KEITH WINDSCHUTTLE's CONTRIBUTION TO AUSTRALIAN HISTORY: AN EVALUATION

In two recent books, Keith Windschuttle has reinvigorated debate on two central questions in Australian history: the extent of frontier violence in the colonisation of Australia and the origins of the White Australia Policy. This assessment of Windschuttle's scholarship will focus on how he arrives at his conclusions: his methodology, his use of evidence and the coherence of his arguments. It will draw on the literature of economic history to show how its methods and perspectives can inform these debates in Australian history.     

Convict workers: a review article

Convict workers, edited by Stephen Nicholas, offers a new interpretation of convictism in Australia. The main new findings are that (1) convicts were not professional criminals but ordinary British and Irish working–class men and women, and (2) the system of assigning convicts to private employers was economically efficient. This review suggests that these findings are not supported by the evidence presented.