Keith Windschuttle (born 1942) is an Australian writer who is the author of several books, including Unemployment (1979) which analyses the economic causes and social consequences of unemployment in Australia, The Media: a New Analysis of the Press, Television, Radio and Advertising in Australia (1984) on the political economy and content of the news and entertainment media, The Killing of History, (1994), a critique of postmodernism in history, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History (2002) which accuses a number of Australian historians of falsifying and inventing the degree of violence in the past, and The White Australia Policy (2004), a history of that policy which argues that academic historians have exaggerated the degree of racism in Australian history. Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... An 1837 political cartoon about unemployment in the United States. ... Andy Warhols iconic Marilyn Monroe Postmodernism is an idea that has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and historians, because the term implies to many that the modern historical period has passed. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ...

Biography

After education at Canterbury Boys High School (where he was a contemporary of conservative politician John Howard), Windschuttle was a journalist on newspapers and magazines in Sydney. He completed a BA (first class honours in history) at the University of Sydney in 1969, and an MA (honours in politics) at Macquarie University in 1978. In 1973, he became tutor in Australian history at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Between 1977 and 1981, Windschuttle was lecturer in Australian history and in journalism at the New South Wales Institute of Technology, now University of Technology, Sydney before returning to UNSW in 1983 as lecturer/senior lecturer in social policy. He resigned from UNSW in 1993. Since then he has been publisher of Macleay Press and a regular visiting and guest lecturer on history and historiography at American universities. In June 2006 he was appointed to the Board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's non-commercial public broadcaster. John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939), an Australian politician, is the Prime Minister of Australia. ... The University of Sydney, established in Sydney in 1850, is the oldest university in Australia. ... Year 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Macquarie University is an Australian university located in Sydney. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... The University of New South Wales or UNSW is a university situated in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The UTS tower on Broadway The University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Historiography is the study of the practice of history. ... The Australian Broadcasting Corporation or ABC (formerly the Australian Broadcasting Commission) is Australias national non-profit public broadcaster. ...

Political evolution

An adherent of the New Left in the 1960s and 70s, Windschuttle later moved to the right. This process is first evident in his 1984 book The Media, which was highly critical of the then academically fashionable Marxist theories of Louis Althusser and Stuart Hall.

This political evolution has continued since the early 1990s. In The Killing of History, Windschuttle defended the of practices and methods of traditional empirical history against postmodernism, and praised historians such as Henry Reynolds. He currently argues that although at the time he believed that those left-wing historians he praised relied on traditional empirically-oriented approaches, he has subsequently discovered by checking their primary sources that some did not. In philosophy generally, empiricism is a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience. ... Henry Reynolds is an Australian historian. ...

His principal argument, evident in The Killing of History and The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, is that historians on both the left and right of the political spectrum have misrepresented and sometimes fabricated evidence to produce history that supports various political causes.

Windschuttle argues that the task of the historian is to attempt to provide the reader with an empirical history as near to the "objective truth" as possible, based on analysis of all the available evidence. The political implications of an objective, empirical history are not the empirical historian's responsibility. A historian may have his or her own political beliefs but this should never lead them to falsify historical evidence. It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Limited information sources, article is object for nothing but original research If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ...

However, critics such as the contributors to Whitewash, have argued that Windschuttle does not follow his own criteria as, in their view, his work invariably produces findings consistent with his political views. The contributors to Whitewash include historians whom Windschuttle has directly criticised for "fabricating" history. The key issue is whether the historical evidence, viewed objectively, supports the historical arguments made by Windschuttle or those of the historians he has criticised.

A frequent contributor to conservative magazines Quadrant and The New Criterion, Windschuttle's recent research disputes whether the colonial settlers of Australia committed widespread genocide against the Indigenous Australians and denies the claims by some left-wing historians that there was a campaign of guerrilla warfare against British settlement. Extensive debate on his claims has come to be called the History Wars. He rebuts assertions, which he imputes to the current generation of academic historians, that there was any resemblance between racial attitudes in Australia and those of South Africa under apartheid and Germany under the Nazis. Look up Quadrant on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Quadrant can mean: HMS Quadrant (G11), a WW-II British/Australian warship. ... The New Criterion is a New York-based magazine, a journal of art and cultural criticism. ... See also, List of Indigenous Australian group names Indigenous Australians are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... The History wars are an ongoing public debate over the interpretation of the history of the white colonisation of Australia and its influence on responses to the current situation of the original inhabitants of the land. ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ... National Socialism redirects here. ...

The Fabrication of Aboriginal History

See also: History Wars

The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1847 is a review of published research on the history of violence between indigenous Australians and white colonists. The book focuses primarily on Tasmanian history and the massacres and violence reported there. Windschuttle denies many of the claims made by historians such as Henry Reynolds and Lyndall Ryan. In reviewing the citations made by historians, he claims that many are inaccurate, misleading, falsified and sometimes invented. In a number of cases, the primary sources footnoted do not support the claims made in the text. He argues that the colonial settlers of Australia did not commit widespread massacres against Indigenous Australians, and that there was not a campaign of guerrilla warfare against British settlement. His review focuses in large part on the Black War against the Aborigines of Tasmania. The History wars are an ongoing public debate over the interpretation of the history of the white colonisation of Australia and its influence on responses to the current situation of the original inhabitants of the land. ... Henry Reynolds is an Australian historian. ... Lyndall Ryan (1943 - ) is an Australian academic. ... This is a list of massacres of Indigenous Australians. ... See also, List of Indigenous Australian group names Indigenous Australians are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. ... Look up guerrilla in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Poster issued in Van Diemens Land during the Black War depicting Lieutenant-Governor Daveys policy of friendship and equal justice for settlers and aborigines. ... The Tasmanian Aboriginals are the indigenous people of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. ...

Windschuttle's claims and research have been the subject of a series of rebuttals and counter-rebuttals. The best known is Whitewash. On Keith Windschuttle's Fabrication of Aboriginal History, an anthology edited and introduced by Robert Manne, professor of politics at La Trobe University, with contributions from other Australian historians. Another book, Washout: On the academic response to The Fabrication of Aboriginal History by Melbourne freelance writer John Dawson, argues that Whitewash leaves Windschuttle's claims and research unrefuted. Robert Manne is a professor of politics at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia and one of Australias foremost public intellectuals. ...

Ben Kiernan, an Australian who heads the Yale University Genocide Project, views Windschuttle's work as a case of denial consistent with the historical tradition of Quadrant to deny and cover-up genocides in which Austrailian governments have been implicated. Kiernan contends that, Benedict F. Kiernan (born 1953 in Melbourne, Australia) is the Whitney Griswold Professor of History, Professor of International and Area Studies and Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University. ... Yale redirects here. ... Look up Quadrant on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Quadrant can mean: HMS Quadrant (G11), a WW-II British/Australian warship. ...

At bottom, Windschuttle opposes Aboriginal land rights and covers up the history of massacres that strengthens the case for restitution. He recommends assimilation... Yet some aboriginals wish to live on their traditional land and reclaim it. Denial of their land rights favors white claimants such as pastoral and mining corporations. Denial of the genocide too, undercuts Aboriginal claims based on justice^[1].

It should be noted that Ben Kiernan was a supporter of the Khmer Rouge during its brutal regime in Cambodia and went on record with repeated denials of the Khmer Rouge's involvement in genocide and other atrocities. Later, he supported the communist Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. To date, Kiernan has offered no new or independently gathered evidence to support the allegation that Keith Windschuttle covered-up or denied any genocidal actions or atrocities in which the Australian Government was supposedly involved. Instead Kiernan has merely quoted from what is known as the black-armband view of aboriginal history and from historians whom Windschuttle has already accused of misrepresenting and fabricating evidence of genocide and atrocities for political purposes.

Major publications

• Unemployment: a Social and Political Analysis of the Economic Crisis in Australia, Penguin, (1979)
• Fixing the News, Cassell, (1981)
• The Media: a New Analysis of the Press, Television, Radio and Advertising in Australia, Penguin, (1984, 3rd edn. 1988)
• Working in the Arts, University of Queensland Press, (1986)
• Local Employment Initiatives: Integrating Social Labour Market and Economic Objectives for Innovative Job Creation, Australian Government Publishing Service, (1987)
• Writing, Researching Communicating, McGraw-Hill, (1988, 3rd edn. 1999)
• The Killing of History: How a Discipline is being Murdered by Literary Critics and Social Theorists, Macleay Press, Sydney (1994); Macleay Press, Michigan (1996); Free Press, New York (1997); Encounter Books, San Francisco (2000)
• The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1847, Macleay Press, (2002)
• The White Australia Policy, Macleay Press, (2004)

For the Smashing Pumpkins song, see 1979 (song). ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

1. ^ Kiernan, B (2002), "Cover-Up and denial of genocide: Australia, the USA, East Timor, and the Aborigines" Critical Asian Studies, 34:2, 163-192

Articles

• Contra Windschuttle, S.G. Foster Quadrant, March 2003, 47:3 [1]
• The Whole Truth...?, P. Francis, The Journal of GEOS, 2000
• Whitewash confirms the Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Keith Windschuttle, Quadrant, October 2003 [2]
• The return of postmodernism in Aboriginal history, Keith Windschuttle, Quadrant, April 2006 [3]

See also

• David Horowitz like Windschuttle, an intellectual who was formerly an active left-winger and is now an active right-winger.

David Horowitz is an American conservative writer and activist. ...

External links

• SydneyLine website - recent articles and lectures by Sydney author and publisher, Keith Windschuttle, plus other works and links that pursue similar interests and are conceived within the same tradition
  • The Real Stuff of History
• ABC Board bio