Alan Frost

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Alan Frost
Born (1943-03-29) 29 March 1943 (age 77)
Awards Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (1988)
Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (1990)
Academic background
Alma mater University of Queensland (BA, MA)
University of Rochester (MA, PhD)
Influences Geoffrey Blainey
Academic work
Institutions La Trobe University
Main interests Colonisation of Australia
Notable worksBotany Bay Mirages (1994)

Alan J. Frost FRHistS , FAHA (born 29 March 1943) is an Australian academic based at La Trobe University. A major theme of his research has involved the European exploration of the Pacific Ocean over the second half of the eighteenth century. He is best known for books in which he challenges common historical stereotypes and misconceptions concerning the colonisation of Australia. [1] These include Botany Bay Mirages: Illusions of Australia's Convict Beginnings, Botany Bay: The Real Story, The First Fleet: The Real Story, and Mutiny, Mayhem, Mythology: Bounty's Enigmatic Voyage. Frost's arguments radically challenge those expressed by prominent historians Manning Clark and Robert Hughes.

Contents

Academic career

Alan Frost completed an MA at the University of Queensland in 1966. Following this, he went to the University of Rochester in New York, where he completed an MA (1968) and a PhD (1969). He took up his appointment in the English Department at La Trobe University in 1970, moving full-time into the History Department in 1975. He is currently an emeritus professor of history at La Trobe University. [2]

Awards and honours

The Frost Archive

For 35 years Alan Frost has been collecting primary documents relating to the decision to colonise Australia, the mounting of the First Fleet and the early settlement of Sydney. Totalling about 2500, these documents have been drawn from locations scattered around the globe in order to reconstitute original series and sequences. Give the scope and range of sources and subject matter, it offers a greater overview of these historical events than what any single participant could have had at the time. The Frost Archive has vastly expanded the historical record readily available to historians, allowing a more sophisticated base from which to make analyses. It is to be made available on a website of the State Library of New South Wales. [3]

Major Published Works

Edited Published Works

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. "Botany Bay: The Real Story". The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  2. Etherington, Norman. "Alan Frost: Botany Bay" . Retrieved 7 August 2018.[ dead link ]
  3. Neville, Richard (Autumn 2015). "More than a touch of Frost" (PDF). SL Magazine. 8:1: 26–27.