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vigorous and sustained public debate over whose and which version of history,
morality and ethics should count, in whose interests, and to what ends. (1997, p. 343)
As a practical example of how this plays out in a lived-context, Kofman (2005), in research
comparing the experience of European Jewish people in the early to mid 20 th century with the
current population of Muslims living in Europe, considers ideas of national identity through
the lens of what she calls cosmopolitanism. In viewing this concept as transnational, Kofman
also identifies the dangers in ignoring completely issues of national identity, writing:
Others (Tarrow, 2001; Calhoun, 2003; Tennant, 2003) have counseled against
downplaying the continuing salience of local solidarities and communitarian
approaches in underpinning cosmopolitan democracies. They argue that
cosmopolitanism needs an account of social solidarity and a thicker conception of
social life, commitment and belonging. Cosmopolitanism tends to dismiss the nation,
and for the most part models political life on a fairly abstract liberal notion of the
person as bearer of rights and obligations…in the present period an often
unacknowledged ambiguity continues towards cosmopolitan dispositions, in part
reflecting the contradictions and tensions between national belonging and processes
of globalization. (2005, pp. 83-84, emphasis added)
Whist the focus of this project is on Australia’s national history, and many historians (as
outlined briefly above) consider the ‘nation’ an important aspect of historical research
(however flawed and artificial the concept of nation is), Curthoys asserts that “in the context
of globalization – economically, culturally, and even politically – the nation matters less, or
at least in a very different way, than it once did” (2003, p. 22). Rather, Curthoys looks
towards a transnational approach to history explaining this as “…the idea of historians
looking at historical processes, at networks of influence and power which transcend the
nation. The point of the exercise becomes not comparison, but the study of influence and
interconnection” (2003, p. 29, emphasis in original). In addition, she writes “…national
history generally is under question...Influenced by…globalization and the need for more
holistic world and transnational histories, there are strong signs…of a turning away from the
nation as the basic organizing category…” (p. 142). Through a concrete example of this,
Curthoys links Japanese and Australian history to the history/culture wars context, writing
provocatively:
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