Australia’s 1980s in Transnational Perspective

Abstract

Transnational and global perspectives have played a role in re-shaping Australian historiography and can offer insights unavailable in national histories. National history, while a remarkably resilient genre, has not been superseded by these newer approaches. An examination of the historiography of the 1980s provides an indication of both the dangers and opportunities of a transnational or global frame. The specificity of local, regional and national histories can be lost in accounts that barely move beyond the experience of the major centres of global power, especially the United States. On the other hand, transnational and global perspectives can be effective in drawing attention to economic, social and cultural histories that are shared across national boundaries, and to global forces that re-shape economies, governance, cultures and everyday life. This chapter, which places Australia in a transnational context, arises from the author’s work on the 1980s, a decade widely accepted as a watershed in modern world history.