Ego-histoire down under: Australian historian-autobiographers

The French historian Pierre Nora may have created the notion of ego-histoire, but on a proportional basis, more historians from Australia than from any other country have followed his advice to write about their own lives.1 These autobiographies provide unique insights into the country's evolution over the course of two generations from a colonial to a post-colonial situation, to the contributions that historians, acting as autobiographers, can make to historical understanding, and to what the practice of history can contribute to the understanding of the historian's own personal experience. More explicitly than the comparable efforts of historians elsewhere, these publications demonstrate the close connection between individual and national identity and the understanding of history.