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The mapping of these debates concludes with the defeat of Prime Minister John Howard at
the November 24, 2007 Federal Election, a date that arguably spelled the end of the
history/culture wars (at least in the form they had taken up until that point). During his prime
ministership, John Howard was instrumental in continuing the history/culture war debates,
being an ardent conservative and high profile supporter of Blainey. Howard holds a view of
Australian history that seeks to celebrate Australian progressive historical milestones and to
marginalise aspects of the nation’s history that seek to profile negative or collective shameful
aspects. This approach to history and public memory-making has become known as “the
Three Cheers view” (Blainey, 2005, p. 30). Its direct binary is the Black Armband view, an
approach that considers only negative aspects of Australia’s past, especially in relation to
Indigenous Australian histories. With the 2007 defeat of John Howard after 11 years as Prime
Minister, the newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd did not contribute to the debates
surrounding this topic, instead choosing to (generally) avoid making statements about and
responding to questions regarding the history/culture wars. By framing the history/culture
wars in a specific timeframe, this project seeks to provide a mapping of the significant
junctures of the debates as they occurred at that time.
There is a multitude of published texts adding new perspectives or providing in depth
analyses covering the history/culture wars (see, for example, Melleuish, 1997; MacIntyre and
Clark, 2003; Manne, 2003, 2004; Blainey, 2005; H. Reynolds, 1998, 2001; Windschuttle,
1996, 2004; Donnelly, 2007a; Parkes, 2007; and A. Clark, 2002a, 2002b). Given the myriad
of information already available, the main arguments having already entered the general
public domain, the intent of this overview is not to replicate these debates. Nor is the
intention here to provide an in-depth analysis of the many political perspectives which have
influenced this debate on a number of levels. Instead, this overview provides a general
overview and explanation of the history/culture wars that have been occurring on a national
level in Australia between historians, educators, governments, journalists and media
commentators since the early 1990s. How the major shifts of the debate intersect with school
curriculum is the primary matter of interest.
A1.1.3 Transnational contexts.
Ongoing public debates significant for creating shifts in understanding and facilitating deep
thinking about the perspective on and selection of events in national and cultural histories are
carried out across a number of nations. For example, nations such as the United States of
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