Honest History

Honest History promotes balanced consideration of Australian history by offering contesting, evidence-based interpretations to students, teachers, universities, journalists and the public. We challenge the misuse of history to serve political or other agendas.

From the Honest History vault: Humphrey McQueen and others on the Spanish flu pandemic 1918-19 that killed 13 000 Australians and 50 million world-wide (with 2020 updates)

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Recent highlights

Rolf Gerritsen reviews Anne Scrimgeour’s On Red Earth Walking: The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike, Western Australia 1946-1949

Yorick Smaal and Mark Finnane on Australian courts martial during World War I

Romain Fathi’s submission to a Senate inquiry trenchantly criticises Australian commemorative efforts in France

A build for the times – or an extravagant folly?

Heritage Guardians: a campaign against the proposed $498m extensions to the Australian War Memorial

What role can the War Memorial play in helping service people dealing with psychological stress? What evidence exists for the claim that it can?

Elizabeth Farrelly, architecture critic, asks whether the ‘dull, wasteful, overblown and smug’ War Memorial expansion is the best we can do

Total Australian spend on Anzac centenary is around $A600 million – or $1.1 billion if you include proposed War Memorial extensions

Arms and the Memorial: let’s spend on health, not arms and submarines

Senator Steele-John speaks out against arms company donations to the Australian War Memorial (pic: Wikipedia) See also: Memorial gets donations from the big arms company players but it is only ‘small change’ to them; Michelle Fahy on how Australia flogs armaments to overseas bidders; David Stephens on the Nelsonian legacy; David Stephens and Sue Wareham on 3CR; Sue Wareham on prioritising health spending rather than arms spending

Looking back

Australia is more than Anzac – and always has been