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.
"In a way, he is able to see both sides and not try and use the material for current political arguments.
"In that sense, it has got above the history wars."
Dr Clements said he had aimed to show how the war had affected those on the ground so readers could empathise with both sides.
"We believe it settles a number of questions that were up for debate in the history wars," he said.
"It systematically contrasts black and white perspectives; it cannot be a polemic by definition."
Tasmania's Black War was sparked not only by white settlement, but also by the rape and abduction of Aboriginal women and children, Dr Clements says.
It was characterised by guerilla tactics on both sides; Aborigines attacked during the day and settlers hit campsites at night.
Dr Clements says about 600 Aborigines probably died on the eastern frontier he studied, and there were 223 recorded deaths of Europeans.
"It was the most intensely violent frontier conflict in Australian history," he said.
"It was also the most evenly matched."
Thousands more Tasmanian Aborigines died from the other effects of colonisation, and the war ended when 200 survivors were exiled to Flinders Island.
Dr Clements says more should be done to remember those who died.
"I think (how that's done is) more up to Aboriginal people," he said.
"There's also the really tricky question of if and how we commemorate the European dead.
"A number of them didn't ask for this. They were out here for trivial offences.
"I think demonising them is extremely misleading and unhelpful."
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