Charles Manning Hope Clark AC (3 March 1915 – 23 May 1991) is one of Australia's most distinguished historians, recognised for his mammoth six-volume work History of Australia published between 1962 and 1987. He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civil honor, in 1975. In 1980 he was made Australian of the Year.

Considered by political conservatives to be a key proponent of the so-called "Black arm band theory of history" ^*, Clark left behind one of the most comprehensive and influential bodies of work in the field.

Clark's books made reference to genocidal practices against Aborigines by white settlers. This made him unpopular among many Australians who sought to downplay such atrocities. In September 1993, after Clark's death, his hitherto supportive publisher, Peter Ryan, published an attack on Clark's work: http://users.pipeline.com.au/bangsund/clark.htm] "Of the many things in my life", Ryan wrote, "upon which I must look back with shame, the chiefest is that of having been the publisher of Manning Clark's A History of Australia." In the controversy that ensued, Clark was falsely accused by The Courier-Mail of having been secretly awarded the Order of Lenin. Clark's detractors, most of whom had been largely silent when he was alive, were very vocal in their attacks against him after his death.

Born in Melbourne and educated at Melbourne Grammar School, the University of Melbourne and later Balliol College, Oxford University, Clark lived in the Melbourne suburb of Croydon, and taught at Geelong Grammar School, before moving to the Australian National University in Canberra for the latter part of his career.

Clark's first publication was Select documents in Australian History, released in two volumes. The first, appearing in 1950, covered the period 1788 to 1850; the second, appearing in 1955, covered 1850 to 1900. He subsequently published Sources of Australian History (1957); Meeting Soviet Man (1960); A Short History of Australia (1963); Disquiet and Other Stories (1969); and In Search of Henry Lawson (1977).

Dymphna Clark

Clark's wife, Dymphna (1916 – 2000), was an academic linguist, teaching German at the ANU. She also translated and published, in 1994, Baron Charles von Hügel's New Holland Journal, November 1833-October 1834. They had six children.

External links

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• Manning Clark House Inc., Canberra, Australia
• Datasheet for the Papers of Manning Clark at the National Library of Australia website.

1915 births | 1991 deaths | Australian historians | People from Melbourne | Companions of the Order of Australia

Manning Clark