John Hirst (historian)

Born in Adelaide, Hirst attended Unley High School and undertook his undergraduate and postgraduate study at the University of Adelaide. Abandoning an early desire to become a Methodist minister, in 1968 he was appointed a lecturer at Melbourne's new La Trobe University, where he remained until the end of his career. His wife and fellow-student Christine accompanied him to Melbourne. They had two children, Catherine and David.{{cite news|last1=Stuart Macintyre, Graeme Davison|title=Shunning awards, historian set his own true course|url=http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/shunning-awards-historian-set-his-own-true-course-20160310-gnfd9b.html|access-date=11 Apr 2016|work=SMH|date=16 Mar 2016}} Hirst was subsequently head of department and Reader in History at La Trobe. He retired in 2006, and was an Emeritus Scholar at La Trobe until his death.{{cite news|last=Steger|first=Jason|date=6 February 2016|title=Leading Australian historian and public intellectual John Hirst has died|url=http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/leading-australian-historian-and-public-intellectual-john-hirst-has-died-20160205-gmmk85.html|newspaper=The Age|location=Melbourne|access-date=6 February 2016}}{{cite news|last1=Buckingham-Jones|first1=Sam|title=Public intellectual has last argument: John Hirst dies at 73|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/public-intellectual-has-last-argument-john-hirst-dies-at-73/news-story/33381247fe016a170c96f5957ecf1f15|access-date=10 February 2016|work=Australian|date=8 February 2016}} Hirst was seconded to the University of Melbourne to edit Historical Studies, Australia's leading historical journal, from 1977 to 1980. In retirement, he travelled regularly to Sydney to instruct, without remuneration, groups of post-graduate students in thesis writing.{{cite news|last1=Russell|first1=Terry|title=Remembering JB Hirst, A Very Different Historian|url=https://newmatilda.com/2016/02/16/remembering-jb-hirst-a-very-different-historian/|access-date=1 March 2016|work=New Matilda|date=16 February 2016}}

Hirst died on 3 February 2016 at the age of 73.

Hirst's career included "teaching, supervision and research. He developed new subjects and methodologies to teach them."{{cite journal|last1=Frost|first1=Alan|title=Challenging the Orthodoxies: a distinctive figure in our intellectual life|journal=Australian Book Review|date=September 2010|issue= 324|pages=15–16}} He produced a large number of articles, chapters and books on Australian history. His academic interests were wide-ranging, including social, cultural and political history. Jeremy Sammut has described him as "an elegant and outstanding stylist, as adept at clarifying complex issues by reducing them to their essentials as he was at crafting the pithy line that eliminated all doubt his interpretation was true and correct".{{cite news|last1=Sammut|first1=Jeremy|title=John Hirst: culture warrior shaped future through the past|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/john-hirst-culture-warrior-shaped-future-through-the-past/news-story/1fbf15bdb645edd400dc3b4c63df3dd6|access-date=10 Feb 2016|work=Australian|date=9 Feb 2016}} In his historical work, Hirst's colleague at La Trobe University, Alan Frost, has noted that Hirst "challenged orthodoxies and produced many new insights". A major achievement of Hirst's was a project to index the Melbourne Argus newspaper (1860–1909).

Hirst wrote two seminal books on colonial New South Wales which Frank Bongiorno has described as displaying "a raw intellectual power":{{cite news|last1=Bongiorno|first1=Frank|title=John Hirst (1942–2016) Remembering a historian of fierce independence and unusual originality|url=https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/frank-bongiorno/2016/18/2016/1455753931/john-hirst-1942-2016|access-date=24 February 2016|work=The Monthly|publisher=Black Inc.|date=18 February 2016}} Convict Society and its Enemies (1983) and The Strange Birth of Colonial Democracy (1988) (both reprinted as Freedom on the Fatal Shore in 2008). Convict Society and its Enemies was particularly influential, arguing that rather than being a brutal slave society, early New South Wales was a place where rights and freedoms were well-established from the beginning and where the British convicts had opportunities for advancement.

Hirst's study of Australian Federation, The Sentimental Nation, was also a ground-breaking work, arguing that national sentiment was more important than economics in uniting the Australian colonies. Alan Frost has described Hirst's shorter analyses as notable: "Distance in Australia: Was It a Tyrant?" (1975), his response to Geoffrey Blainey's most famous concept, "deserves much more attention than it now receives"; "Egalitarianism" (1986) challenges "received wisdom about colonial life". Many of his best shorter pieces were collected in Sense and Nonsense in Australian History (2009).

In addition to those concerning Australian history, Hirst developed a pioneering course designed to inform students about Australia's European cultural heritage. Hirst argued that:

{{Blockquote

|text="Since Australia is an outgrowth of England, European civilisation is also the field of study for an intelligible history of Australia. This does not mean that every history of Australia has to begin with Charlemagne. It does mean that Australian history not set within European civilisation will convey a very poor understanding of Australian society."{{cite book|last=Hirst|first=John|date=2006|title=Sense and Nonsense in Australian History|publisher=Black Inc. Agenda|isbn=9780975076996}}

}}

Hirst turned his series of lectures on European history into a book, The Shortest History of Europe. First published in 2009, the book has been translated into twelve languages (Italian,https://www.bompiani.it/catalogo/breve-storia-delleuropa-9788845293559 Breve Storia dell'Europa, edito nel 2017 da Bompiani nella collana Storia Paperback, traduzione di Rino Servù, pp. 247 Finnish, Swedish, Greek, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and Korean). His last work was a similar encapsulation of Australian history in one short volume, Australian History in Seven Questions.

Historian Frank Bongiorno described Hirst as a "creative historian capable of engaging a wide audience, as well as a public intellectual who delighted, infuriated and provoked". He contributed many opinion pieces and commentaries to Australian newspapers and journals. Jeremy Sammut has noted that Hirst was motivated by an independent mind and a distaste for unthinking conformity. He "defied simplistic categorisation as a partisan because his politics were idiosyncratic". Sammut wrote Hirst was committed to "the rigorous pursuit of historical truth that drove him to explore the deeper patterns and meanings of the past, and the contemporary implications, that others had missed or misled us about". Hirst described himself as an old-fashioned social democrat.

Hirst held a number of appointments during his career. He was a member of the Prime Minister's Republic Advisory Committee, the chair of the Commonwealth Civics Education Group, a member of the Film Australia Board, a council member of the National Museum of Australia, and a member of the board of Old Parliament House in Canberra. He wrote the official history of Australia for new citizens and took a prominent part in the history summit convened by Prime Minister John Howard in 2006. Hirst advised the Victorian Government on the school history curriculum and was history adviser to the National Curriculum Authority. He was elected to the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1986. A committed republican, Hirst was the Convenor of the Republican Movement in Victoria.

{{Expand list|date=July 2017}}

• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=Adelaide and the country, 1870–1917 : their social and political relationship |year=1973|publisher=Melbourne University Press |location=Carlton, Victoria }}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=Convict Society and Its Enemies: A History of Early New South Wales|year=1983|publisher=George Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9780868613499|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=The Strange Birth of Colonial Democracy: New South Wales, 1848–1884|year=1988|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=North Sydney|isbn=9780195506204|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=The World of Albert Facey|year=1992|publisher=History Institute of Victoria in association with Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9781863731614|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=A Republican Manifesto|year=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Melbourne|isbn=0195536495|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=Discovering Democracy: A Guide to Government and Law in Australia|year=1998|publisher=Curriculum Corporation|location=Carlton South, Victoria|isbn=1863664319|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=The Sentimental Nation: The Making of the Australian Commonwealth|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Melbourne|isbn=9780195506204|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=Australia's Democracy: A Short History|year=2003|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Crows Nest, New South Wales|isbn=9781865088457|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title='Kangaroo Court': Family Law in Australia|year=2005|publisher=Black Inc|location=Melbourne|isbn=9781863953412|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=Sense and Nonsense in Australian History|year=2006|publisher=Black Inc|location=Melbourne|isbn=9780975076996|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=The Australians: Insiders and Outsiders on the National Character since 1770|year=2007|publisher=Black Inc|location=Melbourne|isbn=9781863954082|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=The Shortest History of Europe|year=2009|publisher=Black Inc|location=Melbourne|isbn=9781863954396|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=Looking for Australia: Historical Essays|year=2010|publisher=Black Inc|location=Melbourne|isbn=9781863954860|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=Australian History in 7 Questions|year=2014|publisher=Black Inc|location=Carlton, Victoria|isbn=9781863956703|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|author=Hirst, John |title=Australia's Catholic University: The First Twenty-Five Years|year=2015|publisher=Australian Catholic University|location=North Sydney|isbn=9781922097293|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor1=Graeme Davison |editor2=John Hirst |editor3=Stuart Macintyre|title=The Oxford Companion to Australian History|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Melbourne|isbn=019551503X|author-mask=1}}

• {{cite journal|author=McKenna|first=Mark|author-link=Mark McKenna (historian)|date=Aug 2014|title=Untitled review of Australian history in 7 questions|department=Noted|journal=The Monthly|volume=103|pages=56|url=https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/july/1405921412/mark-mckenna/%E2%80%98australian-history-7-questions%E2%80%99-john-hirst}}

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Category:1942 births

Category:2016 deaths

Category:Australian historians

Category:Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia

Category:Historians of Australia

Category:Academic staff of La Trobe University

Category:Writers from Adelaide

Category:University of Adelaide alumni

Category:Australian Book Review people

Category:People educated at Unley High School