Andrew Moore (historian)

Moore is currently a principal supervisor for doctoral projects and is currently supervising a thesis titled The Political Economy of the Australian Mining Industry, 1945–2010.

He has expressed the opinion that universities should support and fund the research passion projects of their teaching staff.

Andrew Moore (born 1953) is an Australian historian and academic, a specialist in Australian right-wing politics.

He has taught at the University of Sydney, The University of New South Wales, England's University of Lincoln and the University of Western Sydney.

His areas of expertise include Twentieth Century Australian History, Irish-Australian history and social history of sport, especially rugby league football.

Moore is a leading expert on both the New Guard and the Old Guard.

The university has funded two of Andrew Moore’s papers, Mr Big, Mr Wig and the Neo-Nazi: the Browne Fitzpatrick Affair and Privilege Case, 1955 and Biographical Registrar of the Australian Labour Movement 1788–1975.

He has been funded by the ARC to construct a historical biography of approximately 1200 members of the Old and New Guard.

Andrew Moore has been teaching Australian history since 1985 and currently teaches at the University of Western Sydney, where he is an associate professor in the faculty of Humanities and Communication Arts.

Moore graduated from Macquarie University with a Bachelor of arts and a diploma of education.

He also holds a PhD from La Trobe University.

Moore has worked on multiple projects with the University of Western Sydney as well as The Australian Research Council (ARC).

Andrew Moore is a member of the federal executive of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History and has been so since 1986.

He is also an associate editor for their peer-reviewed journal Labour History published by Liverpool University Press.

One of Andrew Moore's specialisations is Irish-Australian history, with a focus on Irish-Australian figures such as the famous Francis De Groot.

Although most of his writings and lectures in this field are about Francis de Groot, Moore also has focused on other Australian-Irish figures.

He has held a seminar on Australian-Irish rebel Phil Cunningham at Blacktown City Council.

Andrew Moore has written the biographical work "Francis De Groot: Irish Fascist Australian Legend".

The book was funded by the Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government in NSW Committee.

A major contribution of Andrew Moore to this field is his article Writing About the Extreme Right in Australia. It is an introductory essay to the 89th issue of Labour History that held a thematic section titled The 'Extreme Right' in Twentieth Century Australia. It is one of the most prominent sources of academic papers on Labour history and historiography.

He is also a member of the New South Wales working party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography and has been affiliated since 1991.

Moore has also worked with the Australian Society for Sports History (ASSH) and their sub-group the Tom Brock Bequest Committee.

He has also given the 1st Tom Brock Lecture in 1999 as well and has written an introductory essay for the book collection of Tom Brock lectures.

In 2004, he found Francis De Groot's Cavalry officer's sword in Ireland after giving a talk on Australian-Irish history at the University of Dublin and was returned to the National Museum of Australia.

Australian right-wing political history is one of Moore’s primary field of study, with his expertise being the Old Guard and the New Guard paramilitary organisations.

Moore's works have covered extreme Australian fascist movements and organisations to the documentation of the Labour party members and anti-Communist historians.

Moore himself has alluded to not identifying as fascist or associating politically with right-wing political groups.

He has also written about the historiography of Australian right-wing political history, namely through analysis of archival evidence.

Since 2005 he has become a chairman for the Tom Brock Bequest Committee.

Moore has written over 70 papers, articles, and book chapters.

It was shortlisted for the State Library of NSW's Australian History Prize in 2006.

The book details the life of Sir Francis de Groot from his early life in Ireland to his leadership of the New Guard in Australia.

The book had a mixed range of reception, with some criticisms from both the academic field and from general critics.

He has been criticised for his labelling of Francis de Groot as fascist.

This criticism has come from both Sydney Morning Herald columnist Gerald Henderson and Senior Lecturer of politics at Deakin University Geoff Robinson, as both have disagreed with Moore's labelling.

Moore's overuse of acronyms when discussing De Groot's career in the New Guard has also been criticised by Canberra writer Frank O'Shea.

However, there has also been positive reception of the book.

Moore himself has been described as having the "…rare skill in distinguishing facts from fictions…" by political historian Geoff Robinson.

Historian Michael Cathcart of the University of Melbourne has also appraised the book and Moore, calling the book "..a dignified work of patient scholarship and unexpected insights."

Cathcart also has argued against Gerald Henderson's critique of the label of fascist, claiming that Moore writes a character that is more than predictable left-wing judgements.