Australia: A New History of the Great Southern Land

by Frank Welsh

Book Overview

Australia is a dynamic multi-cultural society, viewed by many as the world's most desirable place to live. Here Frank Welsh traces Australia's intriguing and varied history to examine how this society... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585678619
• ISBN13: 9781585678617
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Overlook Press
• Length: 719 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

History of the Land Down Under

In just over two centuries, Australia has gone from being a penal colony to being one of the most successful nations on earth. Frank Welsh traces this journey in "Australia: A New History of the Great Southern Land". The book opens with a series of maps that show Australia's gradual development, and Welsh emphasizes the vast geography of the nation and its impact on development (the rail line connecting the south to the north was not complete until 2003!). The author recalls the exploration of the continent, early settlements, and the struggle to form a democratic government. Welsh discusses the world wars and other events of the twentieth century, as well as the important social and economic developments of the last few decades. At the end of the book, there is an appendix with lists of Australian prime ministers and governors of the states of Australia. The one main drawback of the book is that the author embraces some of the hoariest Leftist misnomers about the Cold War in general and the Vietnam War in particular, but in general the book is a solid history of Australia.

A Solid And Thorough History

"Australia: A New History of the Great Southern Land" by Frank Welsh is a very good attempt at providing a complete and concise history of Australia from a perspective of Europeans, and from the point where Europeans became aware of it and decided to colonize it. Of course, it isn't possible to provide much in the way of history from the aboriginal people who have lived there for 40,000 years or so, and that will forever be our loss. The first chapter covers the growing awareness of the Southern land by the different countries of Europe. This is followed by several chapters detailing the colonization, first of New South Wales and the proceeding to other parts of the continent and Tasmania. Welsh does a good job of discussing the formation of each of the colonies and how they developed, and their need to be joined, but as well the resistance to joining which had to be overcome. The next significant period is that of Federation and its development as a nation as it moved from relying almost exclusively on Great Britain to more reliance on the United States. Mr. Welsh does a thorough job covering events, politics, social attitudes, international relations, and key figures throughout the history. It is interesting to see Australia develop from a continent which nobody was very interested in initially, to a penal colony, to a group of colonies, to a commonwealth, and finally to a significant Western power which is physically closer to Asia and Eastern cultures than it is the West. This provides a unique and unusual dynamic to the country. On the cultural front, there is also significant development from one thought of as criminal, to one which was very racist for the majority of its history, but has in the last half-century become amazingly diverse and open to different cultures, ideas, and people. From a personal perspective, I can add that it is interesting that, while there is still evidence of the prior racism here, it seems to have left far fewer scars than have been left in the U.S., though I must admit that there is still a lot of the country which I have left to experience. Nevertheless, the progress in diversity and attitude is amazing to see, as both Melbourne and Sydney are very international cities, and even the often thought of as backward Tasmania does a good job of promoting the positive aspects of different cultures and being open to them. Welsh's history of Australia was published in 2004, so it is missing the last five years, and the transition from John Howard and the Liberal party to Kevin Rudd and the Labor party. However, other than that, the only problem I found was a rather minor statement that Reagan had been elected President in 1979 (it was in fact 1980), and the error is hardly significant to the point being made. The writing is a bit dry in places, but it does have excellent notes and a good bibliography as well. I can't rate this as high as Hughes "The Fatal Shore" or Keneally's "A Commonwealth of Thiev

A Major, Balanced, Historical Work

Frank Welsh has written an extremely well written, witty, scholarly, balanced and very long work on the history of Australia. The footnotes are excellent for further research and with the bibliography are almost one hundred pages long! The illustrations are ok, and the maps are useful but could have been somewhat better; many of the places mentioned do not appear. Th author's balance of view deserves praise. Although I might describe myself as a "Battler" and Welsh I suspect is a "Chardonnay Socialist" the coverage of contemporary issues is fairly presented. Welsh rejects the "PC" approach in covering relations with the Aborigenes; the mis-treatment of whom while unconscionable has been over-emphasized... "It should be recorded, remembered, regretted, and accorded only their proper place." The author rejects historical post-modernism, and supports the Windschuttle school of historical accuracy in dealing with the Aborigenes. The approach to settlement is less histrionic than that of Hughes, particularly on Irish political prisoners. The weakest part of the book is a lengthy description of the process be which "representative" and then "responsible" governments were established; almost one hundred tedious pages as each of the six states are dealt with. This is more than balanced by descriptions of the Melbourne-Sydney rivalries and how regionalism led to a chaotic train system of three different gauges. The strongest parts of the book are those that deal with economic issues; the economic problems that Australia faced in the 1880's are similar to the crisis America has to deal with today. Particularly usefull was the discussion of post World War 2 Australia; handicapped by inept leaders and manipulative allies it faced problems in Indonesia and New Guinea. (Yet Welsh shows less sympathy for the Caribbean problems of America) The issues in contemporary Australia such as the Liberal Party moving to the right, reversing the economic welfare state and of Labor and immigration issues are well covered. Mr Welsh is at his weakest when he makes references to America; for example the New York riots of July 1863 were Draft Riots, and although having a strong racial undercurrent, were not a response to the 10 month earlier Emancipation Proclamation as he asserts. This is a must read for anyone interested in the [political and economic history of Australia.