Introduction

in The Modern World and Australia 1918-Present

Hello and welcome to Audiopi’s series on the Modern world and Australia. In this podcast series we’ll learn about some of the most important events, people and places in Australian History between 1918 and the present day. We will take you through the shifting identity of Australia in the twentieth century. We’ll explore a number of different ideas about what Australia was, where it was going and what sort of country it should be – and investigate how these events and attitudes shaped modern Australia and its relationships with other countries around the world. We’ll also learn about the subject of History –Why do we study it? How is it made? By who? You might have heard the saying ‘History is written by the winners’ – by those people who come out on top and afterwards have the chance to tell their version of the story. This is often the case. But as we’ll see once we start digging into the past, history can often be surprising and more complicated than it first seems. If History is interested in the lives of influential (and often rich and powerful) people – Kings and Queens; Presidents and Prime Ministers; Generals and Geniuses; it is also fascinated by the everyday lives of ordinary people. Postmen and postwomen; painters; pilots; puppeteers and pole-vaulters all have their own history – just like politicians, popes and pop stars. So history is not just about the rich, the famous or the powerful – its about all of us.