Don Aitkin's What was it all for?

This is one of a number of a number of parallel posts recording my reactions to Don Aitkin's What was it all for? The Reshaping of Australia. (Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2005). I will add a full list of posts later.

Because the book centres on social change in Australia over fifty or so years, it contains a lot of material on the changing way Australian's think. The use of the Armidale High School leaving certificate class of 1953 as a prism provides a personal element to the story.

Overall, I think that the book illuminates many of the changes that have taken place not just in Australia, but in other countries as well.    

Death of Bruce Mitchell

It has been a very long time since we posted. It's not that we have lost interest, just that posting has been hard in the middle of busy lives. I hope that we will do better in future.

Belshaw's world: In memory of Bruce Mitchell records the death of University of New England historian Bruce Mitchell. Bruce began as a Labor historian, then became heavily involved in local and regional history. Here he made a significant contribution not just in terms of his own work but, more importantly, through the contribution of his students.