Book Review: BOBBIE OLIVER. War and Peace in Western Australia: The Social and Political Impact of the Great War, 1914 - 1926. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1995; dist . Portland , Oreg. : ISBS. Pp. 314. $24.95 (us), paper.

Bolton, G. (1997) Book Review: BOBBIE OLIVER. War and Peace in Western Australia: The Social and Political Impact of the Great War, 1914 - 1926. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1995; dist . Portland , Oreg. : ISBS. Pp. 314. $24.95 (us), paper. The International History Review, 19 (3). pp. 640-749.

Abstract

Established in 1829, forty years after the annexation of the rest of the continent, Western Australia remained an isolated and under-developed colony until the 1890s, when a series of major goldrushes coincided with the coming of self-government. A somewhat reluctant founder-member of the federated Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, Western Australia retained a strong sense of provincial particularism, fed by resentment at tariff policies favouring the industrializing states of New South Wales and Victoria. This reached its zenith during the 1930s depression, when more than two-thirds of the voters polled in favour of seccession; an empty gesture as there was no constitutionally feasible means of giving it effect. Historians have since disagreed about the strength and importance of this provincial sentiment, some seeing it as a significant factor in defining Western Australian self-concept, while others consider it a rhetorical irrelevance compared with such analytical tools as class, race, and gender.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publisher:	Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
Copyright:	1997 The International History Review
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/15294

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