Everything about World War I was massive. It was industrial-scale warfare fought along frontlines that stretched for hundreds of kilometres, manned and supplied by millions of people. This too was a war which produced an unprecedented stream of words. It was not just the politicians and officers who sat down to pen their thoughts. Ordinary soldiers near the front and their … [Read more...] about Reflecting on My work, Big Data and the History Manifesto
Digital History
The History Manifesto and Big Data
In my last post I reviewed the provocative book, The History Manifesto. Written by history academics Jo Guldi (Brown University) and David Armitage (Harvard), it is a call to historians to turn their work towards investigating long periods of history (the longue-durée) in order to address the big issues affecting humanity such as inequality and climate change. I set aside one … [Read more...] about The History Manifesto and Big Data
Canberra Research Week
When I made the decision to write a book about Australian World War One history in the midst of our move to Singapore I knew I would have to come back to Australia on various research trips. While much of my research centres on digitised historical records, most historical records are not digitised and t is only recently that publishers have offered e-book versions of histories … [Read more...] about Canberra Research Week
Singapore Workflow
Gradually I am developing a work routine here in Singapore. After moving from Sydney I travelled to Canberra, Melbourne and Hobart visiting relations before flying to Singapore. For five weeks I had been living out of a suitcase and in temporary accommodation. It is so good to finally have a place called home. I work from the study in our apartment. My desk was made by my … [Read more...] about Singapore Workflow
Beyond the Church Parade: Religious beliefs in the front line during WWI
Today I am presenting a paper at the Religious History Association Conference which is running as an affiliated conference to the Australian Historical Association conference in Brisbane. This post provides an abstract of the paper and supporting information about my paper. To general readers of this blog I hope that this gives you a feel for the work behind an academic paper. … [Read more...] about Beyond the Church Parade: Religious beliefs in the front line during WWI