AHS classics: Australia and the First World War: the First World War in Australian history

This article introduces the first volume of AHS Classics: Australia and the First World War. It surveys the critical scholarship on the Australian experience of war, taking its cue from Ken Inglis' seminal article, ‘The Anzac Tradition’ (1965), and tracing the development of his challenge to Australian historians over the following five decades. It argues that the adaptability of the Anzac legend, and its assimilation of varied experiences of the First World War, requires both investigation and caution in the production of new histories of events almost a century distant.

The most influential books in Australian sociology (MIBAS), 1963-2003

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Australian Sociological Association (TASA), a survey on the Most Influential Books in Australian Sociology (MIBAS) was conducted. In this article we discuss the MIBAS process, its findings, and provide some reflections on the top 10 most influential books. We also situate the MIBAS survey among other attempts to compile lists of the most influential books in the discipline of sociology, and discuss the benefits and limits of such endeavours. We argue that the MIBAS exercise was useful not only as a commemorative device, but as an opportunity to reflect on the breadth and influence of Australian sociological scholarship.

Émigré architects and the Australian architecture establishment

The scholarship of émigré architects that arrived in Australia in the period between 1930 and 1960 has focused on developing an understanding of individual architects and their particular contribution to the discipline and profession integral to a dominant architectural historiography. Examination of how architects together form movements, aesthetic affinities, and attitudes about architecture generates an understanding of the collective dimension of the discipline, and the complexities of architectural production. Significant to the capacity of the individual émigrés architects were the opportunities gained firstly, through the network of the architecture profession and institution, and secondly with one another. On arrival, except for migrants from Britain, many émigrés faced a difficult path of migration and struggled to gain registration and thus employment in the architectural profession. What were the relationships between émigré architects and architecture’s institutional infrastructure – the institute, the university, and the profession? And how did this affect their experience of migration and resettlement, as well as their capacity for architectural production?

Culturally diverse parenting: an Australian study

In a period of educational reform that gives much attention to children?s family experiences, gaining an understanding of diverse cultural views of parenting is important. This is especially so for Australia, a multicultural society where the values of diversity, culture, family, and community are all shared in early childhood education. This article reports a study in Australia that explored the viewpoints of seven culturally diverse women on raising young children. By engaging with multiple cultural groups, the study seeks to expand scholarship on culturally diverse education which tends to draw on samples of single ethnic communities. The purpose is to locate the concept of parenting within a broader concept of culture and more importantly within the paradigm of diversity. Findings suggest that ideas of “culture”, “minority” and “difference” played a complex and dynamic role in the parents? experiences, and their childrearing practice was an articulation of cultural relationship that characterised the life of children and parents in resettlement contexts.