Keith Windschuttle facts for kids

Keith Windschuttle (1942 – 8 April 2025) was an Australian historian. He was known for his books and articles, especially those that looked closely at how Australian history is written and understood. He was also on the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from 2006 to 2011. Later, he edited Quadrant magazine.

Some of his most important books include The Killing of History (1994), which talked about how history should be studied. He also wrote The Fabrication of Aboriginal History: Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803–1847 (2002), where he questioned some ideas about violence in Australia's past. Another book, The White Australia Policy (2004), explored Australia's past immigration rules.

About Keith Windschuttle

Keith Windschuttle was born in 1942. He went to Canterbury Boys' High School, where he was at school at the same time as John Howard, who later became the Prime Minister of Australia.

He worked as a journalist for newspapers and magazines in Sydney. He studied history at the University of Sydney and politics at Macquarie University. Later, he taught Australian history and journalism at universities like the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the New South Wales Institute of Technology (now the University of Technology, Sydney).

In 1993, he left his teaching job and started his own publishing company called Macleay Press. This company published books by him and other authors. From 2006 to 2011, he was a member of the board for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which is Australia's main public TV and radio broadcaster.

Changing Views on History

Keith Windschuttle's ideas about politics and history changed over time. When he was younger, in the 1960s and 1970s, he was part of a group called the New Left, which had more left-wing political ideas. Later, he started to have more right-wing views.

In his book The Killing of History, he argued that historians should stick to traditional ways of studying history, using facts and evidence. He believed that some modern ways of thinking were making history less accurate. He also thought that historians from different political sides sometimes changed history to fit their own ideas.

Debates on Aboriginal History

Keith Windschuttle is well-known for his books that looked at the history of Aboriginal people, especially during the time when Europeans first settled in Australia. These books caused a lot of discussion and debate among historians, which is sometimes called the "history wars."

The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One

In his book The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803–1847, Windschuttle looked at the early encounters between European settlers and Aboriginal people in Tasmania (which was then called Van Diemen's Land).

He questioned the idea that there were many large-scale killings of Aboriginal people by settlers. He also suggested that the number of Aboriginal people who died in Tasmania was lower than what some other historians had said. Windschuttle argued that diseases brought by Europeans had a big impact on the Aboriginal population.

The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume Three

Another important book by Windschuttle is The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume Three: The Stolen Generations 1881–2008. This book, published in 2009, argued that the story of the Stolen Generations was a myth. The Stolen Generations refers to the children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were forcibly removed from their families by Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments.

Keith Windschuttle's Books

Here are some of the major books Keith Windschuttle published:

• Unemployment: a Social and Political Analysis of the Economic Crisis in Australia, Penguin, (1979)
• Fixing the News, Cassell, (1981)
• The Media: a New Analysis of the Press, Television, Radio and Advertising in Australia, Penguin, (1984, 3rd edn. 1988)
• Working in the Arts, University of Queensland Press, (1986)
• Local Employment Initiatives: Integrating Social Labour Market and Economic Objectives for Innovative Job Creation, Australian Government Publishing Service, (1987)
• Writing, Researching Communicating, McGraw-Hill, (1988, 3rd edn. 1999)
• The Killing of History: How a Discipline is being Murdered by Literary Critics and Social Theorists, Macleay Press, Sydney (1994); Macleay Press, Michigan (1996); Free Press, New York (1997); Encounter Books, San Francisco (2000)
• The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803–1847, Macleay Press, (2002)
• The White Australia Policy, Macleay Press, (2004)
• The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume Three: The Stolen Generations 1881–2008, Macleay Press, (2009)
• The Breakup of Australia: The Real Agenda Behind Aboriginal Recognition, Quadrant Books, (2016)
• The Persecution of George Pell, Quadrant Books, (2020)