Start Date
3-10-1999 1:30 PM
End Date
3-10-1999 2:00 PM
Description
Writers of Australian history - especially prior to the 1970s - were usually either conservatives who emphasised economic 'progress', social cohesiveness and harmony, or radicals who majored on struggle, divisiveness and attempts at social and political reform. The history of working class has fallen into the latter category. How then has the Australian Labor Party (ALP), which has always regarded itself as the working class party, interpreted history? The paper surveys some examples of 'conservative' and 'radical' history, and then examines the ALP's role in preserving and telling its own history. It discusses the extent to which Labor Party history fits either model above, and how this compares with the Liberal Party of Australia's concept of its own history. Particular emphasis is placed on Western Australian historiography, which has been the author's specialist field of research for much of the past decade, including writing a commissioned history of the ALP (WA Branch), but the national context is also discussed.
Reform or Reaction? Progress or Struggle: Labor and Liberal Perspectives on History
Writers of Australian history - especially prior to the 1970s - were usually either conservatives who emphasised economic 'progress', social cohesiveness and harmony, or radicals who majored on struggle, divisiveness and attempts at social and political reform. The history of working class has fallen into the latter category. How then has the Australian Labor Party (ALP), which has always regarded itself as the working class party, interpreted history? The paper surveys some examples of 'conservative' and 'radical' history, and then examines the ALP's role in preserving and telling its own history. It discusses the extent to which Labor Party history fits either model above, and how this compares with the Liberal Party of Australia's concept of its own history. Particular emphasis is placed on Western Australian historiography, which has been the author's specialist field of research for much of the past decade, including writing a commissioned history of the ALP (WA Branch), but the national context is also discussed.