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America, Germany, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom and Austria have over the past twenty
years engaged in debates similar to those in Australia. Where events in each nation’s
historical past which could be described as shameful have largely been omitted from
mainstream or dominant national history discourses over time, and a case for their inclusion
by some sections of the community has been made, controversy has often resulted in specific,
localised nation-focused debates. So, a feature of the history/culture wars in a global sense is
that they remain uniquely nation-specific. However, despite this, similar themes of aligning
national histories and cultural values with discourses related to the ‘progress’ and nationalism
in a Western paradigm of thinking have emerged. A brief overview of similar debates in
other nations is included here; with the nations selected to profile those that have been
engaged in their own history/culture wars over a protracted timeframe. Doing this enables the
Australian-specific debates to be situated within an international context, demonstrating links
to the history/culture wars outside the nation’s borders. Although in the Australian context,
the history/culture wars are at times concerned with immigrant experiences, Australian
relationships with the Asian region or the Anzac 16 legend-making; the debates
overwhelmingly centre on the topic of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, Aboriginals and
Torres Strait Islanders. The history wars and culture wars carried out in other countries have
also extended beyond an interest in national history by being concerned with other overtly
politically driven decisions, such as the United States’ involvement in the Middle East,
especially the Iraq War (Kincheloe, 2008).
The history wars have also on impacted schooling, and as particularly relevant for this
research, the formal History curriculum. Examples can be found over a sustained period of
time in a wide number of countries including Australia and others such as Germany, Canada,
Japan, United States and the United Kingdom (see, for example, Wodak, 2001; Tampke,
2006; Moughrabi, 2001; Issitt, 2004; Osborne, 2003; Cope 1987; Brawley, 1997; an overview
of the broader arguments in the United States in Wineburg, 2001; and an overview of a
number of national contexts in Ahonen, 2001).
16 Anzac is an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. During World War I, Australian and New
Zealand troops engaged in battle as a united force, under the military control of Great Britain. Anzac legendmaking
is expanded in Chapter 7: Before and immediately after WWI.
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