HIST2227 Chap.1 History of Politics, History as Politics
History of Politics, History as Politics
Why the course starts with a quarrel
The opening topic uses a 2025 national history written by a former prime minister, and the quick replies from historians, to ask what history is for. Reviews by Frank Bongiorno, Marcia Langton and Marilyn Lake sit beside E. H.
Carr’s classic chapter on the historian and his facts.
The tools you take away
The chapter separates primary sources from secondary authorities, shows that the same document can play either role, and sets out the Chicago footnote and bibliography forms that History requires in every essay.
How it connects to the assessment
The first quiz draws on these opening weeks, so the vocabulary of sources and interpretation is tested early.
The Final Paper then asks for wide reading, good use of primary sources and consistent referencing, and each of those criteria rests on the habits this topic introduces: asking who produced a source and why, separating evidence from interpretation, and recording every page you rely on.
Reading the debate fairly
A useful discipline for this week is to state each reviewer’s position in a way they would accept before you judge it.
That habit protects you from treating a disagreement as a matter of sides, which is exactly the move Carr is asked to resist, and it is the starting point for the balanced argument the marking standards reward.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The 2025 debate over a national history
- 02
What the reviewers' titles signal
- 03
Carr on facts and interpretation
- 04
Primary sources and secondary authorities
- 05
Chicago footnotes and short forms
- 06
Building a bibliography
Worked example · free
Classifying the same source two ways
- 1In the first essay the Statement is a primary source, because it was produced in 2017, the moment being studied.
- 1In the second essay it is still a primary source, but one that makes an interpretive claim about the distant past, which the essay must weigh against scholarly secondary authorities.
- 1The category depends on the question asked of a source, not on the document itself.
Key terms
- Secondary Authority
- A historian's interpretation of the past, built from primary sources and other scholarship.
- Chicago Footnote
- A numbered note giving the full details and page of a source, required in History essays.
- Short Form Citation
- A shortened note with author, short title and page, used after a source's first full citation.
- Bibliography
- An alphabetical list of every source used in an essay, with names inverted and full publication details.
History of Politics, History as Politics FAQ
What does history as politics mean in this course?
It is the idea that writing about the political past is itself a political act. The opening tutorial tests it on a 2025 history by Tony Abbott and the critical reviews that followed, then asks with E. H. Carr whether history is only rival sides holding rival facts.
Why does the course ask about Carr's chapter being sixty years old?
Carr's chapter first appeared in 1961, and the outline asks whether it still stands up to scrutiny. The point is to test a classic argument about facts and interpretation against a live modern debate, rather than to accept it because it is famous.
Can a recent newspaper review count as a primary source?
Yes, when your essay studies the debate the review belongs to. A 2025 review is a primary source for the politics of history in 2025, but a secondary authority if you use it to interpret the events the reviewed book describes.
Which reviewers are set for the opening tutorial?
The outline sets reviews by Frank Bongiorno and Marilyn Lake and an opinion piece by Marcia Langton, all from late 2025, with a further review from Quadrant listed. Reading them together shows historians disagreeing in public about the same book, which is the tutorial's evidence for the question of history as politics.
Does the course require a particular referencing style?
Yes. History essays use Chicago-style footnotes and a bibliography, and the referencing slides show the forms for books, journal articles, chapters in edited books, newspapers and websites, including the date a website was accessed. The slides also suggest separating primary sources from secondary authorities in the bibliography.
Assessment move
Read the reviews' titles and your outline's questions side by side, then write one paragraph on whether history can be both a discipline and a political act. Practise one full Chicago footnote and its bibliography entry until you can write them without checking. Keep a running list of every reading's argument in one sentence; by the Final Paper it becomes your map of connections between topics.
Before the first quiz, test yourself on classifying three sources from different weeks.
DIPL8001 Transnational Diplomacy · STST8066 Strategy, Statecraft and Diplomacy for the 21st Century · DIPL8013 Pacific Diplomacy