Geoffrey Blainey Essay

Geoffrey Blainey is one of the most prominent historian in Australian. He was once described by Professor Graeme Davison, the Head of Historical Studies in Monash University as the most prolific, wide-ranging, and controversial of Australia's living historians (Davison, Hirst & Macintyre 2001, p. 74). Born in Melbourne on 11th March 1930, Blainey was graduated from the University of Melbourne, the same university where he was held the Dean of the Faculty of Art during his controversial speech in 1984 which resulted Blainey being the subject to threats of violence and eventually resigned from the position. He has published close to 40 books between 1954 to 2015 and his works on shaping the major themes of Australian history are hailed by Allsop

Allsop (2010) reports that Blainey’s first book does not contain footnotes, which is regarded as path-breaking and he soon developed a widely imitated method of relegating his references to the back of the volume and keying them to the text without forbidding numerical superscripts or unnecessary formalities. However, that is only a trivia of his characteristics where he always challenges conventional views. Throughout his career, his is well-known for his engagement in Australian History Wars and views on Asian immigration. In this essay, we will examine his involvement and contribution in Australian history and economics which he famously stirred

Blainey believed that much of the Australian have been focusing on the unfair treatment, massacre and the death of Aboriginal people, which he referred as the 'black armband view’ in one of his speech in 1993 (Barns 2003). Blainey (1993) explains that the term ‘black armband view’ is a metaphor of mourning and grieving, especially towards killing, exploitation and stealing of lands by the British. In contrast, people who believe that everything came after convict era was good is taunted as ‘Three Cheers’ view and others referred it a ‘white blindfold’ where people were blind by white supremacy (Convict Creations 2000). Blainey (1993) criticizes Left wing historian Manning Clark for spreading glooming view and claimed that it was unnecessary for being too sympathetic to Australia's indigenous population. Ironically, it was Blainey who first launched the book about Aboriginal’s history in Triumph of the Nomads in the 1970s which during that time, he was criticised by Sydney Morning Herald for being sympathetic to the indigenous people. Also, Clark could not agree with many of Blainey’s views and described it as an attempt to silence him (Allsop