Historiography is the study of how history gets interpreted, written and how that changes over time and an integral part of the study of history. It certainly pays to know the difference between a Marxist and a Whig; a structuralist and an idealist. In Making Australian History Anna Clark provides a useful and accessible analysis of writing on Australian history since colonial times.

The book groups the histories it surveys into related themes – for example, Contact is about first settlement and its survey starts with Cook’s journals; the publications of various First Fleet officers; early Australian histories and then reflects on how these sources have been interpreted in the work of, amongst others, Stanner, Inga Clendinnen and Grace Carskens.

Inevitably, because it is Australia, both the History Wars per se and histories dealing with various facets of the Indigenous experience of settlement get extensive coverage. It is striking how often our contemporary debates come back to these issues. But there are also excellent chapters on Anzac, gender issues, and that older generation of historians such as Blainey, Ward and Manning Clark.

Reminiscent of Tom Griffith’s The Art of Time Travel, Making Australian History would be appreciated by anyone with a serious interest in Australian history.

Reviewed by Grant Hansen