'The spirit of local patriotism': Progress and populism in Sydney's northern suburbs in the 1920s
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Citation:
- Journal of Australian Studies, 2010, 34 (2), pp. 163 - 177
- Issue Date:
- 2010-06-01
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Local patriotism emerged in Australia in the suburbs from the mid nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, influenced by progressivism, it was a populist reaction by emerging suburbs and municipalities to state power and the political and cultural dominance of the city. Promoting the local as the anchor for a chain of national and imperial being and the place where moral capital was renewed, local patriotism paradoxically elevated ties of community and locality above all else. It also exhibited a 'reactionary modernism' which embraced new technology while seeking to maintain traditional values linked to the land and a British inheritance. Ultimately, self-interest - driven by exclusivism, anti-urbanism and class quarantining - underpinned local patriotism in Australia. Although its currency was relatively short-lived, it remained persuasive in Australian political culture. This article examines local patriotism through a case study of Sydney's North Shore and northern suburbs in the first three decades of the twentieth century, drawing extensively on a local newspaper, The Suburban Herald. © 2010 International Australian Studies Association.
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