Is Australia's History War Finally Over?

THE "history wars" fought over Tasmania's past should come to an end with the release of a new book, historian Henry Reynolds says.

The Black War, by the University of Tasmania's Nicholas Clements, puts to bed the debate over the violence between Aborigines and European settlers, Prof Reynolds believes.

The so-called history wars erupted in the 1990s when conservative academic Keith Windschuttle described much of the history written about the period a "fabrication".

Launching the new book in Hobart, Professor Reynolds said those arguments had been proved wrong by evidence uncovered by the author.

"He has produced the evidence to basically discount most of Windschuttle's arguments," Prof Reynolds told AAP.

"It is on a depth of research that is almost unprecedented."

Prof Reynolds said the book provided the perspective of a new generation, and a descendant of Tasmania's early settlers.

Dr Clements' ancestors settled in Tasmania's north, and one was possibly involved in the war against Aborigines in 1824-31.

"(His generation) don't have the same angst about the politics of history, particularly of racial history," Prof Reynolds said....