Law Commons^™

Radical History: Thinking, Writing And Engagement, Terence H. Irving, Rowan Cahill

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In recent years, in various places and on our blog ‘Radical Sydney/Radical History’ we have written about radical history. As radical historians we seek out, explore, and celebrate the diversities of alternatives and oppositions, arguing there is a basic tension between radical history and ‘mainstream history’, a history that is constituted to prop up both capitalism and the state. We see our history as part of the struggle against capitalism and the state. In researching the past, we do not do it nostalgically, but with utilitarian, political intent, recognising that the past has the capacity to variously inspire and inform …

The Barber Who Read History And Was Overwhelmed, Rowan Cahill

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Beginning with a chance encounter in a Barber's shop whilst travelling, the author ruminates on history, and the proposition that each and everyone of us is an historian, and that in a sense we are all time travellers. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is invoked, and the role of radical historians from below discussed before the author returns to his Barber shop encounter, and to Brecht. The title of the piece references Brecht's poem A Worker Reads History (1936).

Pinkwashing The Past: Gay Rights, Military History And The Sidelining Of Protest In Australia, Tanja Dreher

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores the implications of the militarisation of Australian history and the dilemmas of increasing public support for same-sex marriage in Australia at a time of renewed assaults on Indigenous rights, austerity measures and the silencing of dissent. The paper analyses the celebratory rhetoric which increasingly typifies both marriage equality campaigns and the commemoration of Australia's First World War or 'Anzac' history in popular media and public debate. Against the confluence between ongoing debates on same-sex marriage and the 'Anzac myth', I highlight four key challenges: the silencing of dissent; forgetting of the Frontier Wars; untold stories of civil …

Sites To Remember: Performing The Landscape In Cultural History, Janys Hayes

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper aims to compare and contrast two site-specific performance productions, both designed to grapple with processes of cultural remembrance, whilst also operating as successful tourist attractions. The narratives encompassed by both productions revolve around shared Australian histories, for audiences attracted by place and what it is able to represent. Re-enactments of past events call into the present a consideration of what still remains, with both shows enabling new subjective interpretations of earlier times. The defining difference between the two, however, rests in the context of each performance, in the one case as a commodification of heritage and in the …

Camden History V4 N2, Ian C. Willis

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

CAMDEN HISTORY Journal of the Camden Historical Society Inc. Contents Brian Stratton - the story of a local artist 40 Linda and David van Nunen Memories of Barbering 50 Col Smith Horse History in Western Sydney: Kirkham Stud 60 Mark Latham Dairy Farmer to Young Local Historian 67 Sophie Mulley Echoes of the Appin Massacre 1816 76 Ian Willis Growing up in Camden 81 Joy Riley President's Report 2015 - 2016 86 Bob Lester Pansy, The Camden - Campbelltown Train 91 Photographs by Wayne Bearup Camden Arcade 25th Anniversary Address 97 Christos Scoufis A Personal Reflection on Local History Studies …

The X Patents: Patents Issued Under The Patent Acts Of 1790 & 1793, Robert Berry

Librarian Publications

The earliest United States patents— sometimes called “name and date patents” because they were not numbered—are distinctive in many respects. Patent specifications were not required to include claims until the Patent Act of 1870. Moreover, while the 1790 Act required a substantive examination by a Patent Board, that requirement ended with the 1793 Act, when it was deemed too burdensome. Thereafter the evaluation of the sufficiency of patent specifications was left to the courts.

Researching The Early History Of The Patent Policy: Getting Started, Robert Berry

Librarian Publications

There are a lot of reasons to research the early history of American patent policy. It is an inherently interesting history that provides a framework making contemporary patent policy more comprehensible and a foundation for interpreting historic patent records. For students it provides an opportunity to become familiar with some of basic primary sources that are a staple of research into American history. Also, of course, questions may arise from time to time that can only be authoritatively answered by researching this history.

The approach described below seeks to balance comprehensiveness with feasibility, and emphasizes the importance of creating a …

Book Review: The History Of Democracy: A Marxist Interpretation By Brian S. Roper, John Passant

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Brian Roper's book on the history of democracy from a Marxist perspective is an ambitious one. Roper starts with Athens and Rome and then, as capitalism rises, examines the revolutions in England, America and France and after that the 1848 revolutions across Europe. He then looks at the Paris Commune and The Russian Revolution. In doing this, Roper describes three distinct but related forms of democracy - Athenian democracy which was a form of participatory democracy limited to sections of society; liberal representative democracy which, while nominally open to all, is actually limited to operating within narrow propertied confines; and …

Early Chinese Newspapers In Australia: Trove Presents A New Perspective On Australian History, Kate Bagnall

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Most Australian historians will tell you that there was a “before Trove” and an “after Trove”. Being able to search and access digitised copies of hundreds of Australian newspapers, from major city dailies to small country papers, has changed the way we work and the sorts of histories we are able to write.

Early Chinese Newspapers: Trove Presents A New Perspective On Australian History, Kate Bagnall

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Most Australian historians will tell you that there was a ‘before Trove’ and an ‘after Trove’. Being able to search and access digitised copies of hundreds of Australian newspapers, from major city dailies to small country papers, has changed the way we work and the sorts of histories we are able to write.

Making Camden History, Ian C. Willis

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The story of the construction of the history of the Camden area. There are many versions and they are all correct. They all put their own spin on the way they want to tell the Camden story. Some good, some indifferent, some just plain awful (Facebook, 23 November 2015. https://www.facebook.com/CamdenHistoryNotes1433284970226274/)

Legal Writing: A History From The Colonial Era To The End Of The Civil War, David R. Cleveland

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Anti-Radicalism And History From Below, Rowan Cahill

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In 1969, American historian Jesse Lemisch was in his early thirties. His politics and approach to history were shaped by the Cold War, as well as his involvements in the civil rights and anti-war movements and other struggles against the power structures of the day. That year, his paper ‘Present-Mindedness Revisited: Anti-Radicalism as a Goal of American Historical Writing Since World War 11’ was the centrepiece of a controversial session of the American Historical Association in Washington, D.C.

Passionate, strident, scholarly and forensic, the Lemisch paper detailed the ways leading American historians variously claimed political neutrality even as they were …

Vinyl: A History Of The Analogue Record, Andrew Whelan

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This article presents a review of the book "Vinyl: A History of the Analogue Record" by Richard Osborne.

'Once Upon A Time There Was A Wonderful Country': Representations Of History In Rwanda, Deborah Mayersen

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In April 1994, genocide erupted in Rwanda with an unprecedented ferocity. Over the course of 100 days, more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed. A major contributor to the violence was an intense propaganda campaign that dehumanised and demonised the Tutsi minority prior to and during the genocide. This propaganda presented the Tutsi as foreign and feudal oppressors, who would again oppress the Hutu majority as they had in the past if they were not targeted for extermination. Such dubious representations of history have deep roots in Rwanda, which can be traced to the early colonial period. This …

History Foundation To Year 12 (In Review Of The Australian Curriculum - Supplementary Material), Gregory Melleuish

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The Australian history curriculum is compulsory for Years Foundation through to Year 10. It states that its rationale is as follows: ‘The curriculum generally takes a world history approach within which the history of Australia is taught.’ The curriculum is also defined, and limited, by its three cross-curriculum priorities:

* Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

* Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia

* Sustainability.

The Future Of History, Rowan Cahill

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

war in Iraq (2003) in the bloody search-and-destroy mission against non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) recently confessed to being a little embarrassed.

On the September 2014 eve of the release of The Menzies Era, his book of hero worship about conservative Australian PM Sir Robert Menzies, Howard told an interviewer that, when it became public knowledge, the US intelligence reports he based his decision on regarding WMD were faulty, well, he was embarrassed. Not ashamed, mind you, not distraught … which might be expected, since he has a huge amount of civilian blood on his hands … no, just …

Economics Hijackers Could Do With A History Lesson, Simon Ville

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Behind every economic policy initiative lies a narrative justifying that course of action: immigration increases unemployment; public debt is unsustainable; manufacturing is interminably declining; city growth is out of control.

We have many “narrators” driving these discussions of economics – the media, political parties, public sector bodies, business and indeed universities – each with their own set of interests and values.

Unfortunately, among these claimants, the voice of economic history has remained largely silent or selectively galvanised to prosecute a triumphalist or doomsayer interpretation: “the clever country’s many successes in policy and business”; or “the lucky country’s history has been …

'Fictional' History Opens New Front In War On Workers, Rowan Cahill

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

At the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards on 8 December 2014, the joint winner of the Australian History Award was Hal G. P. Colebatch for his book Australia’s Secret War: How Unionists Sabotaged our Troops in World War II. The judging panel was chaired by right-wing think tanker Gerard Henderson of the Sydney Institute, a diehard fan of ‘Pig Iron’ Bob Menzies, and included Peter Coleman, variously author, journalist, former Liberal Party politician, and veteran Cold War warrior.

Colebatch’s book was published in October 2013 by the conservative Australian cultural journal Quadrant, founded during the Cold War as part of the …

‘Labour History And Its Political Role – A New Landscape’, Terence H. Irving

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

As I was thinking about what to say today I read an article on Manning Clark and found something that made me pause. It was a description of our venerable journal, Labour History, but characterizing it in terms that none of us would use, at least not in public. Instead of describing our field, our sources or our methods, our long list of illustrious contributors, it said that Labour History was the journal of Australia’s left-wing historians.

Well, this was in Wikipedia – but nonetheless it struck me that, yes, this is a truth I am prepared to accept. I’m …

It’S My Body: The Biomedical Ethics Of Cell And Organ Harvest, Christina Perri

Common Reading Essay Contest Winners

First Place

Review: Dawn For Islam In Eastern Nigeria: A History Of The Arrival Of Islam In Igboland By Egodi Uchendu, Josip Matesic

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Egodi Uchendu’s Dawn for Islam in Eastern Nigeria: A History of the Arrival of Islam in Igboland attempts to account for the arrival of Islam in Igboland (Nigeria’s ‘Christian heartland’) at the beginning of the twentieth century, and its survival and modest growth from that time onwards. As Uchendu writes, she wants to know how and why a region known to be opposed to Islam has accommodated Islam for a century.

'The Riddle Of History Solved': Socialist Strategy, Modes Of Production And Social Formations In Capital, Mike Donaldson

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Reflecting on Capital again allows one to place it within the arc of Marx’s unfolding work on social formations and modes of production in a wide variety of times and places. In this article, I show how Marx’s detailed and incisive analysis in Capital of the capitalist mode of production, its origins, functioning and future, made him more keenly aware of other modes of production and of their possibilities in a better future.

Review Of Zheng Yangwen And Charles J-H Macdonald, Personal Names In Asia: History, Culture And Identity And Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce, Rebuilding The Ancestral Village: Singaporeans In China, Jason Lim

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Both Personal names in Asia: History, culture and identity and Rebuilding the ancestral village: Singaporeans in China share a common theme of individuals and communities having to change with the times. Personal names examines individual and collective reactions to societal transformation through name changes; Rebuilding the ancestral village examines Chinese Singaporeans’ collective memory of, and struggles to maintain ties with, such villages in China.

"Radical History And Rebel Voices", Ingeborg Elisabeth Van Teeseling

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Book review of:

Terry Irving and Rowan Cahill. Radical Sydney: Places, Portraits and Unruly Episodes. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2010. 384 pp. A$39.95. ISBN 9781742230931

Critical Tax Theory: An Introduction, Anthony C. Infanti, Bridget J. Crawford

Book Chapters

Our book Critical Tax Theory: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press 2009) highlights and explains the major themes and methodologies of a group of scholars who challenge the traditional claim that tax law is neutral and unbiased. The contributors to this volume include pioneers in the field of critical tax theory, as well as key thinkers who have sustained and expanded the investigation into why the tax laws are the way they are and what impact tax laws have on historically disempowered groups. This volume will provide an accessible introduction to this new and growing body of scholarship. It will be …

140th Anniversary Symposium: Fourteenth Amendment Citizenship And The Reconstruction-Era Black Public Sphere, James Fox

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

This project delves more deeply into the possible meanings of constitutional citizenship.. Somewhat in the tradition of the popular constitutionalism scholars, it proposes that the best source for meanings of constitutional citizenship will come not from traditionally originalist sources but from those who attempted to redefine citizenship in a more egalitarian and democratic manner and who established, both in word and in practice, meanings for citizenship on the ground. This argument borrows a theoretical framework from political and social theory: the theories of civil society and the public sphere. This captures—in ways often missed by both legal scholars and historians—the …

Introduction: Creating White Australia: New Perspectives On Race, Whiteness And History, Jane L. Carey, Claire Mclisky

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

As the promulgation of the White Australia Policy in 1901 would seemingly demonstrate, ‘whiteness’ was crucial to the constitution of the new Australian nation. And yet historians have paid remarkably little attention to this in their studies of Australia’s past. ‘Whiteness’, as a concept, has only recently been recognised as a significant part of the story of Australian nationalism. In seeking to understand the operations of ‘race’, historians have primarily looked towards Indigenous peoples and other ‘non-white’ groups. Creating White Australia takes a fresh approach to the questions of Australian national formation and the crucial role of race in Australian …

Preaching To The Court House And Judging In The Temple, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Grounded History: A Keynote Address To The 14th Annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference, Amilcar Shabazz

Afro-American Studies Faculty Publication Series

No abstract provided.