WINDING 'EM UP:

White Australia's myths (Keith Windschuttle, December 06, 2004, The Australian)

UNLESS they have taken a university course in history in recent decades, most Australians would be surprised to learn they inhabit one of the world's most shamefully racist countries.

The academic consensus today is that the White Australia Policy - a series of restrictions on non-white immigrants dating from the gold rushes of the 1850s and culminating in the commonwealth's Immigration Restriction Bill of 1901 - made this country the moral equivalent of South Africa under apartheid. Some historians even label Australia at Federation one of the "herrenvolk democracies" - a direct comparison with the "master race" nationalism of Nazi Germany. [...]

Other prominent historians who support this interpretation include Henry Reynolds who claims the 1901 bill represented "the messianic pursuit of racial purity". Andrew Markus, Richard Broome, Richard White and others allege the dominant racial concept in 19th-century Australia was social Darwinism, the most brutal of all the theories about race that emerged at the time.

This thesis arose on the radical fringe of Australian historiography in the 1960s. Lacking any effective criticism, it has gradually made its way from one more extreme position to another. Today, the interpretation has become mainstream and university and high school teachers repeat it unchallenged.

But anyone who looks at the evidence with a sceptical eye will find the case so exaggerated it defies credibility. In their enthusiasm to play politics, academics have misread their culture and misunderstood their history.

Isn't that part of their job description?

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 9, 2004 2:34 PM