In this landmark book, Stuart Macintyre explains how a country traumatised by World War I, hammered by the Depression and overstretched by World War II became a prosperous, successful and growing society by the 1950s. An extraordinary group of individuals, notably John Curtin, Ben Chifley, Nugget Coombs, John Dedman and Robert Menzies, re-made the country, planning its reconstruction against a background of wartime sacrifice and austerity. The other part of this triumphant story shows Australia on the world stage, seeking to fashion a new world order that would bring peace and prosperity. This book shows the 1940s to be a pivotal decade in Australia. At the height of his powers, Macintyre reminds us that key components of the society we take for granted – work, welfare, health, education, immigration, housing – are not the result of military endeavour but policy, planning, politics and popular resolve.

Australia is the last continent to be settled by Europeans, but it also sustains a people and a culture tens of thousands of years old. For much of the past 200 years the newcomers have sought to replace the old with the new. This book tells how they imposed themselves on the land, and brought technology, institutions and ideas to make it their own. It relates the advance from penal colony to a prosperous free nation and illustrates how, in a nation created by waves of newcomers, the search for binding traditions has long been frustrated by the feeling of rootlessness. This revised edition incorporates the most recent historical research and contemporary historical debates on frontier violence between European settlers and Aborigines and the Stolen Generations. It covers the Sydney Olympics, the refugee crisis and the 'Pacific solution'. More than ever before, Australians draw on the past to understand their future.

This book focuses on the endeavors of a generation of high-minded reformers (Syme, Higinbotham and Pearson) to realize a liberal polity and social order in the Australian colonies. It charts the intersections of the public and private lives of these reformers as they sought to achieve a democracy which would be prosperous and improve their lives. Macintyre looks at the outcomes of their endeavors and how they responded to their disappointments.

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. Integrating new scholarship with the historical record, the fifth edition of A Concise History of Australia brings together the long narrative of Australia's First Nations' peoples; the arrival of Europeans and the era of colonies, convicts, gold and free settlers; the foundation of a nation state; and the social, cultural, political and economic developments that created a modern Australia. As we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, Macintyre's Australia remains one of achievements and failures. So too the future possibilities are deeply rooted in the country's past endeavours. A Concise History of Australia is an invitation to examine this past.

As a global phenomenon Britishness encompassed trade, conquest and settlement and the development of imperial cultures within the vast reaches of the British Empire. At its zenith peoples around the world joined in shared traditions and common loyalties that were strenuously maintained; even those who contested its claims found it difficult to escape its effects. With the eclipse of British power and influence, the importance of this legacy has attracted increasing attention from researchers seeking to escape the confines of national histories. Britishness Abroad explores the cultural, economic and political aspects of Britishness in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Canada and South Africa, as well as in the United States and within Britain itself. Leading scholars consider the movement of people, money, technology, identities, beliefs and attitudes around the British world and examine what happened to Britishness as the Empire declined. Contributors: Stephen Banfield, Kate Darian-Smith, Anne Dickson-Waiko, Patricia Grimshaw, David Goodman, Jonathan Hyslop, John MacKenzie, Gary Magee and Andrew Thompson, Adele Perry, Bill Schwarz, Stuart Ward

"The Companion contains approximately 1600 entries, ranging from essays of up to 2000 words to succinct, factual entries of 100 words. There are entries on politicians, colonisers, visionaries, newspaper barons, industrialists, explorers, writers, artists, and scientists. All the most famous Australians appear in the Companion, including Don Bradman, Ned Kelly, John Curtin, Joan Sutherland, and Patrick White. There are entries on the states, key institutions, prominent families, and famous or infamous events, such as Gallipoli, the Dismissal, the Rum Rebellion, and the Waterloo Creek Massacre. There are numerous extended essays on key facets of our national life - political, social, cultural, scientific, military, and economic. Readers will find incisive entries on matters such as art, capital punishment, gambling, language, literature, military history, and republicanism."--BOOK JACKET.

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.