This eBook introduces readers to the geography of Australia and the Pacific, covering the culture region as a whole rather than individual countries. The volume emphasizes the region's people and their various ways of life, considering how they have adapted to, used, and changed the natural environments in which they live. Like other titles in the 10-volume Modern World Cultures set, Australia and the Pacific, Second Edition explores the geographical features, climate, and ecosystems; population, settlement, and culture; and the history and economy of the region at hand. Also covered are the region’s diversity, challenges, and prospects. Illustrated with full-color maps and photographs, and accompanied by a chronology, glossary, and further readings, these accessible titles offer an ideal starting point for research on the culture regions of the world.

This book provides an arresting interpretation of the history of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific from the earliest settlements to the present. Usually viewed in isolation, these societies are covered here in a single account, in which the authors show how the peoples of the region constructed their own identities and influenced those of their neighbours. By broadening the focus to the regional level, this volume develops analyses - of economic, social and political history - which transcend national boundaries. The result is a compelling work which both describes the aspirations of European settlers and reveals how the dispossessed and marginalized indigenous peoples negotiated their own lives as best they could. The authors demonstrate that these stories are not separate but rather strands of a single history.

How Australia and her allies defeated the Japanese. Pearl Harbor; The Fall of Singapore; Curtin's Fight With Churchill; The Bombing Of Darwin; POW Camps; The Battle of Midway; Kokoda; Buna; Kamikaze Pilots; Hiroshima... These words alone are enough to convey the terror, courage and drama of the Pacific War, when the balance of power stood on a knife-edge and when the future of Australia was on the brink - threatened by Japanese aggression on the one hand and British deception on the other. After a conflict that took an unimaginable number of lives and ended with the unleashing of the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen, the Allies emerged victorious. Australia, however, was criticised by Churchill and his generals for showing cowardice in the face of the enemy and for not caring about the fate of other nations. The endorsement of these claims by several military historians today shows that the smear has not gone away. Until now. Peter Thompson presents, for the first time, an account of the conflict that places Australian voices and action at the heart of the struggle. Based on exclusive interviews with eyewitnesses and written with all the pace and verve you would expect of a master storyteller, Pacific Fury brings the people and the battles to life in a sensational history not to be bettered in a generation.

Describes the societies and cultures that evolved in the South Pacific and the changes brought by European contact

This book explains why the idea of the Indo-Pacific is so strategically important and concludes with a strategy designed to help the West engage with Chinese power in the region in such a way as to avoid conflict.

Australia and California have shared aesthetic ideas through imported popular imagery for nearly 200 years. From gold rush photography to Spanish-style houses, this is the fascinating story of aesthetic exchange between two cultures. The absorption of images into the everyday life of these 'new' Western societies, made possible by the development of mechanical processes of production, constructed distinctive cultural iconographies. The Pacific Rim aesthetic is revealed through photography, graphic art, architecture and the ubiquitous eucalyptous.

This vivid, multi-dimensional history considers the key cultural, social, political and economic events of Australia's history. Deftly weaving these issues into the wider global context, Mark Peel and Christina Twomey provide an engaging overview of the country's past, from its first Indigenous people, to the great migrations of recent centuries, and to those living within the more anxiously controlled borders of the present day. This engaging textbook is an ideal resource for undergraduate students and postgraduate students taking modules or courses on the History of Australia. It will also appeal to general readers who are interested in obtaining a thorough overview of the entire history of Australia, from the earliest times to the present, in one concise volume.