James Griffin

James Griffin (1929-2010) was a scholar, biographer, and teacher. He contributed entries on Archbishop Daniel Mannix (whose biography he was on the verge of completing at the time of his death) and John Wren (the subject of a published biography) to the Australian Dictionary of Biography. For many years he taught history at the University of Papua New Guinea and later became a government advisor on the region.

James Griffin reviews 'Australia at the Crossroads' by B. A. Santamaria

August 1988, no. 103 • 24 August 2022

B.A. Santamaria is given to self-dramatization. His autobiography (1981) was subtitled Against the tide but he was not metaphorically explicit as to whether the tide was going out or coming in. For myself I do not want to think of Santamaria behaving with Canute-like megalomania; I prefer to envisage him backstroking towards shore with a rear-vision snorkel, spouting against the undertow of inevit ... (read more)

La Trobe University Essay | 'A BIG LIE: Manning Clark, Frank Hardy and "Fictitious History"' by James Griffin

June 2001, no. 231 • 01 June 2021

‘People are not entitled in a civil society to pursue a malicious campaign of character assassination based on a big lie.’ This was Andrew Clark, son of the historian Manning Clark, expressing understandable outrage on behalf of his family. The issue was the infamous allegation, based on nebulous evidence, that Manning was ‘an agent of Soviet influence’ and had been awarded the Order of Le ... (read more)