Neville Meaney (July 2, 1932, Adelaide – May 30, 2021) was a noted historian of Australia, considered among the "foremost thinkers in the field of foreign and defence policy history" with a special focus on the early twentieth century and questions of Australia's cultural and geopolitical place in the world.
Born in Adelaide, Neville Meaney was the first Australian historian to be awarded an American PhD, at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
. Returning to Australia in 1959, he taught first at
UNSW
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
before moving to the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
in 1962, remaining there for the rest of his career. His monograph ''Australia and the World'' (1985) is considered a "comprehensive documentary history of Australia’s relations with the world of nations."
Later works continued to consider Australia's place in the world, including as regarded the rising importance of Asia.
A
festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
in his honour was published in 2013, recognising (in the words of
Dennis Richardson (diplomat)
Dennis James Richardson, (born 14 May 1947) is a retired Australian public servant and diplomat. His last appointment was as Secretary of the Department of Defence (2012–17).
Background and career
Richardson was keenly interested in current ...
) his "major contribution...to the development and evolution of Australian and American foreign relations history in this country
ustralia"
[Richardson, Dennis. “Foreword.” Australia and the World: A Festschrift for Neville Meaney, edited by Joan Beaumont and Matthew Jordan, Sydney University Press, AUSTRALIA, 2013, pp. vii-viii. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1rm259b.4. Accessed 30 Aug. 2021.https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1rm259b]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meaney, Neville
Australian historians
Historians of Australia
1932 births
2021 deaths