In a time of pandemics, war and climate change, fostering knowledge that transcends disciplinary boundaries is more important than ever. Economic history is one of the world’s oldest interdisciplinary fields, with its prosperity dependent on connection and relevance to disciplinary behemoths economics and history. Australian Economic History is the first history of an interdisciplinary field in Australia, and the first to set the field’s progress within the structures of Australian universities. It highlights the lived experience of doing interdisciplinary research, and how scholars have navigated the opportunities and challenges of this form of knowledge. These lessons are vital for those seeking to develop robust interdisciplinary conversations now and in the future. ‘This previously untold story of economic history in Australia exposes the centrality of economic thought and scholarship to Australian intellectual and political life. Deftly positioning economic history in an innovative institutional, place-based and person-focused narrative, Claire Wright entangles economics with the history of education to produce a tale of university interdisciplinarity, influence and impact. Written with vitality and bursting with both data and anecdote, this book makes an exceptional contribution to the intersecting fields of history, economics and higher education studies.’ Hannah Forsyth, author of A History of the Modern Australian University ‘Few readers would expect to find a classical tragedy in the story of an academic field. Yet that is what Claire Wright shows us in this study of Economic History, as it has been practiced in Australia. She traces the field from legendary beginnings to triumphant growth to organisational collapse - and renaissance on other terms. Carefully researched and vigorously written, this book raises questions about disciplines and interdisciplinary fields, universities and markets, and social bases of intellectual work, that are relevant to all fields today.’ Raewyn Connell, author of The Good University ‘Australia proved a pioneer in the study of economic history, nurturing a discipline with innovative data and understanding of material trends. Yet by the 1990s economic history departments closed as senior scholars retired and the field was subsumed by conventional economics. In this absorbing study, Dr Claire Wright challenges the conventional account. She is tough-minded about financial and institutional pressures on the field, but cautiously optimistic about the future. It is a mistake, she argues, to see institutional representation as the benchmark of influence. Instead, the interdisciplinary nature of economic history has encouraged new research and teaching across the humanities and social sciences. With close attention to individual scholars and their university departments, and a deep sense of the trajectory of the field, Australian Economic History: Transformations of an Interdisciplinary Field is an original and important contribution to Australian intellectual history.’ Glyn Davis, Distinguished Professor of Political Science in the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University
Author(s): Claire E.F. Wright
Publisher: ANU Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 232
City: Canberra
List of figures
Figure 1: Timothy Augustine Coghlan, early twentieth century
Figure 2: Professor Noel G. Butlin, ANU, 10 October 1989
Figure 3: Professor Syd Butlin, University of Sydney, 1960
Figure 4: Professors Gus Sinclair (left) and Allan Fels from the Monash Faculty of Economics and Politics
Figure 5: Participants at the second workshop for the Cambridge Economic History of Australia, Trinity College, University of Melbourne, February 2013
List of tables
Table 1: Economic history staff of ANU
Table 2: Economic history staff of Flinders University
Table 3: Economic history staff of La Trobe University
Table 4: Economic history staff of University of Melbourne
Table 5: Economic history staff of Monash University
Table 6: Economic history staff of University of Sydney
Table 7: Economic history staff of UNE
Table 8: Economic history staff of UNSW
Table 9: Interviews conducted for this text’s research
List of abbreviations
Acknowledgements
1. The interdisciplinary space
2. Early economic history in Australia
3. The big bang
4. A moment in the sun
5. The resistance
6. Renaissance
7. Epilogue
Appendix and data
Index
