Here you can find out more about my authored, co-authored and edited books.
My edited collections bring together the works of thought leaders in social and public history across diverse and emerging areas of historical enquiry.
EYE OF THE STORM: THE VOLUNTEERS AND AUSTRALIA’s RESPONSE TO THE HIV/AIDS CRISIS
For the first time, by focusing on individual life stories, this book explores the crucial role of the men and women who volunteered at at time of disaster. Despite their critical role, they have not been sufficiently recognised. Through their stories, drawn from oral histories conducted by the authors, we see how those on the front-line navigated and survived a devastating epidemic, and the long-term impact of those grim years of illness, death and loss.
“By focussing each chapter on a different individual, the interviewer-authors present a nuanced portrait of these volunteers and show how the oral history process affects narrators’ memory and interpretation of their lives. Sensitively edited and beautifully written, it is an important contribution to both Australia’s social history and the craft of oral history.”
PRIDE IN DEFENCE: THE Australian Military and LGBTI Service since 1945
Pride in Defence is a depiction of the diverse ways LGBTI members of the Australian Defence Force have navigated life in a challenging social environment. Drawing on over 140 interviews and previously unexamined documents, Pride in Defence features accounts of secret romances, police surveillance and traumatic discharges. At its centre are the courageous LGBTI members who served their country in the face of systemic prejudice. In doing so, they showed the power of diversity and challenged the ADF to make it a far stronger institution.
YES YES YES
“A wonderful record of a huge and heart-warming moment in Australia’s history.”
Australia's Journey to Marriage Equality
Yes Yes Yes, reveals the untold story of how a grassroots movement won hearts and minds and transformed a country. From its tentative origins in 2004, through to a groundswell of public support, everyday people contributed so much to see marriage equality become law.
The book captures the passion that propelled the movement forward, weaving together stories of heartbreak, hope and triumph. It is based on personal memories and more than forty interviews with key figures and everyday advocates from across Australia. It covers the movement’s origins in 2004, when the Marriage Act of 1961 was amended to exclude same-sex couples, through to the unsuccessful High Court challenge, a public vote in 2017 and the Parliamentary aftermath. It reminds us that social change is possible and that love is love.
“Winning the freedom to marry and changing hearts and minds – and the law – is never easy, even in a progressive democracy like Australia. By sharing the ins and outs and behind the scene stories from Australia‘s long and dramatic journey to marriage equality, Alex Greenwich and Shirleene Robinson offer valuable inspiration and instruction to all those heroes working tirelessly across the world to gain much-needed human rights wins and turn NOs into overwhelming and vitally important declarations of YES YES YES in support of equality!”
SERVING IN SILENCE? Australian LGBT Servicemen and Women
For the first time, Serving in Silence? reveals the integral role played by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender men and women in Australia’s military after the Second World War. Their powerful personal stories, recounted with searing honesty, illustrate the changing face of the Australian Defence Force, the pivotal role of military service in the lives of many LGBT Australians, and how they have served their country with distinction.
Gay & Lesbian, Then & Now
Over seventy years, Australia has quietly undergone one of the biggest social revolutions in its history. Once viewed as criminals, sinners or sick, lesbians and gay men are increasingly accepted as equal. This rapid transformation in social attitudes has widened the space for lesbians and gays to live ordinary and visible lives in ways that were once barely imaginable.
Through the intimate life stories of thirteen gay and lesbian Australians ranging in age from twenty to eighty, Gay and Lesbian, Then and Now reveals the remarkable shifts from one generation to the next.
The book reveals the legacies of homophobia, the personal struggles and triumphs involved in coming out, the inconsistent state of social progress, and the many different ways of being gay or lesbian in Australia – then and now.
“These are our stories. All of us live in them”
Homophobia: An Australian History
Homophobia is a prejudice with effects that extend far beyond the gay and lesbian community. While its physical, emotional and social effects have been charted to some extent, the development of homophobia in Australia has yet to be fully explored.
This collection is the first to consider homophobia in a distinctively Australian context. Thirteen well-known scholars examine the embedded homophobic attitudes that Australian gay and lesbian activists have fought to change. The book traces the evolution of homophobia, from its expression in Australia's past as a colonial settler society, through to manifestations in present day society.
SPEAKING OUT: Stopping homophobic and transphobic abuse in queensland
Based on the largest survey of gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex, transgender and queer reactions to violence and harassment ever undertaken in Australia, this book gives voice to the many victims who have suffered in the state once recognised as Australia's most homophobic.
It tells of the barriers people face in dealing with the legal system, the reasons why some do not report their experiences and the complex historical, religious and educational factors affecting the perpetuation of homophobia and transphobia across the country. Most importantly it provides a roadmap forward via a wide ranging set of recommendations.
ChildRen, Childhood and Youth in the British WorLd: Historical Perspectives
This book is the first collection to investigate the lives of – and meanings attached to – children and youth within the context of the British world. Children and young people, both British and Indigenous, locally-born and migrant, embodied the hopes and anxieties of British colonists. This volume locates children, childhood and youth in broader social contexts and acknowledges young people as historical agents, rarely operating within situations of their choosing, but nonetheless shaping their own lives.
SOMETHING LIKE SLAVERY? Queensland's aboriginal child workers, 1842-1945
The rapid economic development of Queensland in the 19th and early 20th centuries was due in a large way to the work of Aboriginal children. This book is the first full-length examination of their exploitation. Drawing on extensive original research, this book brings to light the exploitation and abuse inflicted on Aboriginal children to benefit white settlers. Many of these children were part of Queensland's earliest 'stolen generations'. Their forcible removal from their parents and family groups caused extensive pain and suffering that is still felt today.
“...remarkable scholarly work has highlighted the widespread abuse of Indigenous children in colonial and post-federation Australian.
One of the most important works to date is Shirleene Robinson’s Something like Slavery? Queensland’s Aboriginal Child Workers, 1842-1945, which highlights the institutional use and abuse of Indigenous young people.”
Crime over time: Temporal perspectives on crime and punishment in Australia
Crime Over Time features original contributions from some of Australia’s most respected criminologists and historians. The book marries these two disciplines to offer a unique examination of crime and deviance over more than 200 years of Anglo-Australian history. This innovative compilation explores the intriguing ways in which Australian crime has evolved and the pioneering ways criminal justice agencies have dealt with offenders. The topics investigated range from colonial bushranging to terrorist attacks, along with emerging forms of criminal activity, such as cybercrime. The collection provides an engaging and thorough examination of the historical factors that have shaped crime and punishment and its contemporary context.
The 1960s in Australia: People, Power and Politics
The 1960s is one of the most heavily mythologised decades of the twentieth century. This collection recognises the complexity of social and cultural change by presenting a broad range of contributions that acknowledge an often overlooked fact – that not everyone experienced the 1960s in the same way. The diversity of the time is confirmed by contributions from a number of expert Australian historians who each provide an insight into Australia in the 1960s, offering an understanding of the social realities of this period as well as the ebbs and flows of transnational influence.
