Warning! This unit contains mature content and may not be suitable for some students. Any student under the age of 16 who would like to enrol in this unit must first complete a Parental Consent Form.

Subject details

At the completion of this subject students will be able to:

  1. identify the key themes and ideas of Australian radicalism that shaped Australian political thought at the turn of the twentieth century
  2. understand the transnational context of the various ideologies comprising the progressive tradition
  3. recognise the complexities of social and intellectual movements, the shifting alliances between anarchists, socialists, feminists, single taxers, republicans and eugenists, and the struggles and choices involved
  4. employ critical thinking skills to reflect on the demographic and environmental changes that affected attitudes towards social issues such as family formation, health and wellbeing, urbanisation and citizenship
  5. engage with the concept of historical agency in the context of delimiting and enabling socio-historical structures
  6. examine intellectual, political or social leadership in the light of a field of ideas, concepts, knowledges and values
  7. analyse, evaluate and creatively synthesise a range of texts and images in order to recreate the structure of feeling of a past
  8. appreciate the historicity of our own ideas and values in the twenty-first century
  9. develop sustained, logical and persuasive arguments about the dynamics of social change and the Australian progressive traditions
  10. draw on a knowledge of history to understand the complexities and dynamics shaping, forging and limiting social change.

  • Topics

    • The Communal Lifestyle Movement and the Case of William Lane (1861-1917)
    • Temperance and the Case of Bessie Lee (1860-1950)
    • Eugenics and the Case of Marion Piddington (1867-1950)
    • Town Planning: The Case of Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin
    • The Freedom Rides and Indigienous Rights: The Case of Charles Perkins
    • Second Wave Feminism: The Case of Germaine Greer
    • Environmentalism and the Wilderness Movement: The Case of Bob Brown

  • Study resources

    • Instructional Methods

      • Discussion forum/Discussion Board
      • Online assignment submission
      • Standard Media
      • Web links

    • Online Materials

      • Resources and Links
      • Printable format materials

Entry Requirements

Equivalent Subjects

You cannot enrol in this unit if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:

  • GRF-HUM7464

Special requirements

No special requirements

This subject charts dominant ideas in Australian history that transformed themselves into broad-based social movements. It is constructed around the biographies of prominent transnational figures to explore the ways in which developments in Australia were connected to ideas elsewhere in the world. We approach women's rights, alternative lifestyles, labour politics, urban planning, Aboriginal welfare and racial politics to understand a series of interconnected ideas.

  • Online Discussion (15%)
  • Essay 2 (45%)
  • Essay 1 (40%)

Textbooks are subject to change within the academic year. Students are advised to purchase their books no earlier than one to two months before the start of a subject.

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Related Degrees

postgraduate GRF-WHS-GCE-2018

Graduate Certificate in World Historical Studies