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The history of the birth of Australia which came out of the suffereing and brutality of England's infamous convict transportation system. With 16 pages of illustrations and 3 maps.
"...In his marvelous new history, he brings convict Australia to life both in his own words and those of its inhabitants..."--Chicago Sun Times
| Introduction | xi | |
| Maps | xvii | |
| 1 | The Harbor and the Exiles | 1 |
| 2 | A Horse Foaled by an Acorn | 19 |
| 3 | The Geographical Unconscious | 43 |
| 4 | The Starvation Years | 84 |
| 5 | The Voyage | 129 |
| 6 | Who Were the Convicts? | 158 |
| 7 | Bolters and Bushrangers | 203 |
| 8 | Bunters, Mollies and Sable Brethren | 244 |
| 9 | The Government Stroke | 282 |
| 10 | Gentlemen of New South Wales | 323 |
| 11 | To Plough Van Diemen's Land | 368 |
| 12 | Metastasis | 425 |
| 13 | Norfolk Island | 460 |
| 14 | Toward Abolition | 485 |
| 15 | A Special Scourge | 523 |
| 16 | The Aristocracy Be We | 561 |
| 17 | The End of the System | 581 |
| Appendix 1 | Governors and Chief Executives of New South Wales, 1788-1855 | 607 |
| Appendix 2 | Chief Executives of Van Diemen's Land, 1803-53 | 607 |
| Appendix 3 | Secretaries of State for the Colonies, 1794-1855 | 608 |
| Abbreviations | 609 | |
| Notes | 611 | |
| Bibliography | 656 | |
| Index | 671 |
Anonymous
Posted February 20, 2010
This book was purchased for preparation for our only trip to Australia. The travel guide book we have talks about visiting prison/ museum and this sparked my interest in learning more about the history. The Aboriginal story of Australia is pretty well documented, but I knew very little about the English penal colony history.
The connection that threw me a loop, is after 1776, and the Revolutionary war, the US refused to have any more English convicts brought to her shores (In History class, all I remember is the Mayflower...) among other reasons, because 47,000 slaves were coming to our shores yearly from the African continent, greater numbers than England could send for cheap labor.
England had chosen to not build or repair their prisons, so kept sending them to off-shore countries, and Australia was that far-off colony that could be easily forgotten about.
I am only into chapter 3, and appreciate the amount of information Robert Hughes has that is not included in school history books. I think the trip to Australia will be much more interesting for having read this book, and from today's economic wows, I also see historically, Americans, as well as other Western cultures, are addiction to cheap labor (whether it is on our shores, or in developing/under developed countries).
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I read this book when it first came out in paperback about 20 years ago or so. I was riveted to it back then and have remained so since. Robert Hughes writes an 841-page history of the founding of Australia as a convict colony in 1788 until its demise as such a century later. And he does so in such an easy to read and comprehend method that it is like reading a James Mitchener saga instead of a history book. If you are interested in this subject at all, this book is for you. I was so glad to see it come out in nook book format since I loaned out my well-worn paperback version and never got it back.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 16, 2003
A vast, absorbing tale of Australia's beginnings. It was a wonderful introduction before our trip Down Under, but by itself the book is a fascinating history. How does a great country arise from a penal colony? This book answers the question.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.BeeMD
Posted May 17, 2013
I read this because I'm planning a trip to Australia and New Zealand in a few months. It's not a "pretty" read, but tells the story. Scholarly but not dry. It fills in the background of the English social and political situations at the time which led to transportation as the means of dealing with "crime and criminals".
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted July 6, 2002
I could not finish this book. How mistreated and destitute the convicts were is overstated and reiterated throughout not only the book or each chapter, but on almost every page.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 13, 2010
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Posted April 8, 2010
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Posted January 11, 2012
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Overview
The history of the birth of Australia which came out of the suffereing and brutality of England's infamous convict transportation system. With 16 pages of illustrations and 3 maps.
"...In his marvelous new history, he brings convict Australia to life both in his own words and those of its inhabitants..."--Chicago Sun Times