Geoffrey Blainey - Blainey and The History Wars

Blainey and The History Wars

Blainey has been an important contributor to the debate over Australian history, often referred to as the History Wars. Blainey coined the term the "Black armband view of history" to refer to those historians and academics, usually leftist, who denigrated Australia’s past to an unusual degree and even accused European Australians of genocide against Aborigines. In the eyes of other observers, including a former Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, the so-called history wars were really one branch of the “culture wars”, and that Blainey really initiated the wider wars in his immigration speeches of 1984.

Reflecting on the Australian Bicentenary in 1988, Blainey accused some academics and journalists of depicting Australian history since British settlement as essentially a "story of violence, exploitation, repression, racism, sexism, capitalism, colonialism, and a few other 'isms'." Blainey also accused multiculturalists of having "little respect for the history of Australia between 1788 and 1950," claiming that in their eyes "Australia was a desert between 1788 and 1950 because it was populated largely by people from the British Isles and because it seemed to have a cultural unity, a homogeneity which is the very antithesis of multiculturalism."

Blainey referred to the contrasting positive histories as the "three cheers" school.

In his 1993 Sir John Latham Memorial Lecture, Blainey set out his “black armband” theory, now one of the best known phrases in Australian political discussion. ” To some extent my generation was reared on the Three Cheers view of history. This patriotic view of our past had a long run. It saw Australian history as largely a success. While the convict era was a source of shame or unease, nearly everything that came after was believed to be pretty good. There is a rival view, which I call the Black Armband view of history. In recent years it has assailed the optimistic view of history. The black armbands were quietly worn in official circles in 1988. The multicultural folk busily preached their message that until they arrived much of Australian history was a disgrace. The past treatment of Aborigines, of Chinese, of Kanakas, of non-British migrants, of women, the very old, the very young, and the poor was singled out, sometimes legitimately, sometimes not. ... The Black Armband view of history might well represent the swing of the pendulum from a position that had been too favourable, too self congratulatory, to an opposite extreme that is even more unreal and decidedly jaundiced”.

Critics who had read or not read Blainey’s original article claimed it was anti-Aboriginal. Yet, Blainey applauded the “many distinctive merits” of the traditional Aboriginal way of life. Moreover, Blainey's earlier book Triumph of the Nomads, was highly sympathetic to Aboriginal people, as the title indicates. It is still said to be the only narrative history of Aboriginal Australia before 1788, and a pioneering work. It was listed by the National Book Council in 1984 as one of the ten most significant Australian books of the previous 10 years.