John Dawson
WASHOUT
On the academic response to the fabrication of Aboriginal history
The latest front in the history wars
Waged across airwaves and newspapers for the past two years, the history wars have spread fear and loathing through the besieged halls of academia. The veracity of university-based historians and their versions of our past have been under assault as never before.
The Fabrication of Aboriginal History by Keith Windschuttle fired a broadside whose aftershocks are still reverberating. Given the intellectual capital and political energy many academics had invested in the Aboriginal cause, it was expected they would close ranks and retaliate. In Robert Manne's anthology Whitewash , a score of the authors under siege mounted a counterattack.
In Washout , John Dawson uses Whitewash as a telescopic sight into current academic codes of conduct. In a piercing inspection of the methods, standards and philosophic premises within Australia's humanities faculties, Dawson finds they have adopted irrationalism as their standard and abandoned their patriotic oath to defend the truth.
Washout should be read by anyone who still cares about the quality of academic scholarship and the integrity of Australian intellectual life.
"His conclusions in nearly every case are devastating ... a great read." John Izzard, Quadrant, April 2005
"The definitive book for finding out what a bunch of self-serving clowns have come to dominate Australian history academe is not The Fabrication of Aboriginal History nor The White Australia Policy. The definitive book is written by Australian writer and businessman John Dawson and is entitled Washout." Michael Warby, Live Journal, December 21 2004
Publication information
Publication date: December 6, 2004
Recommended retail price: $34.95 (inc.GST)
Paperback, 235 x 150 mm, 260 pages, footnotes, index
ISBN 1 876492 12 0
Publisher:
Macleay Press, PO Box 477, Paddington NSW 2021
Telephone 02 9360 2534 Fax 02 9331 7368
email: sales@macleaypress.com
