Geoffrey Norman Blainey was born on March 11, 1930 in Melbourne, Australia, and grew up in rural Victoria. He studied history at the University of Melbourne before beginning his career researching the Mount Lyell mining company in Tasmania. His first book, The Peaks of Lyell (1954), established his reputation as a historian. He subsequently published influential works including The Rush That Never Ended (1963) and The Tyranny of Distance (1966), which examined the influence of geography and isolation on Australian development.

Blainey held professorships in economic history and history at the University of Melbourne and was a visiting professor at Harvard University. His extensive writing covers Australian society, Indigenous history, international conflict and Christianity, with notable works including Triumph of the Nomads and A Short History of the World. His comments on Asian immigration in 1984 attracted criticism and contributed to wider debates about multiculturalism and Australian history. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2000 in recognition of his contributions to historical scholarship.