ABSTRACT
One of the characteristics of historical thinking and writing is now the open reference to, and engagement with, emotion, on the part of the “subjects” and historians. This chapter seeks to discover how this movement originated and developed in Australia, and specifically in Australian military history. It argues that it stemmed both from the practice of historical interpretation in museums and in key historical texts. Drawing on the seemingly unlikely model of the American journalist Hunter S. Thompson, it identifies a style of historical exegesis which incorporates the emotions of historians as “gonzo” history.
