CHRG Seminar Series 2022

Joan Beaumont – Australia’s Great Depression.

The Great Depression was the second massive crisis to afflict Australians in less than two decades. It ultimately threw perhaps a third of the Australian workforce into unemployment. Government budgets were slashed and the nation itself faced insolvency. But despite a high level of political and civil unrest, there was no revolution, such as World War I triggered in Russia and central Europe, and no fascist authoritarianism such as that which sprang out of the Great Depression in Germany. Instead, the Australian political and social fabric proved resilient enough to adapt and accommodate the economic crisis. So, too did many individuals. Some even remembered the Depression as positive. How do we explain this?

Joan Beaumont’s Australia’s Great Depression was published by Allen & Unwin on 29 March 2022. Joan is Professor Emerita at the ANU and Honorary Professor with the Contemporary Histories Research Group.

Join us at Waurn Ponds (IC2.108), Burwood (C2.05.01) or on Zoom.