Abstract
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As the promulgation of the White Australia Policy in 1901 would
seemingly demonstrate, ‘whiteness’ was crucial to the constitution of the
new Australian nation. And yet historians have paid remarkably little
attention to this in their studies of Australia’s past. ‘Whiteness’, as a
concept, has only recently been recognised as a significant part of the
story of Australian nationalism. In seeking to understand the operations
of ‘race’, historians have primarily looked towards Indigenous peoples
and other ‘non-white’ groups. Creating White Australia takes a fresh
approach to the questions of Australian national formation and the
crucial role of race in Australian history. Including contributions from
some of the leading scholars in Australian history as well as the work of
emerging historians, it argues that ‘whiteness’ has been central to the
racial regimes which have so profoundly shaped the development of the
Australian nation.