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Student Archival Essays
- Australia and the Interwar Internationalism Movement
- In her study of the League of Nations Union in Britain, Helen McCarthy argues that “the League of Nations inspired a rich and participatory culture of political unrest, popular education and civic ritual." Was the same true in Australia?
- Interwar Internationalism: Refugees
- A Broad Unity for Peace: An historical examination of the International Peace Campaign’s Australian Peace Congress, 16th – 19th September, 1937
- Interwar Feminism in Australia and the League of Nations
- What were the primary factors in the failure of the League of Nations Union in Australia to create what Helen McCarthy terms a ‘rich and participatory culture of political protest, popular education and civic ritual’?
- Analyze how the ‘Myth of Collective Security’ was cultivated and evolved in Britain, compared to Australia by the LNU
- The League in Nations: the Effects of Identity
- Paths to Peace: A comparison of the voluntary peace groups in Britain and Australia
- The League of Nations: Lessons and Legacy
Education
The interwar years in Australia were marked by an increased interest in popular education. It was believed that schools needed to teach ‘current affairs abreast of social developments’, and thus the League of Nations and the peace movement became a part of the civic syllabus for the majority of Victorian schools.[1] As in Britain, civics education was bestowed a crucial role in the school curriculum as a key contributor to the development and strength of individual character.[2] There were two frequent themes in the Australian education system during the interwar period, namely the promotion of the ‘social imperatives for internationalism’ and independence of mind.[3] Moreover, there existed a culture of public education through educational pamphlets and the work of peace movements and Australian institutions. It is evident therefore, that Australian education was brought alongside national and international movements and that the League arguably ‘inspired a rich and participatory culture of… popular education’.[4]
[1] Julie McLeod, “Educating for ‘world-mindedness’: cosmopolitanism, localism and schooling the adolescent citizen in interwar Australia”. Journal of Educational Administration and History. Vol. 44, Issue 4. (2012); Summy, “Countering War”, 15.
[2] McLeod, “Educating for ‘world-mindedness’”
[3] Ibid.
[4] McCarthy, The British People and the League of Nations, 1.