A Concise History of Australia

by Stuart Macintyre

Book Overview

Stuart Macintyre, one of Australia's most highly regarded historians, revisits A Concise History of Australia to provoke readers to reconsider Australia's past and its relationship to the present.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521625777
• ISBN13: 9780521625777
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

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 the current malaise over national identity and the development of a unique and identifiable cultures.Modern thought increasingly accepts the indigenous problems that were part of Australian colonisation, and Stuart probes these and other contemporary issues by drawing from both sides of the debate. He illustrates research that examines the language of overland explorers, to determine whether they were 'exploring' or 'conquering', and he comments on modern interpretations of the constitution by the high court. Readers not well versed in Australian issues may pass over these slights of hands without understanding their importance in the nature of forging an Australian history, culture and identity.I would recommend this book as a necessary overview for any person interested in the history of the country, including potential tourists.