School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemVictoria's avenues of honour to the Great War lost to the landscape.(University of Melbourne, 2006)
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ItemDeath, devotion, and despair: examining women’s authorial contributions to the early modern English ars moriendi( 2017)This thesis examines women’s intervention into the English ars moriendi genre over the course of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It focuses on three printed works: Rachel Speght’s 'Mortalities Memorandum, with a Dreame Prefixed' (1621), Alice Sutcliffe’s 'Meditations of Man's Mortalitie, Or, A Way to True Blessednesse' (1634), and Lady Frances Norton’s 'Memento Mori: or Mediations on Death' (1705). Expanding upon previous research in this field, this thesis provides the first comparative historical study of all three texts and their authors. It frames these printed works both as meditations on religious practice, and as carefully constructed responses to contemporary debates concerning religious expression, female authority in matters of devotion, learning, and authorship, and cultural standards of appropriate emotional expression.
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ItemGeorge Reid: the political realist in the Australian federation movement( 2017)My thesis on Reid demonstrates that new perspectives on the path to federation can be revealed when it is contextualised within its contemporary political environment. When the result of the first formal attempt at federating the Australian colonies, the draft Bill of the 1891 National Australasian Convention, was submitted to the Victorian and NSW Parliaments for consideration, it became clear that the critically flawed Bill was doomed to oblivion. The arrogance with which the convention had presented the Bill to the colonies for ratification left little wriggle room to re-fashion it into an acceptable form. Undeterred, federation advocates – Henry Parkes, Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin – defended their creation, Canute-like against the tide. As opposition to the Bill grew, so did their sense of outrage. They sought to retaliate against those who had the temerity to criticise and the easiest means of focusing their attack was to locate all anti-federation sentiment in a single target, George Houston Reid. Yet it was Reid who saw that the only way for federation to succeed was for a soundly and properly considered constitution to be framed in a process that involved and enthused the people. It is important to be mindful that there were well-established legislatures in place across the Australian continent when the push for union first gained momentum. Accordingly, federation played out within the strictures of political processes. However, historians traditionally have skimmed over contemporaneous political events to construct their histories of Australian federation around the so-called Federation Fathers, such as Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin. I question this. Important as these men were in keeping lit the federation home fire in the public consciousness, and in helping frame the constitution, they often did not set the political agenda. A broader approach is called for, in which the history of federation is contextualised within the contemporary political environment of the Australian colonies: particularly, how the agenda of the political leaders of the time – premiers, opposition and factional leaders – and key political and economic events influenced federation.
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ItemA colonial soldier and the Algerian war of independence: questions of loyalty and identity for the Bachaga Boualam( 2017)This thesis examines the impact of colonial occupation and its demise on the life of an Algerian Colonial Soldier: The Bachaga Boualam. Drawing on a vast array of primary sources including books written by Boualam, documents from the French Colonial Archives and newspaper articles the tension between collaboration with and resistance to imperialism is explored. By examining Algeria's history as a colonised country, the loyalty to France which was developed, Boualam's life and the breakdown of colonial structures the thesis allows for a deep analysis about the impact of imperialism on an individual level.
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ItemThe opening bounce: women playing Australian Rules Football 1915-1955( 2017)This thesis examines the conditions under which women began to play Australian Rules football in the early twentieth century. The first scheduled games would be played in Perth during the Great War, organised through workplaces to raise war funds. The suspension of men’s football and patriotic fervour created momentum for a small number of women to play. The world wars' interruption of traditional gender roles, with many women moving into the workforce, may have shifted social attitudes to allow them to play a historically masculine sport. However, men controlled the sport’s organisation through their positions as employers or beneficiaries of charity. When women’s participation no longer suited their needs, competitions appeared to disintegrate. Contemporary newspaper articles highlight these attitudes that formed around women’s football and affected its development. Praising women for participating was matched with derision as well as emphasis on the novelty of the concept. Analysing these cultural factors provides a more nuanced understanding of the precarious existence of women’s football in Australia up to the 1950s.
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Item‘To bless our brotherhood of beef and cheer!’: The Melbourne Beefsteak Club, 1886-1901( 2016)This thesis examines the purpose behind the formation of the Melbourne Beefsteak Club, a private gentlemen's dining society from 1886 to 1901. It examines the British precedent of associational life and the preconditions necessary for forming a club within colonial Melbourne; the role of customs and rituals in creating a shared identity; and how the Club was a key part of civil society through fostering social capital and maintaining a shared white, upper class male identity. The thesis includes appendices consisting of biographical profiles of the members, a list of papers presented at each dinner and a table of invited guests.
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ItemSkilful diplomat or threat to European peace: Bismarck and the English press during the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871( 2016)This thesis explores how changing circumstances throughout the Franco-Prussian War affected the way major London dailies viewed Otto von Bismarck and Germany. It will show how English press opinion was initially divided between the two belligerents, before becoming increasingly unified in condemning Bismarck’s actions, the counterpoint of which was the transferral of sympathy to France. It will demonstrate how this transition was hinged upon specific turning points in the conflict, from the outbreak of war in July 1870 to the sinking of English coal ships in the Seine in December 1870. It does not attempt to chart the entire history of the Franco-Prussian War, or even that of English diplomacy or policy during the war. Instead, it seeks to incorporate the reading of Victorian newspapers into a broader understanding of English attitudes towards Bismarck.
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ItemHonouring Australian nurses in the Great War: status, recognition and ambiguities, 1914-1926( 2016)War and the military were traditionally perceived as masculine domains, but during the First World War more than 2,000 nurses served overseas with the Australian Army. However, nurses’ status and role in the army and the war were unclear and fraught with ambiguities. This thesis examines the recognition of Australian nurses within three different domains – the military, local communities, and the government – between 1914 and 1926. Exploring the military’s formal acknowledgment of nurses by awarding the Military Medal, local newspapers’ publication of articles regarding nurses, and returned nurses’ experiences participating in the Soldier Settlement Scheme reveals complexities and gender issues faced by women in war. This thesis highlights that public recognition of military nurses at once both challenged masculine assumptions and yet reinforced them.
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ItemReporting the riots: the press and the 1967 Hong Kong riots( 2016)The 1967 riots are undoubtedly the most infamous disturbance in the history of Hong Kong. Lasting for half a year, they brought the British crown colony to a standstill, injuring 832 and taking 51 lives in total. This prolonged episode of confrontation between the pro-Beijing leftists and the Hong Kong government highlighted some of the tensions and problems existing in the colony under the British rule. This thesis seeks to understand the events and reactions of the different factions of the riots through the press.
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ItemHotel California: how Ronald Reagan and Berkeley students checked into the same room( 2016)The historical depiction of Ronald Reagan during his time as the Governor of California, and the more progressive elements of the 1960's such as the Berkeley Campus student youth, is one typified by depictions of antagonism, irreconcilability and opposition. It is against such a hostile backdrop that this paper intends to highlight the political and strategic similarities held between Reagan and his Berkeley counterpart. This, however, is not to suggest the existing orthodoxy that notes the differences between each group is incorrect, but rather, to simply inject an additional layer into the conversation. As such, it will be argued that Reagan, and the Berkeley students during the Free Speech Movement, supported identical theories of government and representation, and for the same reasons. This point will be buttressed with the claim that these historical antagonists failed to, in equal measure, ensure such philosophies were supported by their later actions. In light of such assertions, it will hopefully be demonstrated that Ronald Reagan, and the Berkeley student youth under his charge, held significant ideological parallels that moved beyond their often discordant presentation.