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This volume examines the military obligation of government during the first century of the Commonwealth of Australia.During this time, the defense has endured two world wars as well as a series of other military engagements.Although the reputation of military has become a significant factor in the lives and views of Australians, the topic rarely receives public interest.This book explains the complexities of this essential strand of the Commonwealth. ... Read more

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This book tells the story of Australia's most important military officer since World War II. From 1963 to 1970, first as the Army chief, then as Chairman Chief of Staff Committee, General Sir John Wilton was responsible for the conduct of Australia's Vietnam War. The problems he faced when dealing with politicians and senior bureaucrats in time of crisis remain as relevant as ever. ... Read more

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A Source Book of Australian History is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Gwendolen H. Swinburne is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Gwendolen H. Swinburne then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

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Australia is the last continent to be settled by Europeans, but it also sustains a people and a culture tens of thousands years old. For much of the past 200 years the newcomers have sought to replace the old with the new. This book tells how they imposed themselves on the land, and brought technology, institutions and ideas to make it their own. It relates the advance from penal colony to a prosperous free nation and illustrates how, as a nation created by waves of newcomers, the search for binding traditions was long frustrated by the feeling of rootlessness, until it came to terms with its origins. The third edition of this acclaimed book recounts the key factors - social, economic and political - that have shaped modern-day Australia. It covers the rise and fall of the Howard government, the 2007 election and the apology to the stolen generation. More than ever before, Australians draw on the past to understand their future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Interesting subject matter buried under impenetrable language...
One has the sense, when slogging through this book, that there is interesting material here.The inclusion of information about the aboriginals who inhabited Australia before 1778 is laudable.However, as has been noted previously, the language is just too difficult to read.The sentence structure is so complicated, and the vocabulary so obscure, that it feels as if it were written 100 years ago, when the English language was in a different stage of evolution.

I was actually unable to finish the book.At a certain point Macintyre begins to discuss at length the activities of "the Chartists."However, he makes no attempt to establish who the Chartists were, what they stood for, or why they were called the Chartists.That was it for me....I cut my losses and put it down.

I am just beginning Robert Hughes' "The Fatal Shore," and so far it is infinitely more engaging.

concise history of australia
According to the author, Australian history is 200 years of racism, sexism, oppression, dominance, exploitation. The victims are aborginal people, women, the early convicts -- and the environment.The villains, of course, are white males. When the Australian economy dips, the fault lies with the U.S., world capitalism and neoliberalism. When the Australian economy thrives, it just means Aussies can waste more money on bourgeois geegaws. The tone is humorless, unrelenting, shrill, one-sided -- a prime example of what one Australian referred to as "black armband history".

How could concise seem so long?
The first thing that came to mind as I trudged through Macintyre's wordy book was how could something called "concise" seem so long? This book is informative but entirely humorless, like reading an ingredient list. Macintyre seems more concerned with showcasing his vocabularity then with enticing you with the facinating history of Australia's past. There is plenty of information in this book if you can make it through to the end while maintaining consciousness. If you are about to visit Australia and you are looking for an entertaining and informative book to stimulate your enthusiasm I strongly recommend Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country. If you are looking for a strong sedative then this is the book for you.

Informative and well-written
I have long wanted to read a general history of Austrailia, and when I read. on April 3, 1988, The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes, I said to myself, in my post-reading note:"I am glad I read this book, but maybe I'd've done better to read a plain history of Australia than this long account of this aspect of its beginning."I am shamed to say that it has taken over 12 years to do what I thought I should have done back then.This book goes up to 1999, and portrays very well the current dilemmas facing Australia.If you enjoy the articles in Current History, as I do, this book reminds me of those articles, except it is less bland and neutral.Ordinarily I avoid histories with designations such as "short" or "concise" figuring that I want a fuller treatment.But when one knows as little of a country as I do of Australia, I thought this a good introduction to its history.

Very good modernist view of Australian history
Stuart's work is an excellent overview of Australian history from the dreamtime to the present. He captures the major periods and events that shaped the progress of Australia towards federation and beyond, into thecurrent malaise over national identity and the development of a unique andidentifiable cultures.

Modern thought increasingly accepts the indigenousproblems that were part of Australian colonisation, and Stuart probes theseand other contemporary issues by drawing from both sides of the debate. Heillustrates research that examines the language of overland explorers, todetermine whether they were 'exploring' or 'conquering', and he comments onmodern interpretations of the constitution by the high court. Readers notwell versed in Australian issues may pass over these slights of handswithout understanding their importance in the nature of forging anAustralian history, culture and identity.

I would recommend this book asa necessary overview for any person interested in the history of thecountry, including potential tourists. ... Read more

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A biography of Lieutenant General Sir James Whiteside McCay, a lawyer, politician and General in the First AIF. In the course of a successful political career he had been a member of Australia's first federal parliament, and while Minister for Defence he had introduced far-ranging reforms of the Australian Army's command structure. ... Read more

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Collecting curiosities was a gentlemanly occupation for wealthy and educated 18th-century Europeans. Few creatures aroused more curiosity than those from Australia. But collections demand organisation, and classification itself reveals patterns to life that cannot be ignored. From a leisurely occupation, the science of biology was born. Cabinets de curiosites became national museums, with specimens from Australia playing an integral role in all kinds of biological debates. Australian museums now foster their own research and continue to provide major and sometimes unexpected perspectives to international scientific developments. Continent of Curiosities follows the thread of individual natural history stories through the scientists of one of Australia's oldest museums, Museum Victoria. Together, these stories weave a history of the development of biological science from an Australian perspective, with insights into the people and places that influence the way we see and understand the natural world around us. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

outrageous revisionist tripe
Josephine Flood is a revisionist historian who for political reasons known only to herself has accepted or invented the task of white-washing Euorpean expansion in Australia and its surrounding islands.........fortunately for the world her interests lie in Australian alone apparently........luckily I was able to look over her work free of charge and I am glad i have not contributed to her finacial well being.
I would place her in the same category as those crackpot revisionists who deny the Jewish holocaust and promote the beneficial effects of British colonialism in India.
Anyone interested in the australian aborigines should ask an australian aborigine what they think of her work.........as well as a the host of scientists and historians who are shocked at her perverse view and conclusions.
Due to the shocking and inaccurate nature of her political views couched in science I would submit that all her other work must be suspect as well unless this particular work is an aberation caused by some sort of mental breakdown or recent neurological damage.
In any event if you are a serious student of history you would be well served to skip this deluded and unfortunatepublication.

Informative, Respectful, Balanced
The Australian Aboriginal culture speaks to all human beings about what it means to be human, because of its age and its isolation.Also, such concepts of the Dreaming and the Songlines provide spiritual and aesthetic viewpoints that are literally timeless.

However, what I found most extraordinary in this book was a balance in thought and judgment that refused to cowtow to political correctness; but, instead, embraced all Australians, both aboriginal and "newcomers" in a context that avoided facile condemnations.

In short, this book provides a history of humanity's oldest culture that both celebrates it and explores its complete expression while avoiding both hagiography and condescension.I don't recall another work like it.

The Original Australians
This book is excellent reading, deep but well worth the read if the subject is of interest to you.I have always been interested in the Australian Aboriginal people and culture.This book has taken me closer to that quest.

All You Ever Wanted to Know ... And More!
I bought this book to learn more about the primal religious practices of the Aboriginal people.I got more than I bargained for.What I found was a comprehensive study of "The Original Australians," from their migration to the continent 40,000-50,000 years ago, to the present.

Flood's work is thorough, analytical, well-researched and unbiased.She obviously loves the indigenous people of whom she writes, yet she does not patronize them or romanticize their history or their plight.

Neither does she condemn the English, who first colonized "New Holland," or the Australian government, who enacted laws that forever changed the course of Aboriginal life.

Flood proves to be both a scholar, who honestly reports the facts, and a compassionate human, who cares deeply for the objects of her research.

I recommend this book highly.Where other books on Aboriginals tend to be anecdotal in nature, Flood's book is meaty, yet digestible; objective, yet heartfelt.It'll stimulate your mind and touch your heart.

superbly honest account
Ms Flood has set herself the challenge of avoiding the political diktat of our times and trying to give an honest and thorough account of what aboriginal culture and life was like at the time of first contact with whites and following. my own interest is to look at a 50,000 year old culture - the oldest on earth - as the human roots of us all, and learn more about the basics of being human.it should come as no surprise to any sensible and honest person, that the picture is one of violence, mistreatment of all who are physically weaker, especially women.there is also a harsh lesson on the fruits of supernatural belief insistingon no change, no innovation, no learning, no progress. isolation and stasis bear terrible fruits. ... Read more

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The Australian Workers Union (AWU) has been one of the most influential unions in Australia's political and industrial history. From its beginnings as a sheep shearers' union, it became known as a champion of compulsory arbitration, fighting for improvements in wages and conditions through the industrial courts. In the first part of the twentieth century it expanded by amalgamating with other unions, its aim being the creation of 'one big union'. Indeed the AWU became Australia's largest union, operating in all Australian states and across a wide range of industries. This comprehensive and compelling book shows that the union has been a player in key events and crises in Australian history, including the great strikes of the 1890s, the 1916-17 conscription crisis, Labor's splits in the 1950s and the 1956 shearers' strike. The book features vivid portraits of the remarkable individuals who matched these great issues. ... Read more

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Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead was one of Australia's greatest soldiers. Drawing on previously inaccessible private records and recent scholarship, David Coombes provides a candid account of this famous field commander and shows why Morshead's distinguished career fits into Australia's military tradition. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "The Australian Economy," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have The Australian Economy in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with The Australian Economy when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name The Australian Economy, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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Convict Maids looks at female convicts transported from Britain and Ireland to New South Wales between 1826 and 1840. Deborah Oxley refutes the notion that these women were prostitutes and criminals, arguing that in fact they helped put the colony on its feet. Analyzing their backgrounds, Oxley finds that they were skilled, literate, young and healthy--qualities exploited by the new colony. Convict Maids draws on historical, economic and feminist theory, and is impressive for its extensive and original research. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Advance Australia More Fairly
This is a work of quantitative depth that redresses a series of alleged misconceptions about female convicts sent to Australia. Deborah Oxley argues that to understand Australia's socio-economic development one must first understand the nature of a large portion of its first settlers that has gone overlooked. She makes a convincing case. Her research engages a historiography that previously saw all convicts as part of a `criminal class', and it argues that female convicts were in fact heterogeneous and diverse in origins, and only marginally criminal, for the most part. This, she feels, helps to account for the fact that within a few decades after mass transportation began

convicts were successful in establishing a socio-economic
system which quickly replicated aspects of the Anglo-Celtic
culture that spawned the settlement. Moving rapidly to the
status of a "free society" in which female convicts laboured
as workers, wives, lovers and mothers. (12)

Her first item of business is to describe accurately what type of female convicts arrived to advance Australia fair. Generally speaking, these were not career criminals, but people guilty of petty crimes - usually theft - and convicted of crimes that in less merciful days would have carried a sentence of hanging or, in the case of the lucky and clergied, flogging. In any event, they were not members of a well established and at times romanticised `criminal class' of mythical fame. Accurate statistical data bear this out. And, unlike the formerly obedient American colonies where such criminals were sold as indentured servants, Australian transportees had to be integrated into a society in which they were expected to play more than an auxiliary role. It was a role for which they were surprisingly well suited.

After a somewhat tangential review of female convicts in literature, Oxley returns to quantitative analysis of the convicts themselves. Though they spanned a wide age range, most were in their twenties and not all were incapable of working in skilled professions - the English more than the Irish transportees. The majority was not completely illiterate. In fact, they closely resembled the working class comrades they left behind. They were valuable if not indispensable in light of the fact that the vast majority of British emigrants chose North America ahead of Australia to start a new life, and some four fifths of transportees were male. In time, forced Australian immigration was supplement with the aggressive recruiting of suitable free women; however, these were only slightly more skilled on the whole than their un-free sisters in the prison holds of Australia-bound ships.

That convict women have been so unfairly maligned is, in Oxley's opinion, the product of nineteenth-century literature about criminals. Though not a particularly profound point, Oxley spends a chapter elaborating upon this. At the very least it helps to fill out the book. But all's well that ends well, and Britain's loss of a pseudo-criminal `class' that also filled a literary need to decry female baseness and excess turn out to be Australia's gain.

This study draws upon a wide array of primary sources, the richest of which are the `indents' of the convict ships, containing detailed demographic and even anatomical data on the ships' human cargoes. She compares this to nineteenth century (mis)conceptions about convicts and invariably proves them wrong, along with the twentieth-century historiography that fell for such appraisals.

Oxley weighs her various evidence judiciously, but still seems inclined to accept most of her data as reliable in spite of some cause for potential inaccuracies. Her analysis, however, is chronologically weak. It initially stresses the importance of the merciful reforms of the criminal justice system of the 1820s without providing much information about how this may have changed the demographic or social nature of transportation, apart from accelerating it. Oxley also does not say a great deal about what happened to the convicts, or how they actually made early Australian society, once they arrived. She seems to assume that clarifying who these women were is enough to demonstrate that they must have largely underlay the successful society they helped to engender. This book's argument and foci also become rather repetitive, as Oxley frequently reiterates the historiographical significance of what she is doing and displays her evidence in ways that essentially rephrase her thesis - one, she notes, that is a continuation of an existing historiographical revisionism. Nevertheless, she does meaningfully enhance the some of the points this revision has been attempting to make.

Oxley's prose is vivid and replete with short, pithy sentences that engage the reader in her arduous task. However, it also emanates an annoyingly patriotic type of proselytising about a (more politically?) correct understanding of `our history', `our social origins', and `this country' typically becoming only of Canadian and, to a lesser extent, insular American left-wing nationalism. Her structure, as noted, is very comprehensive, although her engagement of a literary dialogue with quantitative analysis leaves the reader a bit unsatisfied at times. In the end, however, the evidence she presents speaks for itself and clearly demonstrates that however they served the new colony's needs after their arrival, Australia's female convicts were well suited to the task of forging a functional society. ... Read more

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Essays from some of Australia's leading historians showing how Australian history has been rewritten in the past twenty years to accommodate different notions of Australian identity. ... Read more

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What were houses like for Indigenous people living in rural Western Australia in the 1960s, Redfern and Launceston in the 1970s, in Central Australia in the 1980s, in outback New South Wales in the 1990s? This timely book encompasses the whole history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing - from the multiplicity of shelters used in pre-invasion times to the extraordinary cottages built by Victorian missionaries, through the dreaded children's dormitory to the compound and its terrors of disease and overcrowding. Modern themes are also explored - gendered housing, family-friendly prisons, self-built houses, government programs, and advanced designs for health and durability. ... Read more

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Australians are often said to be obsessed with sport, and playing and watching sport have long been regarded as national pastimes. This book is an innovative and exciting study of the political, economic, social, and cultural role that sport has played in Australia since European settlement. ... Read more

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Many changes have occurred in Aboriginal history in the last twenty years. This means not only that history has continued to happen since 1988. It also means that there have been sharp challenges to our understanding of the whole of the past, before and since 1988. The past itself has been even more hotly contested than before 1988 as historians and others became embroiled in the so-called 'history wars'. In these circumstances, my original ambition for this book in 1975 and 1988, that it be characterized by 'balance, concision and simplicity', seems today even more naive and perhaps utopian than it was many years ago. This edition has been extensively revised. The two-part structure, Aboriginal Reactions and White Reactions, has been retained. It includes chapters on: The Assimilation Era 1937-1960s; The Rise of Self determination 1960s-1990s; Mabo, Wik and Reconciliation. Four new readings have been included to cover the last twenty years. ... Read more

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This thoroughly revised Companion (first published in 1998) is immensely readable and entertaining with a range of curious and unexpected entries, such as those on duels, two-up, Vegemite, and the six o'clock swill.Thoroughly cross-referenced for easy access to all information, this volume contains many new entries as well as revisions on existing entries.This is a superb reference for all Australians as well as those interested in Australian history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A mammoth compendium of things Australian
"The Oxford Companion to Australian History," revised edition, is edited by Graeme Davison, John Hirst, and Stuart Macintyre.More than 700 pages long, the book is full of alphabetically organized articles.The book's preface notes that the articles range in length from 100 to 2000 words.

The "Companion" is truly vast in scope.Subjects covered include Aboriginal topics (art, history, languages, etc.); people (opera singer Harold Blair, Olympic athlete Betty Cuthbert, suffragist Alice Henry, etc.); cities (Adelaide, Hobart, etc.); newspapers (the "Argus" of Melbourne, the "Canberra Times," etc.); religious bodies and movements (the Uniting Church, etc.); important events (the Cape Grim massacre, the Castle Hill Rising, etc.); political parties; various ethnic groups in Australia, and more.

I particularly appreciated the entries on Australian colloquial terms like "Pommy" and "reffo."There are also many articles that address certain big topics in Australian context: agriculture, censorship, feminism, the film industry, literature, social justice, etc.And interspersed throughout are entries on many other interesting topics: the Bunyip (a mythic animal), convict history, "Waltzing Matilda" (a song), Internet resources, pubs, Vegemite (a food), etc.

Also included: maps, a useful subject index, and a 9-page directory of the book's many contributors.Many bibliographic references are incorporated into the individual entries, making this a good starting place for more in-depth reading on particular topics.The "Companion" is an achievement as big and colorful as Australia itself.While this book is certainly a logical choice for the reference section of any good library, it's also a good book for any individual with an interest in or love for Australia.

A valuable overview of Australian history.
This book provides introductions to a wide variety of topics in Australian history. It has been edited by three of the most eminent Australian academic historians and many of the entries have been written by experts intheir respective fields. The entries themselves deal with events, people,noted historians and current issues in Australian historiography. ... Read more

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The Megapodes are an ancient and remarkable group of birds that occur only in Australia, Papua New Guinea and the islands that surround them. Within this group, there are 22 species of mound-builders, three of which occur in Australia in dramatically differing habitats: the Scrubfowl lives in the humid tropics; the Brush-Turkey in dense forested areas from Cape York to Sydney; and most remarkable of all, the Malleefowl, which lives in the arid interior.

Mound-builders are unique in being the only birds that do not incubate their eggs using body heat; rather, a variety of naturally occurring sources of heat is exploited such as solar energy, geothermal and, most commonly, the heat generated by decomposing organic matter. This book shows how this remarkable adaptation influences every part of these birds’ lives, including the development of the embryo, the parentless life of the hatchlings, their social organization and their survival.

Scientific interest in these birds has increased significantly in recent decades, and Mound-Builders summarizes many significant discoveries. Much of this research has been focussed on the three Australian species, which provide greatly contrasting approaches to surviving in different parts of the continent. ... Read more