch of his book From the Top of the Hill at the Bentleigh RSL earlier this year. Sometimes, if we are to understand highly complex human tragedies like WWI, we begin by reducing them to the personal. And sometimes, because of our… Read More

By Michael Hamel-Green Review of The Conscription Conflict and the Great War, edited by Robin Archer, Joy Damousi, Murray Goot and Sean Scalmer (Monash University Publishing: Clayton, 2016), paper $29.95. The First World War was to take the lives of eleven million soldiers on both sides, seven million civilians, and, as a further consequence, the… Read More