Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T07:41:36.257Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The changing careers of Vere Gordon Childe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Robin Derricourt
Robin Derricourt*
Affiliation:
*School of Humanities, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It was Antiquity (Daniel 1980) that revealed details of the death of “the greatest prehistorian in Britain, and probably in the world” (Piggott 1958: 312), the Australian Vere Gordon Childe (1892–1957). Antiquity would later note what is still the over-modest marker of his final resting place (Barton 2000). And it was Antiquity that published Childe's ‘Retrospect’ in which he summarised his archaeological career, noting that it began at Oxford, and started again in 1922 “after a sentimental excursion into Australian politics” (Childe 1958: 69). In this article it is suggested that this was far more than an excursion; that through force of circumstance he abandoned a potentially high-flying archaeological trajectory and embarked on an equally high-flying replacement career in politics; only further force of circumstances brought him back to archaeology.

Keywords

AustraliaVere Gordon ChildeMarxismAustralian Labor PartyEuropean prehistory
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 340 , 01 June 2014 , pp. 632 - 638
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

The Argus [Singleton, NSW]. The pruning knife at work. A government appointment ended, 22 April 1922, p. 6.Google Scholar
Barton, H. 2000. In memoriam V. Gordon Childe. Antiquity 74: 769-70.Google Scholar
Cain, F. 1983. The origins of political surveillance in Australia. London & Sydney: Angus & Robertson.Google Scholar
Champion, T. 2009. Childe and Oxford. European Journal of Archaeology 12: 11–33.Google Scholar
C[hilde], V.G. 1910. Translation: Xenophanes, Elegies, No. 2. Torchbearer 19(7): 229.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1917. Conscientious objector. Hermes [University of Sydney Undergraduates’ Association] 23(1): 69–70 (May 1917).Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1921. State industries. Manuscripts, State Records of NSW Box 9/4878, file B21/1117.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1923. How labour governs: a study of workers' representation in Australia. London: Labour Publishing.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1925. The dawn of European civilisation. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1926. The Aryans: a study in Indo-European origins. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1936. Man makes himself. London: Watts.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1958. Retrospect. Antiquity 32: 69–74.Google Scholar
Clune, D. & Turner, K.. 2006. The Premiers of New South Wales, vol 2. Sydney: Federation Press.Google Scholar
Daniel, G. 1980. Editorial. Antiquity 54: 1–3.Google Scholar
Derricourt, R. 2010. Raymond Dart and the danger of mentors. Antiquity 84: 230-35.Google Scholar
Dutt, R.P. 1965. The pre-historical Childe [letter]. Times Literary Supplement 3304 (24 June 1965): 539.Google Scholar
Evans, R. 1995. ‘Social passion’: Vere Gordon Childe in Queensland, 1918–19, in Gathercole, P., Irving, T.H. & Melleuish, G. (ed.) Childe and Australia: archaeology, politics and ideas: 21–26. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press.Google Scholar
Gathercole, P. & Irving, T.. 2009. A Childe bibliography. European Journal of Archaeology 12: 202-45.Google Scholar
Gathercole, P., Irving, T.H. & Melleuish, G. (ed.). 1995. Childe and Australia: archaeology, politics and ideas. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press.Google Scholar
Green, S. 1981. Prehistorian: a biography of V. Gordon Childe. Bradford-on-Avon: Moonraker.Google Scholar
Harris, D.R. (ed.). 1994. The archaeology of V. Gordon Childe: contemporary perspectives. London: UCL Press.Google Scholar
Irving, T.H. 1995. Selection of Vere Gordon Childe's private letters, in Gathercole, P., Irving, T.H. & Melleuish, G. (ed.) Childe andAustralia: archaeology, politics and ideas: 27–46. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press.Google Scholar
Mulvaney, J. 1994. ‘;Another university man gone wrong’: V. Gordon Childe 1892–1922, in Harris, D.R. (ed.) The archaeology of V. Gordon Childe: contemporary perspectives: 55–73. London: UCL Press.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. 1958. Vere Gordon Childe. Proceedings of the British Academy 44: 305-12.Google Scholar
Secretary, Premier's Department. 1921. State Records Box 9/4875, file B21/366, Memorandum 28 January 1921.Google Scholar
Storey, J. 1920. State Records of New South Wales, Premier's Department Correspondence NRS 12060, Box 9/4868, file A21/414.Google Scholar
Sydney Morning Herald. The Storey ministry, 12 April 1920 (issue 25668), p. 7.Google Scholar