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Full-Text Articles in Intellectual History
Challenges To Labour History, Terry Irving
Challenges To Labour History, Terry Irving
Terence H Irving, Dr (Terry)
The decline of the labour movement in the 1980s and 1990s robbed labour history of its elan as 'history with a social purpose', and the rise of postmodernism devalued the attempt by labour historians to grasp social reality as a whole. Today there is a commonly expressed feeling that labour history is experiencing a crisis. The first three essays in this volume are historiographical; then four essays engage with the challenges posed by post-modernism and cultural theory; and finally four essays present examples of the ways in which theoretical reappraisals can shape the writing of labour history.
Rediscovering Radical History, Terry Irving
Rediscovering Radical History, Terry Irving
Terence H Irving, Dr (Terry)
This article examines aspects of the connection between radical history and labour history in Australia. It begins by resurrecting the forgotten history work by intellectuals in the labour movement from the 1880s to the 1950s, and the conservative attacks on radical history in the 50s and 60s. It continues by highlighting the early attempts to keep this radical tradition alive among labour historians, and concludes by criticising Robin Gollan's failure to distinguish popular democracy from the democratic possibilities of representative government.