Geoffrey blainey biography

Geoffrey Blainey is often described as Australia’s ‘greatest living historian’, a writer whose prolific output includes such iconic books about the country’s past as The Tyranny of Distance and Triumph of the Nomads.

However, Blainey has also been a controversial figure. His comments about Asian immigration triggered a major political controversy. In turn, the reaction of his critics raised fundamental questions about freedom of speech and set the scene for the ‘history wars’ fought out in Australia over the past three decades.

Many academic historians were amongst Blainey’s critics. After , Blainey became stereotyped as a ‘conservative historian’ and thus outside the bounds of academic history, yet much of Blainey’s historical writing, both in method and outlook, has been far from conservative.

Geoffrey Blainey: Writer, Historian, Controversialist challenges simplistic descriptions of Blainey’s work. It sheds an important light not just on Blainey’s career,

•

Geoffrey Blainey

Australian historian

Geoffrey Norman Blainey, AC, FAHA, FASSA (born 11 March ) is an Australian historian, academic, best selling author and commentator.

Blainey is noted for his authoritative texts on the economic and social history of Australia, including The Tyranny of Distance.^[1] He has published over 40 books, including wide-ranging histories of the world and of Christianity. He has often appeared in newspapers and on television.^[2][3][4]

Blainey held chairs in economic history and history at the University of Melbourne for over 20 years.^[2] In the s, he was visiting professor of Australian Studies at Harvard University,^[3] and received the Britannica Award for 'exceptional excellence in the dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of mankind', the first historian to receive that award^[5] and was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in ^[6]

Blaine

•

BLAINEY, Professor Emeritus Geoffrey ()

Historian and author
Foundation Chancellor of the University of Ballarat

Geoffrey Blainey, one of Australia's most eminent historians, was appointed the foundation Chancellor of the University of Ballarat (UB) in after an illustrious career at the University of Melbourne. He was installed as UB Chancellor in December and continued until The Blainey Auditorium at the Mt Helen Campus of UB is named in his honour. Blainey, always a keen exponent of libraries and the acquisition of books, has donated part of his extensive book collection to the UB library. In the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters was conferred on Blainey in recognition of his contribution to the University of Ballarat and to the community in general.

Educated at Ballarat High School, Blainey won a scholarship to Wesley College, before attending Melbourne University where he studied history. He worked as a freelance historical author writing mainly business histories such