Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Challenges of Compulsory History in the Australian School Curriculum
- Part II Understanding the Genre of Historical Novels
- 4 Defining the Historical Novel
- 5 The Increase of History as a Subject for Novels: Memory and the Context of Interpretation
- 6 ‘The plot against the plot’: Page-turners for Students
- 7 Counterfactual Histories and the Nature of History
- 8 Alternate Histories in the Classroom
- 9 ‘Caught in time's cruel machinery’: Time-slip Novels in the History Lesson
- Part III Deconstructing the Historical Novel
- Conclusion
- References
7 - Counterfactual Histories and the Nature of History
from Part II - Understanding the Genre of Historical Novels
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Challenges of Compulsory History in the Australian School Curriculum
- Part II Understanding the Genre of Historical Novels
- 4 Defining the Historical Novel
- 5 The Increase of History as a Subject for Novels: Memory and the Context of Interpretation
- 6 ‘The plot against the plot’: Page-turners for Students
- 7 Counterfactual Histories and the Nature of History
- 8 Alternate Histories in the Classroom
- 9 ‘Caught in time's cruel machinery’: Time-slip Novels in the History Lesson
- Part III Deconstructing the Historical Novel
- Conclusion
- References
Summary
Consider this historical account: the setting is the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean; the date is 7 November 1914; the author is Stuart Macintyre, the Ernest Scott Professor of History at the University of Melbourne, and, since 2002 a Laureate Professor of the University of Melbourne. He writes:
The German raiders stood off till nightfall. Under the cover of darkness the Scharnhorst came alongside the Melbourne on the port station and opened fire. The sudden bombardment at close range crippled the Australian ship. Meanwhile the two German light cruisers engaged the Sydney on the starboard station and soon put it out of action. The raiders then cut into the troopships and raked one after another. The British cruiser, which had been leading the flotilla, steamed back into the carnage, and put up desperate resistance before it too listed helplessly out of action.
The defenceless transport vessels scattered like sheep as the wolves bore in on their quarry. One after another, the troopships were overtaken and sunk. Horses and men perished in the darkness. When the British escort ships that had been waiting at the Cocos Islands reached the flotilla, dawn was breaking and the Germans broke off to steam east. Only eighteen troopships survived the disaster and the death toll exceeded 15 000. (Macintyre, 2006, p. 119)
Clearly, this must have been the greatest single tragedy in Australian military history.
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- Information
- Whose History?Engaging History Students through Historical Fiction, pp. 81 - 98Publisher: The University of Adelaide PressPrint publication year: 2013