Richard White’s Inventing Australia: revisiting the invention forty years later

Richard White’s Inventing Australia: revisiting the invention forty years later

On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Richard White's germinal text, Inventing Australia, this article presents a cultural history of the book, with particular attention to its influence on the fields of cultural history and Australian studies. Influenced by poststructuralist theory, White's book has prompted generations of scholars and students to critically examine the ways in which the Australian nation is 'invented' and the particular role of cultural power brokers in this process. Although White identifies historians as playing a particular role in the process of inventing the nation, it is striking to the contemporary reader how little he ultimately engaged with this observation in the text. The article compares White's approach to understanding the idea of the Australian nation and Russel Ward's exploration of Australian character in The Australian Legend, and considers the important work performed by Catriona Elder's extension of White's ideas in Being Australian. Ultimately, White's book remains an important touchstone not just in terms of understanding the invention of Australia, but for analysing the role we play as scholars in this.

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