CCCS Public Lecture: Dr Martin Crotty: Engaging the Enemy? Historians and Popular Audiences

Event Details

Date:

Thursday, 24 September 2009

Time:

5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

UQ Location:

James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.cccs.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=100361

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Academic historians are primarily trained in and for scholarly discourse and debate with our peers. Closely argued, tightly defined, and assiduously referenced arguments in journal articles or scholarly monographs, and twenty minute conference papers to empathetic if not sympathetic audiences are their stock-in-trade.

Some have argued, particularly in the context of the history wars, that this leaves historians poorly equipped for the rough and tumble of public debate, and others have suggested that historians are wasting their time attempting to make any headway in a media dominated by the Murdoch press and its conservative or right-wing interpretations of Australia’s history.

Highly-regarded Australian historians such as Henry Reynolds, Stuart Macintyre and Lyndall Ryan have attracted scorn, derision and ad hominem attacks in mainstream media outlets, and vicious personal abuse on blogs run by such luminaries as Andrew Bolt and Tim Blair.

The temptation is to leave academic history and public memory to operate in distinct and separate spheres. But to do so would be a grievous mistake and a professional cop-out. Historians need to gird their loins, toughen up, and enter the public fray when the opportunity arises.

This lecture argues why, and suggests some ways in which historians can better equip themselves to do so.