Why read Australia?

Book cover of Australia: A New History of the Great Southern Land

Book description

A narrative history of Australia provides comprehensive coverage of such events as the rapid development of the continent's five democratic colonies, the government's controversial official relationship with the Aboriginals, and the nation's leading standards of living. Reprint.

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Why read it?

1 author picked Australia as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Patsy Trench

Author

'Original, provocative, and witty, Australia is the most comprehensive single-volume history of Australia yet published.' This is the blurb on the back cover of the paperback but it echoes my own views of this marvellous book completely. It covers everything: from the plight of the convicts to the Europeans’ experiments with farming and land grabs; relationships with the Aboriginal people, and especially the virtues or otherwise of respective Governors and their often spiky relationships with the government back home. All of it written with authority and a wonderfully wry wit.

From Patsy's list on The best books about the beginnings of colonial Australia.