
History Wars
The Peter Ryan - Manning Clark Controversy
Doug Munro(Author)
ANU Press
Published on 21. October 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
230 pages
978-1-76046-476-9 (ISBN)
Description
'In 1993, Manning Clark came under severe (posthumous) attack in the pages of Quadrant by none other than Peter Ryan, who had published five of the six volumes of Clark's epic A History of Australia. In applying what he called "an overdue axe to a tall poppy", Ryan lambasted the History as "an imposition on Australian credulity" and declared its author a fraud, both as a historian and a person. This unprecedented public assault by a publisher on his best-selling author was a sensation at the time and remains lodged in the public memory. In History Wars, Doug Munro forensically examines the right and wrongs of Ryan's allegations, concluding that Clark was more sinned against than sinning and that Ryan repeatedly misrepresented the situation. More than just telling a story, Munro places the Ryan-Clark controversy within the context of Australia's History Wars. This book is an illuminating saga of that ongoing contest.' - James Curran, University of Sydney 'The Ryan-Clark controversy ... speaks to the place of Manning Clark in Australia's national imagination. Had Ryan taken his axe to another historian, it's unlikely that we would be still talking about it 30 years later. But Clark was the author and keeper of Australia's national story, however imperfect his scholarship and however blinkered that story. Few, if any, historians in the Anglo-American world have occupied the space that Clark occupied by dint of will, force of personality, and felicity of pen.' - Donald Wright, University of New Brunswick
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Canberra
Australia
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Illustrations
1 Bibliography
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
431 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-76046-476-9 (9781760464769)
DOI
10.22459/HW.2021
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Schweitzer Classification