ABSTRACT
Over half a decade after publishing Kin: A Real People’s History of Our Nation (2015), the story of Australia as examined and told through his ancestral pedigree, family history continues to influence Brodie’s work. Across many of his books he has chosen to tell stories that involve places that are significant to him and his ancestral story. He thus shows that family history, after all, has an important connective aspect. Whether seeking further information or clarity, or encountering alternative readings or new evidence, family historians are engaged in the same task of answering questions and seeking proof. The author considers such a feature to be family history’s great contribution to the wider discipline. It is never just about what happened, but always how we know. As someone whose early professional forays into Australian history were prompted by multiple stories being perpetuated against all available evidence, he argues that family history can act as a powerful check on the thinking that has at times afflicted the remembrance and recitation of Australia’s past, especially its most troubled aspects. In that, family history’s democratic potential is not just abstract, but profoundly immanent.
