A Shorter History of Australia

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Random House Australia, Feb 3, 2014 - History - 352 pages
A broad, concise and inclusive vision of Australia and Australians by one our most renowned historians.

After a lifetime of research and debate on Australian and international history, Geoffrey Blainey is well-placed to introduce us to the people who have played a part and to guide us through the events that have created the Australian identity: the mania for spectator sport; the suspicion of the tall poppy; the rivalries of Catholic and Protestant, Sydney and Melbourne, new and old homelands and new and old allies; the conflicts of war abroad and race at home; the importance of technology; defining the outback; the rise and rise of the mining industry; the recognition of our Aboriginal past and Native Title; the successes and failures of the nation.

For this enlarged edition Blainey has rewritten or expanded on various episodes and themes and updated relevant matter. He has described significant events and trends of the early-20th century.

A ready-reference timeline of major events in Australian history is also included.

The Shorter history of Australia is a must for every home and library.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Title
The coming clash
A poor paradise
Arabs of the grasslands
The fading of the yellow flannel
The first gold rushes
The age of the marvellous
Eyes
What an unlimited future
A tidal wave from Japan
A car and a mountain
Black and green resurrection
A nation on walkabout
the Queen and Mr Mabo
The vast open spaces
Sails and anchors

The rise of the sporting hero
Riding the disaster
The flush of violet
The war to end
A short chronicle of Australian history
Index of searchable terms
Copyright

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About the author (2014)

Professor Geoffrey Blainey is one of Australia’s most prolific and popular historians. He has written more than forty books, including The Tyranny of Distance, Triumph of the Nomads, A Shorter History of Australia, The Rush That Never Ended, and the international bestseller A Short History of the World, which was published in a score of lands as far apart as Brazil, India, Spain and China. He has served the federal government as chairman of the Commonwealth Literary Fund, the Australia Council for the Arts, the National Council for the Centenary of Federation, and the Australia–China Council.
At the United Nations in New York, in 1988, Professor Blainey received the celebrated Britannica Prize ‘for exceptional excellence in the dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of mankind’. A recipient of Australia’s highest honour, Companion in the Order of Australia (AC), he has been officially listed for two decades by the National Trust as a ‘National Living Treasure’. He is married to the well-known biographer Ann Blainey.

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