Humphrey McQueen: Difference between revisions

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'''Humphrey Dennis McQueen''' (born 26 June 1942) is an Australian [[politicalpublic activist]],intellectual. [[socialist]]Over historianthe course of his career he has written histories, biographies and cultural commentatorcriticism. HeMcQueen iswas associatedthe withpivotal figure in the development of the Australian [[New Left]].<ref>Williams-Brooks, Llewellyn (2016). "Radical Theories of Capitalism in Australia", Honours Thesis, University of Sydney, viewed 20 April 2017,[http://hdl.handle.net/2123/16655]</ref> His most iconic work, ''A New Britannia'',<ref name="auto">McQueen, H 1970/2004, A New Britannia, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, p.31</ref> gained notoriety for challenging the dominant approach to [[Australian history]] developed by the [[Old Left]].<ref name="auto1">Bongiorno, F 2008, "Two Radical Legends: Russel Ward, Humphrey McQueen and the New Left Challenge in Australian Historiography", Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 201–222.</ref> He has written books on history, the media, politics and the visual arts.<ref name=Gould2004/><ref>''Men of Flowers'', with Peter Lyssiotis and Wayne Stock, Masterthief, 2010,</ref> Although McQueen began his career as an academic at the [[Australian National University]] under [[Manning Clark]], most of his career has been as an independent scholar.

McQueen was born in [[Brisbane]] to a [[working-class]] family that was active in the [[Australian Labor Party]].<ref name=Gould2004>Gould, Bob (2004) 'The Life and Work of Humphrey McQueen: Never Trust Tories Bearing Gifts', Ozleft, viewed 20 April 2017</ref> His father was Dinny "Horse" McQueen (1899-1971), a tanner and assistant bookmaker who knew [[John Wren]]. Dinny was a long-time member of the Leather and Allied Trades Union who, along with his working wife and McQueen's mother, was recruited to the ALP in the 1950s by a [[Industrial Groups|Grouper]] (although his politics was communistic).<ref>Humphrey McQueen, "The Making of an Australian Working Man Dinny McQueen 1899-1971", ''The Queensland Journal of Labour History'', Issue: 34, March 2022, pp. 34-44.</ref> McQueen was educated at [[Marist College Ashgrove]], attendingand atwas thea samecontemporary timeof future PNG prime asminister [[Julius Chan]].<ref>Marist College Ashgrove, Notable Ashgrovians, https://ashgroveoldboys.com.au/notable-ashgrovians/</ref> He joined the ALP at the age of fifteen, and was instrumental in establishing the Queensland Young Labor organisation and was editor of its newsletter.<ref name=Gould2004/> In 1961, McQueen served as the ALP campaign organiser for the seat of Ryan.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Marks, Russell Leask | title=Rejection, redemption, ambivalence : the New Left and Australian nationalism | date=2011 | publisher=La Trobe University | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/166096626 | access-date=28 February 2018 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180228025308/https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/166096626 | archive-date=28 February 2018}}</ref>

McQueen was an active participant in the anti-[[Vietnam War]] movement in Australia,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vietnam-war.commemoration.gov.au/conscription/moratoriums-and-opposition.php|title=Australia and the Vietnam War - Conscription - Moratoriums and Opposition|access-date=1 May 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221181038/http://vietnam-war.commemoration.gov.au/conscription/moratoriums-and-opposition.php|archive-date=21 February 2017}}</ref> campaigning against [[conscription]] as chairman of the [[Melbourne]]-based Revolutionary Socialist Group in 1968. His organisational engagement shaped his interest in [[Maoist]] and [[Gramscian]] theory, influencing his subsequent historical work.<ref>Pascoe, R 1979, The Manufacture of Australian History, Oxford University Press, Oxford</ref> He had also been secretary the Vietnam Day Committee in Melbourne when it held a vigil outside the United States Consulate and picketed the Defence Standards Laboratories in 1967.<ref>Tribune, 05 July, 1967, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237358252?searchTerm=humphrey%20mcqueen</ref><ref>Tribune, 01 November, 1967, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237358524?searchTerm=humphrey%20mcqueen</ref> From 1966 to 1969 he was employed as a teacher at Glen Waverley High, [[Victoriain (Australia)|Victoria]].

==Career=Academia===

McQueen’sMcQueen's early academic writing was intent on dispelling the approaches to labour history generated by the Australian Old Left,<ref>Fitzpatrick, B 1944, A Short History of the Australian Labor Movement, Macmillan, Melbourne.</ref><ref>Turner, I 1965, Industrial Labour and Politics: The Labour Movement in Eastern Australia: 1900–1921, Australian National University, Canberra.</ref> especially [[Russel Ward]]'s ''The Australian Legend''.<ref>Ward, R 1958, The Australian Legend, Oxford University Press, Oxford</ref> His critiqueMcQueen was firsthead-hunted developedby inthe political scientist, Henry Mayer, to write a book after he read McQueen's articles "Convicts and Rebels",<ref name=and "auto2A Race Apart".<ref>McQueenMarks, HR.L., 19682011, "ConvictsRejection, Redemption, Ambivalence: the New Left and Rebels",Australian LabourNationalism History(Doctoral Dissertation), Vol.La 15Trobe University</ref> McQueen wrote ''A New Britannia'', pp.an 3–30historical analysis of the emergence and development of the Australian labour movement. It influentially</ref name="auto1"/> inargued whichthat McQueenthe contestedhistory of the Australian labour movement, from colonisation to [[WhigAustralian historyfederation]] (1788-1901), should be understood as an extension of [[Imperialism]]<ref>MartinLenin, AV WI 19621899/20071964, The Whig ViewDevelopment of AustralianCapitalism History: And Otherin EssaysRussia, MelbourneProgress University PublishingPublishers, MelbourneMoscow.</ref><ref>Connell, Rwithin Wthe 1974,[[British "ImagesEmpire]]. The argument challenged existing account of Australia"the labour movement emerging from the Australian Old Left, inwhich Dhad Emythologised Edgarthe (ednation-building and democratic nature of the movement.) SocialIn Changeseeking into Australia:challenge Readingsaccounts of Australian history presented in Sociology,the CheshireOld BooksLeft, SydneyMcQueen established the grounds to contest the Whig tradition in Australian scholarship.</ref name="auto3"/> associatedHe withidentified that British imperialism cannot be separated from the Oldexperience Leftof capitalism in Australia, and that Australian identity should be reconsidered in light of the role that racism and [[Patriarchy]] had played in development of the Australian labour movement.<ref name="auto3"/>Williams-Brooks Together with an application of British New Left theorists, Llewellyn[[Perry Anderson]]<ref>Anderson, P 1964, "The Origins of the Present Crisis", New Left Review, Vol. 23, viewed 16 September (2016), {{cite web |url=https://newleftreview.org/I/23/perry-anderson-origins-of-the-present-crisis |title=Perry Anderson: Origins of the Present Crisis. New Left Review I/23, January-February 1964 |access-date=20 April 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420151214/https://newleftreview.org/I/23/perry-anderson-origins-of-the-present-crisis |archive-date=20 April 2017}}.</ref> and [[Tom Nairn]],<ref>Nairn, T 1964, "RadicalThe TheoriesNature of Capitalismthe inLabour AustraliaParty", HonoursNew ThesisLeft Review, UniversityVol. of27, No. Sydney38, viewed 29 September 2016, {{cite web |url=https://newleftreview.org/I/27/tom-nairn-the-nature-of-the-labour-party-part-i |title=Tom Nairn: The Nature of the Labour Party (Part I). New Left Review I/27, September-October 1964 |access-date=20 April 2017, [http|url-status=live |archive-url=https://hdlweb.handlearchive.netorg/2123web/16655]20170420160707/https://newleftreview.org/I/27/tom-nairn-the-nature-of-the-labour-party-part-i |archive-date=20 April 2017}}.</ref> Asthe heapproach argued:redefined the nature of Australian historical enquiry, which would prove to be influential in the discipline of history.<ref name="auto1"/>

==OtherPersonal workslife==

[[Category:Imperialism20th-century Australian historians]]

[[Category:BritishPeople Empirefrom Brisbane]]