Professor Geoffrey Blainey is the author of 36 books, mostly on Australian history & scores of others for which he wrote chapters. His book The Tyranny of Distance, written in 1966 gave Australia one of its well known phrases. His Short History of the World has reached hundreds of thousands of readers in many languages. A televised history of Australia, The Blainey View was shown in ten episodes on ABC television in 1982. He was the first chancellor of the University of Ballarat. He was chairman of the governing body of various national institutions, including the Australian Council for the Arts and the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. At the United Nations in 1988, he was awarded a gold medal for excellence in the dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of mankind.