Tabla de contenidos para Vol. 57 no. 2 2022 en Agora

Ashley Keith Pratt, President Modern History is a topic that holds a special kind of historical power over us as individuals, often because it has so directly touched the lives of our parents, our grandparents, or ourselves. We see the impact of events from the recent past play out in our world today, whether it be in the geopolitical struggles of great powers, or the struggle for rights by minority groups within our own societies. We can see and hear how people’s views of the world have been shaped by these historical events. They influence where people live, who they vote for, and what they believe in. Put simply, Modern History is the foundation of so much of why the world is the way it is. This edition of Agora…

Full of emotion and empty of real meaning, the word fascism is one of the most abused and abusive in our political vocabulary … it means virtually nothing. Yet the term fascism is probably with us for good.1 Written by historian Gilbert Allardyce in 1979, these words still ring true: fascism remains a powerful pejorative but what precisely is (or was) it? This article outlines the history and historiography of fascism that is important for an understanding of this complex concept, and illustrates where some historians have located Australia’s fascist movement. Fascism in Italy and Germany The word ‘fascism’ is derived from the movement and regime led by Italian journalist-cum-dictator Benito Mussolini. The term itself was not unique to Mussolini’s fascism, nor to the modern era. Literally meaning ‘bundle’, the…

Throughout history, queer activism has found expression in many forms. From community building to public action to the creation of artworks, queer and LGBTIQA+ people have long devised methods to work against systems of oppression and discrimination. While queer activism spans many centuries, the twentieth century was a crucial turning point in queer activism and visibility through the defiant actions of LGBTIQA+ people.1 Like many aspects of queer history, much of this activism has not been recorded in ‘conventional’ sources. Instead, it has often been sustained by queer communities—handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth and other sources not typically deemed ‘legitimate’. Unearthing these stories often requires you to ‘dig hard and do a lot of interpreting’.2 This is where artworks can become vital sources of information.…

As a Melburnian, it pains me to say that Australia’s most iconic building is, without question, the Sydney Opera House. I’ll begrudgingly give credit to our northern neighbours and just come out and say it: their city is beautiful! So when Ziggy Ramo’s ‘Little Things’ opens with a wide-angle panning shot of this beautiful harbour city paired with the iconic harmonica riff of one of Australia’s greatest singer-songwriters, Paul Kelly, you immediately feel a strange sense of pride, awe and wonder.1 Ramo politely beckons us, saying ‘Gather round people and I’ll tell you a story,’ but if you want to hear Ramo’s story you’d better be prepared. This is not a story that you have been told before. It is not a story of a beautiful city where people are…

Guy Nolch, Editor I’ve been fortunate to have lived through an era of relative global stability, and I took this for granted. While the Cold War thawed decades ago with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, geopolitical ambitions now seem to be repeating the history of a century ago. It’s unnerving. While the current war in Ukraine is making Modern History relevant to your students, do they appreciate the history that linked Ukrainians and Russians long before the Cold War? In this issue of Agora, Andrew Pyrcz (p.3) gives some context to current Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims that ‘Russians and Ukrainians were one people – a single whole ... parts of what is essentially the same historical and spiritual space’.1 Pyrcz explains that the ‘national question’ troubled not just…

The spread of communism and perceptions of the threat it posed to Australia had a defining impact on historical developments in the decades before and after World War II. On the domestic front, the issue of communism tested the limits of Australian democracy through the instigation of industrial turmoil, the discovery of communist spy-rings, attempts to ban the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), and the splitting of a major political party in two. On an international level, the geopolitics of the Cold War defined Australia’s global outlook, prompting the formation of new alliances, justifying involvement in a series of ‘hot’ wars, and motivating increased engagement with the Asia-Pacific. In the aftermath of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the CPA was established in 1920. It then infiltrated Australia’s trade union…

In mid-September 1959, the premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Nikita Khrushchev, made a historic visit with his wife Nina to the United States to meet with US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.1 Earlier that month, the Australian Women’s Weekly ran a competition in its teenage supplement asking readers to imagine ‘If you were President Eisenhower, what would you say to Mr. Khrushchev when he called on you at the White House?’. Entrants were encouraged to write 200 words of an imaginary conversation between ‘Mr. K’ and ‘Ike’.2 Two weeks later, the Teenagers’ Weekly section published the winning entries. Barbara Brunt from Bondi won 20 guineas for her imagined meeting where each side boasted increasingly ridiculous claims, including invisible bomber planes, a Bolshoi Ballet performance on the Moon…

The changing world order continues to grasp our attention as History teachers, not only as we implement Modern History Unit 2: The Changing World Order, but as we look beyond our classrooms to a world grappling with the consequences of COVID-19 and the possibility of the largest conflict in Europe since World War II. One of the positive side-effects of living in interesting times is that we will see students drawn to Modern History to help them develop the contextual understanding that is needed for them to comprehend what is happening and to prepare them as active, informed and critical thinking beings. With these lofty ambitions in our sights, having a range of resources at our fingertips to engage our students in the study of proxy wars and conflicts will…

Between October 1952 and April 1963, Britain conducted twelve atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in Australia at the Monte Bello Islands in Western Australia and in South Australia at Emu Field and Maralinga. These sites were chosen on the basis that they were considered remote from centres of population. Several hundred minor nuclear-related trials took place at Maralinga and Emu Field between 1953 and 1963. W. J. Gibbs, who was later the Director of the Bureau of Meteorology, said it was ‘unfortunate’ to designate these additional trials as ‘minor’ given the significant level of radioactivity involved. As the minor trials were secret, the meteorologists employed to make weather forecasts and meteorological observations at the trial sites were not informed about the hazardous nature of the materials to which they were potentially…

In the archives of the Melbourne Legacy collection there is a violin. At first glance it looks to be in bad shape due to the numerous scratches covering every inch of its surface. A closer inspection reveals that they are names—records of a wartime experience—scratched in time. The violin was used by members of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) Concert Party between 1942 and 1945 while they were incarcerated as prisoners of war in Changi, Singapore. It is inscribed with the words ‘AIF Concert Party, P.O.W. Camp Singapore’ along with the names of both Australian and other Allied country POWs who were part of the orchestra. The most poignant inscription runs around the edge of the instrument and proclaims: ‘We’ll never get off the island’. A new resource of the…