Australian military historiography

Abstract

Over the past century Australian historiography of war has ranged from strategy, command, battle and defence policy to the social, political, and cultural aspects of conflict. Historians themselves have mirrored this diversity. A gulf has often existed between chauvinistic popular history and the more critical scholarly research; while academic historians have been divided, between operational historians, who have eschewed theory in favour of narrative and empiricism, and social and cultural historians who have embraced successive waves of theoretical paradigms. The ‘greater’ historiography of the national experience of war would be enriched by a more active dialogue across these divides, as well as a deeper engagement with the economics and finance of war, and with the insights afforded by transnational history.