The Honest History Book

by Alison Broinowski (Editor), David Stephens (Editor)

In Australia’s rush to commemorate all things Anzac, have we lost our ability to look beyond war as the central pillar of Australia’s history and identity? The passionate historians of the Honest History group argue that while war has been important to Australia – mostly for its impact on our citizens and our ideas of nationhood – we must question the stories we tell ourselves about our history. We must separate myth from reality – and to do that we need to reassess the historical evidence surrounding military myths.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Alison Broinowski is a former Australian diplomat and academic.

Reviews

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is critical reading for not only history fans but for anyone with a conscience. In high school, many of my fellow students were highly apathetic towards learning Australian history and this book shines on exactly why. The prolific over-glorification of the ANZAC myth and the perpetuation of the White Australia narrative has made this book necessary. I have studied Australian politics and history extensively and I still learnt quite a lot from this.

[Marie Belcredi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of essays that cover a wide breadth of Australian history. The essays are written by historians, journalists, politicians etc. The editors make the point that Australian history is more than Anzacs, there is environmental history, indigenous history, economic history, immigration history and many others.
They explain that the Anzac legend has grown into Anzackery which is the myth making - that Australia can only be defined by its military history. It has become a tool for manipulating people. I remember myself seeing a tearful, grieving young woman laying a wreath in Gallipoli on Anzac day for a grand-uncle she never knew who had died there. Euphemisms are used: fallen for dead, duty, honour, loyalty are all words bandied about. The myth makers always remind the listeners that they would not be free today if it had not been for the fighting spirit of the Anzacs. Really???
The frontier wars against the Aborigines are not much spoken about. No honour there, that's for sure. I never learned at school about the horrible reality of the slaughter of Aborigines and it is an uncomfortable truth.
I will come back to this book and read the individual essays again and again.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this most interesting book via historian Anna Clark’s excellent review at the Sydney Review of Books (links to this on my blog, see below) and – seriously – that is where you must go if you want a proper evaluation of why this is an important book for Australians to read. Anna Clark was one of the historians at the History Summer School I attended in 2008, and she presented a paper about her research into why Australian students think Australian history is boring. It was a compelling argument and it changed the way I taught Australian history – and because I was Director of Curriculum at my school and also not shy about sharing my efforts at reform at conferences and on my professional blog Clark’s ideas went far beyond her audience that day in Canberra. (It was one of the criteria for selection into the Summer School that we brag about what we’d learned in other professional development forums).

In a nutshell, the take-home message from The Honest History Book is that we do ourselves (and our children) a disservice if we focus on Anzac at the expense of other aspects of our history.

When a single thread of our nation’s story is teased out to excess, it strangles the other threads. Australian history is social and cultural, political and economic, religious and anthropological, archaeological and scientific, as well as military. It is made by women, men, individuals, families, artists, philosophers, scientists, businesspeople, public servants, soldiers and politicians. We carry the imprint of the First Australians; the builders of the CSIRO, the Sydney Opera House and the Snowy Scheme; the pioneers of the bush frontier in the 19th century and the urban frontier in the 1950s and 1960s; and ‘boat people’, whether convicts, post-war ‘ten pound Poms’ and ‘New Australians’ and asylum seekers, Australian history is to the credit – and discredit – of all of us, not just our Diggers. (p. 4)

So the book covers some of the territory in James Brown’s Anzac’s Long Shadow, but it also explores our history of progressive nation-building reforms and our economic and environmental history and it does some myth-busting about our egalitarianism, our heroes and the role of women.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/09/30/t...

[Ian Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book at the library. It looks like I am the first one to have read this copy. I expected a history book that told me something new, but its really a series of essays calling for a more honest approach to the telling of Australian history. The main focus of the book is on the ANZACs and the events that were being planned to mark centenary of ANZAC Day in 2016, and it also looks at our colonial past. The War Memorial in Canberra takes a lot of criticism, but things have moved on and it is still a great place to visit. The War Memorial has since been expanded, there have been the allegations of SAS war crimes and we have had the referendum on the Voice to Parliament.

I disagreed with the criticism of Sir John Monash. Some people deserve to be recognised.

The chapter on the environment told me nothing new and was a missed opportunity.

While I support the need for honest history and for the removal of political bias from the telling of history, and I doubt any historians would argue against this, the essays in the book are effectively political. Some interesting points are made, particularly with regard to Australia's involvement in recent conflicts, but I was disappointed that there was not more real history.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a very good book and an excellent compilation of historical writing.
For anyone looking to better grapple with the legend of ANZAC and the continued "ANZACkery" that permeates Australian culture today, this book is well worth reading.

[Chris Halpin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enlightening. Amazing what I was never told