Australian historian, teacher, and writer known for his authoritative texts on Australian economic and social history.

Blainey attended Wesley College, Melbourne, and graduated from Queens College of the University of Melbourne and accepted a free-lance writing assignment that took him to the Mount Lyell mining field in Tasmania. His first book, The Peaks of Lyell, was published in 1954. His second book, The University of Melbourne: A Centenary Portrait (1956), led him back to academe, and in 1961 he began his teaching career in economic history at the University of Melbourne. He was made professor in 1968, and in 1977 he was given the Ernest Scott chair in history.

His writing is lucid and imaginative. He served on many public agencies, including the Australia Council (the major arts council; chairman 1977–81) and the Australia-China Council (chairman 1979–84). His later books include The Causes of War (1973), Triumph of the Nomads (1975), and A Land Half Won (1980).