WEEK 3 TUTORIAL: The Twenties

(22 March – )

Tutorial question

How successfully did returned soldiers adjust to the novelty of the 1920s?

Did the 1920s roar? What did ex-soldiers have to adjust to? How did Australian society accommodate them? What would Fred Farrell have made of the working woman’s wardrobe? How did the ‘Anzac myth’ develop in the 1920s? Was there a difference between the public and private memory of the Great War? How important was masculinity to the myth? How did the soldier settlement schemes relate to the bush 'myth'? Would you agree that ex-soldiers became a conservative force in Australia in the 1920s? Did the myth exclude anti-war sentiment and peace activism? How important were new cultural forms (cinema, radio, the popular press) in giving shape to the 1920s? What effect did that have on class, gender and generational differences? Why did intellectuals often depict Australia as a cultural desert in the 1920s? How accurate is it to see the mass of Australians as pliant consumers of foreign entertainment?

Essential reading

Lake M 'The power of Anzac' in M McKernan & M Browne (eds) Australia : Two Centuries of War and Peace Canberra 1988
**Reekie, Gail ‘Decently Dressed? Sexualised consumerism and the working woman’s wardrobe 1918-1923’ Labour History 61, November 1991

Additional reading

**Thomson A 'The return of a soldier' Meanjin 47 (4) 1988; alternatively see Thomson, Alistair Anzac Memories: Living with the Legend Melbourne 1994 ch 6
Clark CMH A History of Australia vol.6 Melbourne, 1987 pp. 200-15 & 232-7.
Spearritt, Peter Sydney’s Century: A History Sydney 2000 ch 3
Rickard J Australia: A Cultural History Melbourne 1988 ch.7

** reprinted in White and Russell (eds) Memories and Dreams

Other

Damousi, Joy and Marilyn Lake (eds) Gender and war : Australians at war in the twentieth century Cambridge, 1995
Williams, John F The quarantined culture : Australian reactions to modernism, 1913-1939 Cambridge, 1995
Bell, Philip and Roger Implicated: The United States in Australia Melbourne 1993 ch 2
*Garton, S 'Return Home: War, masculinity and repatriation' in Damousi, J & M Lake (eds) Gender and War: Australians at war in the twentieth century Melbourne 1995
*Garton, Stephen The Cost of War: Australians Return Melbourne 1996 esp ch 1
Johnson L 'Radio and everyday life: the early years of broadcasting in Australia 1922-45' Media Culture and Society 3 (2) 1981
Kent DE 'The Anzac book and the Anzac legend. . .' Historical Studies 21 (84) April 1985
Lawrence, D H KangarooLondon 1923 (a classic perspective on Australia in the 1920s)
Lloyd, Clem and Jacqui Rees The last shilling : a history of repatriation in Australia Melbourne, 1994
McCalman J Struggletown: Public and Private Life in Richmond 1900-1965 Melb 1984 ch.4
Thomson, Alistair Anzac Memories: Living with the Legend Melbourne 1994 ch 8
White R 'Americanisation and popular culture in Australia' Teaching History 12 (2) 1978
White Richard Inventing Australia: Images and Identity 1688-1980 Sydney 1981 ch.8

On Anzac commemoration:

Barrett J 'No straw man: CEW Bean and some critics' Australian Historical Studies 23(89) April 1988
Cochrane P 'Legendary proportions: the Simpson memorial appeal of 1933' Australian Historical Studies 24(94) April 1990
*Cochrane P Simpson and the Donkey: the making of a legend Melbourne 1992
Damousi, Joy The Labour of Loss: Mourning, Memory and Wartime Bereavement in Australia Melbourne 1999
Gerster R Big Noting Melbourne 1987
Inglis K Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape Melbourne 1998
Inglis K 'The Anzac Tradition' Meanjin 24 (1) 1965
Inglis K C.E.W. Bean : Australian Historian St Lucia 1969
**Inglis K 'Men, women and war memorials: Anzac Australia' Daedalus 116 (4) 1987
*Roe M 'Comment on the Digger tradition' Meanjin (24) 3 1965
*Serle G 'The Digger tradition and Australian nationalism' Meanjin (24) 2 1965

On conservatism and Anzac:

Evans R The Red Flag Riots: A Study of Intolerance St Lucia 1988
McQueen H 'Shoot the Bolshevik! Hang the Profiteer! Reconstructing Australian Capitalism 1918-21' in EL Wheelwright & K Buckley (eds) Essays in the Political Economy of Australian Capitalism vol.2 Sydney 1978
King T 'The tarring and feathering of J.K. McDougall: "dirty tricks" in the 1919 federal election?' Labour History 45 1983
Thomson A 'Passing Shots at the Anzac Legend' in V Burgmann & J Lee (eds) A Most Valuable Acquisition : A People's History of Australia Since 1788 Melbourne 1988
Kristianson GL The Politics of Patriotism : The Pressure Group Activities of the RSL Canberra 1966

On Anzac and masculinity:

*Cooper A 'Textual territories: gendered cultural politics and Australian representations of the war of 1914-1918' Australian Historical Studies 25(100) April 1993
*Howe A 'Anzac mythology and the feminist challenge' Melbourne Journal of Politics 15 1983-4
Nicoll, Fiona From diggers to drag queens : configurations of Australian national identity Sydney, 2001
Tyler D 'Making nations, making men: feminists and the Anzac tradition' Melbourne Historical Journal 16 1984
*Shute C 'Heroines and heroes: sexual mythology in Australia 1914-1918' Hecate 1 (1) 1975
Thomson A '"Steadfast until death"? CEW Bean and the representation of military manhood' Australian Historical Studies 23(93) Oct 1989

On soldier settlement:

Lake M The Limits of Hope: Soldier Settlement in Victoria 1915-38 Melbourne 1987
Powell JM 'The debt of honour: soldier settlement in the dominions 1915-40' Journal of Australian Studies 1981

Autobiographical accounts of growing up in the 1920s

Fitzpatrick K Solid Bluestone Foundations
Horne D The Education of Young Donald
Inglis A An unAustralian Childhood
Johnston G My Brother Jack
Porter H The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony

On the new cultural forms:

*Bonney B 'Media and the People' in V Burgmann & J Lee (eds) Constructing a Culture: A People's History of Australia Since 1788 Ringwood 1988
*Collins D Hollywood Down Under Sydney 1987
Dermody S et.al. (eds) Nellie Melba, Ginger Meggs and Friends: Essays in Australian Cultural History Melbourne 1982
Gammage B & P Spearritt (eds) Australians 1938 Sydney 1987 chapters by Rickard on leisure and Johnson on radio
Inglis K This Is The ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932-83 Melbourne 1983
Johnson L '"Sing 'em muck Clara": highbrow versus lowbrow on early Australian radio' Meanjin 41 (2) June 1982
Johnson L The Unseen Voice: a cultural study of early Australian radio London 1988
*Knott, John William ‘The "Conquering Car": Technology, Symbolism and the Motorisation of Australia before World War II’ Australian Historical Studies 31 (114) April 2000,
*Lyons M and L Taksa Australian Readers Remember Melbourne 1992
Megaw R 'The American image and Australian cinema management' Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 54 1968-9
O'Brien D The Weekly Sydney 1982
Reekie, G. Temptations: Sex, Selling and the Department Store Sydney 1993
Reiger KM The Disenchantment of the Home Melbourne 1985
Spearritt P Sydney Since the Twenties Sydney 1978 ch.3
Spearritt P & D Walker (eds) Australian Popular Culture Sydney 1979
*Thomas J 'Amy Johnson's triumph, Australia 1930' Australian Historical Studies 23(90) April 1988
Walker RB Yesterday's News Sydney 1980
Williams R The Long Revolution London 1961
Wright A 'The Women's Weekly: Depression and war years, romance and reality' Refractory Girl 3 Winter 1973

On the intelligentsia's response:

Alomes S 'Intellectuals as Publicists 1920s to 1940s' in B Head & J Walter (eds) Intellectual Movements and Australian Society Melbourne 1988
Modjeska D Exiles at Home: Australian Women Writers 1925-45 Sydney 1981
*Serle G From Deserts the Prophets Come: The Creative Spirit in Australia Melb 1973 ch. 7
Walker D Dream and Disillusion: A Search for Australian Cultural Identity Canberra 1976

On sport:

R Cashman 'Ave a go yer mug: Australian cricket crowds Melbourne 1984
*Mandle B Going It Alone Ringwood 1978 (ch on Bodyline)
Stoddart B 'Cricket's Imperial Crisis: the 1932-3 MCC Tour of Australia' in R Cashman & M McKernan (eds) Sport in History St Lucia 1979