Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Blainey

Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC

MA (Melbourne), DLitt (Ballarat), FAHA

Discipline: History

Year Elected: 1970

Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC is a prominent Australian historian, academic, philanthropist and commentator with a wide international audience. He is the author of many books on the economic and social history of Australia, including The Tyranny of Distance. He has published over 35 books, including world histories such as A Short History of The World (2000), A Short History of the Twentieth Century (2005) and A Short History of Christianity (2012) – and has written for newspapers and television.

He held chairs in economic history and history at the University of Melbourne for over 20 years. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1969 and the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 1970. In the 1980s, he was Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard University. He received the 1988 International Britannica Award for excellence in the dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of humankind and was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2000.

He has been chairman or member of a wide range of Australian Government and other institutional councils, boards and committees, including the Australia Council, the University of Ballarat, the Australia-China Council, the Commonwealth Literary Fund and the Australian War Memorial.  He chaired the National Council for the Centenary of Federation in 2001. His name sometimes appears in lists of the most influential Australians, past or present. The National Trust lists Emeritus Professor Blainey as one of Australia’s “Living Treasures”.