The History Question: Who Owns the Past?

The History Wars in Australia have been going on for a fair while now. This title is from 2006 when the wars were at their height. The then Prime Minister John Howard is a noted anglophile. He regaled the so called “black armband view of history” with the support of the Murdoch press. Rupert Murdoch, who has over the years made a concerted effort to make his father a Great War hero has since renounced his Australian citizenship so as to become a US media tycoon. His influence still looms large to this day in his attempt to turn Australian history into something it has never been. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/anu-reveals-why-it-walked-away-from-ramsay-centre-agreement/9910668 Though not mentioned in this item his newspapers have been vociferous in their attacks on academia.

Inga Cledinnnenn essay spends far too much time defending the position of professional historians over historical novelists. Is the reading public that removed from historical writing as opposed to novelist telling an either good or bad story of historical interest? I would have thought not but then I hardly care. I would have thought that I read history to be informed about an event, make a value judgement based on my knowledge or lack thereof whereas the historical novel is to enjoy as just a novel. Am I wrong I wonder?
As to the sub title ‘Who owns the past' PM Howard at one point called for historians to publish objective records of achievement. Inga Cledinnnenn discusses that Howard seemed to think that historians were leaving out the ‘good bits' and disagrees in that that it is not the historian's job to pick and choose. I tend to agree with her. When did history writing become slanted towards being a record of achievement? This is not what history should be about for me. Yes achievements are too to be considered but to use a recent book I read, The Van Demonian Wars by Nick Brodie how can anyone water down and be dismissive of this less than savoury event when writing (and teaching) history? This for me is nothing to do with the rights or wrongs of such events. Bad things happen throughout history! Teach about it and learn from it. In fact I find it slightly hypocritical that the same people are angry at the Japanese for not discussing their less than happy history in the 2nd WW.

In the end though this essay rambles and strays from the subject far too often. I mean pages critiquing popular historical novelist Kate Ganville? What a waste.