Dumbing down Australian history and its teaching. There were some early dissenters from this bourgeois British-Australian history. As Australian Catholic history is one of my interests, my curiosity was immediately aroused. Which Australian history books are really out of print? Debates about Australian history don't make it into Macintyre's narrative either. In the year 2000 we desperately need the "debate on Australian history". Class Structure in Australian History. Oxford Companion to Australian History. Australian Labor History. Macintyre's self-fulfilling prophecy about young people and Australian history.